Reading Response 4 – EM

Response: 

In this manifesto, we can see Marinetti starts to somewhat glorify Futurism as the new and only way of living. He says that speed should be cherished and admired and that technology is the only way of living.  He continues saying that the old ways of living should no longer be, that libraries and museums should be burned because they are a reminder of how we used to live now that we have speed and electricity. We should modernize everything and start living in this new futuristic world that he describes in the manifesto. He also insights violence and uses these new powers that speed has to give us and puts them to use to fight in wars. He talks about airplanes and automobiles as these new technologies that would free us from the past.

In the second reading “Who We Are Manifesto,” we can see how this group describes that technology is the mortal enemy of art.  they say”We—are your first fighting and punitive force. We are also your last slave-workers.” here we can see how they refer to the end of slavery now that the technology is rapidly being more and more accessible even more factories are emerging and by doing so they describe it as the last slave wave of workers. there would no longer be a need for them since speed and technology have taken over. and perhaps that is a good thing but is also a bad thing for the future. Soon there will be no need for humans to do work and we will be left with no jobs.

Our book el Lissitzky

Lissitzky appears to be dissatisfied with the state of book arts, but in reality, he is always looking forward to the future and the media it will bring. His attitude toward new media corresponds to his perspective on communication. It’s evident that Lissitzky was onto something if we follow his theory through television, computers, and the internet. Communication is a powerful force that defies tradition. It has consumed many of the mediums that have been presented to it. The internet is the most recent venue for public communication, and it will continue to evolve and flourish. 

The internet is an answer to the complaint against writing trends in books. It is a web that can be linked and changed by millions of people. In this way, it is a great leveling force in society. Lissitzky glorifies the printers and artists of his day because they did not discriminate in who they took their message to. Posters and paperbacks could reach laborers as well as bibliophiles. In modern times everyone can not only listen to the conversation but can directly participate. He talks about how technology such as printers and paper has been replaced with things like our phones. He says that the modern world is replacing masses of material with released energies. This means that nowadays we can quickly send a text message to someone across the world but before there was the care and thought put into a letter that would travel thousands of miles to reach its destination.