There is a dynamic of thrill coming from all three short manifestos as the rise of new technologies changes the way of life. By the mere introduction of the automobile and the train, you can visualize the excitement felt by Marinetti in The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism. I was enthralled by his many descriptions such as “a great sweep of madness” and “death, tamed, went in front of me at each corner offering me his hand nicely.” They reminded me of adrenaline rushes or anticipation towards something dangerous and innovative. He speaks about speed and velocity which are part of the characteristics seen through the artwork during the Futurism period. Along with speed, other characteristics mentioned are violence and destruction. This thrill of advancement sounds like a drug as Marinetti speaks about how people are “thrown into the future” and from that exposure old seeming things such as books and museums should be destroyed. This reminded me of the book Fahrenheit 451, in which books were destroyed due to new technologies and ways of communication. It was deemed no longer needed.

Lissitzky also refers to books as an example of how it has changed due to advances in technology. This is an interesting point because books started out as references and had to be printed/copied. Then the growth went into the involvement of stories and storage of historical information. Lastly, physically books become less useful as information is provided through the internet. Lissitzky predicts our “dematerialization” to bring us something new such as the internet. The internet becomes our world’s book where we get information and communicate from. While books become less used, they still exist in our time. This brings the question, will we ever stop needing books or will they always exist alongside the new way of communication we may advance to, just like they do now?

Rodchenko, Stepanova, and Gan’s manifesto is a little different. It is written similarly to that of a poetic structure. They acknowledge the changes from new technologies and they question the individuals involved in the process. First, an individual exists who sees a “square” and an individual exists that does the “plane.” This reminds me of the saying, in which, “saying one thing is not the same as doing that one thing.” This is one of the reasons they consider themselves as doers by referring to themselves as constructors, engineers, or organizers. Instead of using a simple square or a line, using a grid and planes follows the role of advancing to new ways. This type of organization and incorporation of technology can be seen in Rodchenko’s graphic design work. There is variety in typography, geometric shapes, and usage of grids to organize or “build” the design as if it was for a building/car.