Let's Explore the Futurism Movement

Introduction: Futurism and the Futurist Manifesto

Futurism is first of all an act of will which consists in resolutely turning towards the future, in taking stakes in a future that has ceased to need the past in order to be born (Ottinger, 2009). It is a term that is characterised by striking ambivalences and contradictions (Blum, 1996) and may suggest a number of things. For example, when we describe something as being ‘futuristic’, we convey an idea of scientific and technological advance beyond that which presently exists (Humphreys, 1999). It took place in Italy during the early 20th century when developments in science and technology were giving humankind new experiences and understandings. It was an early response to modernism from technology and tended to imply the infinite possibilities of progress for which there are always signs in the present (Humphreys, 1999). People lives were beginning to be shaped and formed into what we know now. It is clear that we wouldn’t have the knowledge that we have today if it wasn’t for this period. The futurists are credited with affirming and divining ideas that have come to make up our modern conception of art (Blum, 1996). The Futurist Manifesto (shown in figure 1) was all about the beauty of technology and how all ancient/traditional artwork should be disposed of to make room for the emerging technology. The futurists wanted to free Italy from the ‘numberless museums that covered the country like graveyards’ (Apollonio, 2009). Futurism was all about technology, and the beauty of it. Filippo Marinetti wrote “we affirm the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty, the beauty of speed.  A roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace” in the Futurist Manifesto 1909. Another part of the manifesto that stands out is ‘we intend to sing in the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness’ and ‘no work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece’ (Apollonio, 2009). In the quote and the two extracts, Marinetti is saying how a car and the speed that it can travel at can be a masterpiece and that all of the technology that was emerging at the time was more beautiful than something such as a painting. For example, why would you buy a highly detailed vase when you could have a telephone in your home? Afterall, the telephone is both beautiful and functional.

 

 

Marinetti, Italy and the Source of Futurism

Futurism is linked to French culture through its founder, the writer and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 - 1944). His main idea was the need for a constant evolution of the language of art and was a facilitator of outrage and mayhem (Ottinger, 2009). He would be rude and outrageous in order to make the mass media print stories and news about him, which in turn meant that he would receive a lot of attention. Futurism’s rhetoric of violence is the most obvious manifestation of the aggressive potential inherent in its vision. Marinetti brashly glorifies war, preaches destruction of the past, and revels in scenarios of conflicts, from the theatre of military operations to the battlefield of futurist performances (Blum, 1996). One might say his heart was Italian while his head was French: his thinking drew deeply on a formative culture shaped largely by French writers of the end of the nineteenth century, while his passionate sense of action, his vigorous social activism and his sense of vocation as futurism’s missionary were all profoundly Italian (Ottinger, 2009). Futurism was instrumental in the development of Italian politics toward fascism (Blum, 1996). Prophecy is one of the skills we often expect from our thinkers and creators and it was certainly something Marinetti and the futurists believed they processed in impressive quantities (Humphreys, 1999). He saw the evidence of modernity shaping the world outside of Italy, and wanted Italy to evolve as well, instead of being the sleepy country that it was. Interestingly, most of the key ideas and principles of futurism were elaborated from specifically Italian cultural or artistic elements. Neither the art of noise nor words in freedom, to give just two examples, have French precedents (Ottinger, 2009). Marinetti was fascinated by the latest technology and due to being wealthy, he could afford to buy it all. This led to him being one of the first car owners in Italy. He drove his car at great speed and eventually ended up having a car accident in 1908, instead of being shaken up by the crash as anyone would expect him to be, it gave him a lot of energy and an inspirational drive to write the futurist manifesto. He first addressed Italians… the manifesto of Futurism was first published in Italy, where it appeared in various newspapers, including Bologna’s La Gazzetta dell’Emilia, on 5 Feb 1909 (Ottinger, 2009). Marinetti was quite an odd character because much like how his car crash invigorated him, gave him a lot of energy and inspired him rather than scaring him, he saw war as fascinating. This is because he thought that it showed a lot of creativity, which is very strange because war is a very destructive thing, due to damaging so many countries and killing thousands of people.

 

 

Futurist Poetry

Marinetti was a poet, which tended to be quite traditional and usually had a certain form. However, he didn’t write it traditionally, he believed in ‘words in freedom’ which is why he produced the poems in the form that he did. Refer to figure 2 for a good example of this. It shows a poem called ‘Again She Read the Letter’ which was a sound poem from 1911. It wasn’t meant to be read, instead it was random and aggressive and threw up all traditional rules on how to traditionally write a poem. Marinetti was trying to suggest what the future would look like whilst being in a pre-digital age. He then went on to create a whole collection called Zong Toomb Toomb, which consisted of a group of sound poems in 1912 (refer to figure 3). Zong Toomb Toomb describes the Bulgarian-serbian siege of Adrianople in Turkey from October 1912 to its surrender on March 26, 1913 during the first Balkan war. Marinetti was at Adrianople in October 1912 and so had first-hand experience of the early days of the campaign. this poem was published in Italian in 1914 and was prepared for printing in French but, because of the war, never appeared (Marinetti, 2002). As you read the poem, you can see how Marinetti was very clever in the way he wrote it. This is because he wrote certain words in different ways, from extending or exaggerating words, changing the typefaces to create hierarchy and changing the sizes and character styles of some words. These poems showed new word forms because the audience could only read the odd word in the poem which they could put together in order to understand the theme of the poem.

 

 

Futurist Music and Luigi Russolo

Ancient life was all silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, noise was born. The first sounds that man drew from a fierce dried or stretched string were regarded with amazement as new and marvellous things (Apollonio, 2009). The idea of noise and music started another futurist statement, ‘The Art of Noises’ in 1916. This was specifically loud, violent explosions of sound that abstracted noise and didn’t follow the rules, which was very outraging and startling. Repetitive crashing and banging took place in ‘The Art of Noises’, which was deafening and provocative and intended to confound the audiences understanding of music. Many fights broke out in the audiences when these noise performances were taking place, which was fantastic for the futurists because it gave them even more publicism. Luigi Russolo was a futurist, his fundamental notions about art (including the art of sound and the art of noises) resemble ideas that other futurists propounded – like them, he was deeply convinced that the art of the time was hidebound and backward looking. His noise intoners offer an aural analogy to the relation between nature and are and an example of the creation of new abstract languages (Elder, 2018). At first the art of music sought and achieved purity, limpidity and sweetness of sound. Then different sounds were amalgamated, care being taken, however, to caress the ear with gentle harmonies. Today music, as it becomes continually more complicated, strives to amalgamate the most dissonant, strange and harsh sounds. In this way we come even closer to noise-sound (Apollonio, 2009). We listen to lots of abstract sounds in the songs we listen to today, and very few people listen to classical music anymore.

 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the futurism art movement took place in Milan, Italy in the first two decades of the 20thcentury. Marinetti was the founder and wrote the futurist manifesto because he wanted to express the beauty that he saw in the new and upcoming technology, rather than existing traditions in art & culture, such as paintings and pottery. The futurists celebrated all things modern, from telephones to cars and hated anything from the past. For the futurists, anything could be an artistic act, such as a group of mechanics building a car engine. Futurists were very modern thinkers, they deliberately set out to offend their audience in the hope of provoking a reaction. They let the media talk about them which in turn led to advertising. Science and technology were viewed as expressions of modernity, with common themes of Futurism being machinery, violence, power and noise.