Surrealist automatism
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Surrealist automatism is spontaneous writing, drawing, or the like practiced without conscious aesthetic or moral self-censorship. Automatism has taken a many forms, from the automatic writing and drawing initially practiced by surrealists, to later adapations to the computer. There are similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the improvisation of free jazz.[1] (http://www.autonomedia.org/surrealistsubversions/review.html)
Surrealist automatism is different from mediumistic automatism, from which it was inspired. Ghosts, spirits or the like are not purported to be the source of surrealist automatic messages.
"Pure psychic automatism" was how André Breton, surrealism's founder, defined surrealism, and while the definition has proved capable of significant expansion, automatism remains of prime importance in the movement.
In 1919 Breton and Philippe Soupault wrote the first automatic book, Les Champs Magnétiques.
The Automatic Message was one of Breton's significant theoretical works about automatism.
Some Romanian surrealists invented a number of surrealist techniques (such as cubomania, entopic graphomania, and the movement of liquid down a vertical surface) that purported to take automatism to an absurd point, and the name given, "surautomatism", implies that the methods "go beyond" automatism, but this position is controversial.
In the 1940s and 1950s the Canadian group called Les Automatistes, pursued creative work (chiefly painting) based on surrealist principles.
Some surrealists write automatic mathematics or equations.
Computer
The computer, just like the typewriter, can be used to produce automatic writing and automatic poetry. The surrealist practice of automatic drawing, originally performed with pencil or pen and paper, has also been adapted to mouse and monitor, and other automatic methods have also been either adapted from non-digital media, or invented specifically for the computer.
Computer-controlled brushes have been used to "simulate" automatism (http://www.verostko.com/gallery.html).