You can study dadaism in school, granted. Yes.
And you can call yourself a dadaist, because there's no rule there that says you can't. In fact, historic Dadaism would want you to, regardless.
But implementing the philosophy is challenging. It's intentionally designed to go against everything you were ever taught to believe as an artist. Everything you accept as holy. I breaks the bullshit part of your brain that tells you that the rules, especially aesthetic ones, are important.
The method is an incredible thing. The process of it. Giving up conscious control, and letting the art emerge in ways that will surprise and confound you.
The contemplation of chaos and order and nothingness as you do a very personal kind of battle with your mind that's been trained on reason, morality, and other flawed but also very human ideas.
It's more instinctual than academic, no matter how well you think you understand it. It's a primal kind of art that can be terrifying as much as it can be inspiring.
And you always know when you're doing it honestly.
If more formally trained artists understood what dadaism is actually about, through practice, they wouldn't give it the lip service they do.
I met someone who seriously studied Dadaism in art school once. He HATED it with this intense passion.
As most true dada haters do, he came prepared with talking points, notes, and explanations. He had a perfectly valid fact based argument on why he thought all of it was a terrible idea! And what the negative implications of what dadaism actually were for art, artists, and indeed the institution of art itself.
That shit is so refreshing.
It's not a view of dadaism that I agree with.
But it's an honest one. He did his homework and understood the philosophy for what it is, beyond memes and simple collages.
And I think that's the way more traditional artists would or really should feel, if more "traditional" artists were as educated on art as they incessantly tell you they are.
That's rare though