The Futurist Manifesto written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, is all about rejecting old ideas of the past and embracing technology. It was all about encouraging machinery, the youth, and the fast growing world at the time. In the Who Are We manifesto written by Aleksandr Rodchenko, he explains that he wants art to have more of a purpose to society rather than it being self-expressive. That art and your artistic abilities must be used to benefit society and not for yourself. The use of design for society and other people is even prevalent today. Our book written by El Lissitzky also has similar ideas about art and technology. Each author embraces technology and the fast changing world around them. They believe that younger artists should learn and grow with their environment and reject past ideals. Technology has had a huge impact on the way people design and if you didn’t embrace it or adapt you wouldn’t be able to grow or learn. The authors want you to learn from the future, from technology and from things around you and come up with new ideas to impact the world around you. 

When Marinetti states, “We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene… We will destroy the museums, libraries, academics of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism” it’s very problematic in my opinion. You can embrace technology but still be fond and learn from things in the past. Why would you destroy history and take such extreme actions? You cannot grow or learn and improve if you do not look at the past/history. History teaches us how to improve and without learning it we wouldn’t have all this great technology that Marinetti embraces. I think his views in general are problematic considering he was a facist and associated with Mussolini in Italy.

I believe that Rodchenko’s idea of art having more of a purpose to society than to yourself, although sad, is still relevant today. Many people create art for other people and don’t create for themselves. Many people use their skills and knowledge for society. I believe this is sort of sad and confusing because you are always expressing yourself through art and to have the mindset of not doing that is sad. If you’re only creating art for other people you can get burnt out and tired. Creating for yourself and self expression is important in any designer or artist’s life.