Ball was a writer and performance artist born in Germany in 1886. He was the leader of the Zurich Dada movement. He is credited with naming the Dada movement by flipping open a dictionary and selecting a random word. He wrote the Dada Manifesto in 1916, condemning society as well as philosophies which claimed to hold an absolute Truth. He famously wrote the Dada poem “Karawane,” which is comprised of nonsense words and is thought to embody the Dada ideal.