Over the next few months we are having lectures on Contextualising Design.  We will be looking at the manifestos of art and design movements that started over a century ago and how they had an influence in our society even today and where notions of culture were challenged.

We start with the Futurists.

On the 11th of October 2011, we discussed the futurists, the lecture was given by our tutor Adam Cooke.  Futurism began as a movement at the turn of the 20th Century and was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s the term Futurism was loosely used to describe a wide variety of aggressively modern styles in art and literature. The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti coined the term in 1909 for a movement founded and led by himself.

Futurism was the first deliberately organized, self-conscious art movement of the twentieth century. It quickly spread to France, Germany, Russia and the Americas, appealing to all who had tired of romanticism, decadence and sentimentality, desirous of something more vigorous and robust, something in keeping with the Machine Age.

Speed, noise, machines, transportation, communication, information…and all the transient impressions of life in the modern city intoxicated Marinetti and his followers, they despised tame, bourgeois virtues and tastes, and above everything else, loathed the cult of the past.  One Italian critic labelled them ‘art wiseguys’ calling them ‘the caffeine of Europe.’ In a series of manifestos designed to shock and provoke the public, they formulated styles of painting, music, sculpture, theatre, poetry, architecture, cooking, clothing, and furniture.

The manifestos vividly preserve the flavor of the movement. They still provoke, irritate, and amuse while opening endless possibilities still under exploration today.

1910 Futurist Movement Manifesto

1.  That all forms of imitation should be held in contempt and that all forms of originality should be glorified.
2.  That we should rebel against the tyranny of the words harmony and good taste. With these expressions, which are too elastic, it would be an easy matter to demolish the works of Rembrandt, Goya, and Rodin.
3.  That art criticisms are either useless or detrimental.
4.  That a clean-sweep should be made of all stale and threadbare subject-matter in order to express the vortex4of modern life–a life of steel, fever, pride and headlong speed.
5.  That the accusation “madmen”, which has been employed to gag innovators, should be considered a noble and honorable title.
6.  That complementarism in painting is an absolute necessity like free verse in poetry and polyphony in music.
7.  That universal dynamism must be rendered in painting as a dynamic sensation.
8.  That sincerity and virginity, more than any other qualities, are necessary to the interpretation of nature.
9.  That motion and light destroy the materiality of bodies.’

The manifesto that you see above was actually a bluff by Marinetti Umberto Bocciono because at this time was no actual futurist movement, there was however himself and his ideas.  Still true to this day, it was the newspapers that aired his views which instantly caught the attention of like minded souls.  Marinetti’s media hype for changing the art movement from old to new was much the same as Malcolm Maclaren’s attempt to end the era of pop music by his Punk Rock he had created seventy years later.

Here is a quote by Marinetti;

“We want to fight ferociously against the fanatical, unconscious and snobbish religion of the past, which is nourished by the evil influence of museums. We rebel against the supine admiration of old canvases, old statues and old objects, and against the enthusiasm for all that is worm-eaten, dirty and corroded by time; we believe that the common contempt for everything young, new and palpitating with life is unjust and criminal.”
– Filippo Marinetti

I find that futurism and its movement is one of division.  I personally don’t agree with the political side within Futurism, some wanted to destroy libraries and museums, some of them glorified war, violence, pollution and sexism and some rejected the idea of classic, conventional art and went as far as defacing classic art to make their point.

On the other hand the futurists welcomed the industrial world and its innovation and strived to conquer design through innovation, the idea of following innovation and looking forward in terms of design is an asset to their visions, and helped in the development and use of modern technology.

I can’t say that the works of the Futurists has influenced any of my work to date, but this may have an impact in the near future by giving me the opportunity to break out of the so called box.  My work tends to stay safe and looking more closely at what futurism was about I can see that by just breaking some of the basic rules your work can turn into the unexpected with great results.