Future as The Manifestation of Desire
When the word future or futuristic is used to describe something, the contexts within which these objects are defined and thus acquire their identity are always resembling sites. That contextualization of the word future however is not something new. From the 20th century, future and futuristic as an extension hold a symbolic redress of action, the “Utopian phantasmagoria” as Scheerbart calls it. The idea of a “glass architecture, the architects dream of light, crystal clear, colorful, mobile, floating and soaring constructions that will transform old habits of thought and feeling.”[i] If then, “our culture is in a sense a product of our architecture, the design of the outline of the building acquires greater importance than the hitherto.”[ii]
“The qualities which made Futurism a turning – point in the development of Modern theories of design were primarily ideological, and concerned with attitudes of mind, rather than formal or technical methods – though these attitudes of mind were often influential as vehicles in the transmission of formal and technical methods which were not, in the first place, of Futurist invention.”[iii] “The Italian Futurists based their efforts to found a new artistic discourse and a new architectural style on the sensations produced by motion and speed.”[iv] Thus, with the arrival of the automobile, “the poet, painter, intellectual was no longer a passive recipient of technological experience, but could create it for himself.”[v] Following Bangam’s approach then, we can accurately state that the 19th century technological developments have been both large and remote.[vi]
Marinetti, further articulates that discussion in his anthology “The Manifesto of Futurism” by stating: “we affirm that the beauty of the world has been enriched by a new form of beauty: the beauty of speed.”[vii] For some however, this manifestation was a hollow anthology of rebellious statements, rejecting the past and thus having no reference points to inform the future. Marinetti, used Italy as a case study in the process of setting up the tone for his Futurist manifestation. “This literary and artistic uprising was a response to the transformations provoked by industrialization and the growth of the metropoles such as Milan and Turin.’’[viii] He is coextending Italy as a flea market, desperate to separate its identity from the countless museums that, according to him, resemble cemeteries.[ix] While declaring “war” on the historic topology of Italy, he wrote: “We will sing of the multicolored and polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives.”[x]
Towards the end of his manifest he states that “Art, in fact, can be nothing if not violence, cruelty, and injustice.”[xi] Personally, I believe that the whole notion and hence “value” of his manifest lays in this phrase. Despite applying layers of exaggeration to support his arguments, the hypothesis of his argument comes in contrast with the growth of a new epoch that instead of limit itself in the act of depicting object, furnished the static principle of present-day visual approach by creating a fourth dimension.[xii] That research into space also known as Cubism, and Pablo Picasso as its most prominent figure, is for me the true Futurist Manifesto of the 20th century. It was the cubists who “did not seek to reproduce the appearance of objects from one vantage point; they went around them, tried to lay hold of their internal constitution. They sought to extend the scale of feeling, by a new concept of space that leads to a self -conscious enlargement of our way of perceiving space.”[xiii] “In particular, it has become plain that the aesthetic qualities of space are not limited to its infinity for sight, as in the gardens of Versailles. The essence of space as it is conceived today is its many-sidedness, the infinite potentiality for relations within it.”[xiv]
Looking back to “The Manifesto of Futurism” and trying to interpret it from a political free spectrum it was nothing more than a “Fordist fanfare” based on the “exaltation of big cities.”[xv] It was the “manifestation of vainness” as the basis upon which was created was not widely perceived. It did not conceive nor contributed to the society any valuable feedback regarding the needs of the given moment. The revolutionary ideals of Marinetti lacked prospect solution towards their implementation. However, many argue that the persistence of the majority of the Futurist Manifestos that had been written during that time for the machine and the revolution it brought not only to the world, but within the society, enabled the most refined architecture of the 1920s to emerge. Is this the case?
[i] Paul Scheerbart, excerpts from Glass Architecture (1914), from Ulrich Conrads, ed., Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture (MIT Press, 1970), p.32
[ii] Paul Scheerbart, excerpts from Glass Architecture (1914), from Ulrich Conrads, ed., Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture (MIT Press, 1970), p.33
[iii] Reyner Banham, “Futurism: The Foundation Manifesto,” from Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (Praeger, 1967 [orig. 1960]), p.99
[iv] FA, p.88
[v] Reyner Banham, “Futurism: The Foundation Manifesto,” from Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (Praeger, 1967 [orig. 1960]), p.102
[vi] Reyner Banham, “Futurism: The Foundation Manifesto,” from Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (Praeger, 1967 [orig. 1960]), p.100
[vii] F. T. Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909), from Lawrence Rainey et al., eds., Futurism: An Anthology (Yale, 2009), p.51
[viii] FA, p.88
[ix] F. T. Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909), from Lawrence Rainey et al., eds., Futurism: An Anthology (Yale, 2009), p.52
[x] FA, p.88
[xi] F. T. Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909), from Lawrence Rainey et al., eds., Futurism: An Anthology (Yale, 2009), p.53
[xii] Sigfried Giedion, “The Research into Space: Cubism,” from Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Harvard, 1954 [orig. 1941]), p.430
[xiii] Sigfried Giedion, “The Research into Space: Cubism,” from Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Harvard, 1954 [orig. 1941]), p.432
[xiv] Sigfried Giedion, “The Research into Space: Cubism,” from Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Harvard, 1954 [orig. 1941]), p.431
[xv] FA, p.89