Maria Iacono – Response 3

There are three different manifestos written by three very different but very similar individuals.  Those people being Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Aleksander Rodchenko, and El Lissitzky. Each of them wrote three manifestos known as The Futurists, Who Are We, and Our Book. Filippo Marinetti’s manifesto was all about the rejection of the past and tradition and it encouraged machinery, growth, the youth, and even violence. It was all about embracing contemporary ideas and being rid of tradition. Aleksander Rodchenko’s manifesto is about changing the aim of artists from doing more personal art to serving society as a whole. He believed artistic talent should be used constructively to benefit society. El Lissitzky also shared similar views on art and technology with both individuals. 

Marinetti’s manifesto brings up a few red flags. Although it is good to keep up with the times and to look ahead, I don’t think it’s a good idea to completely forget the past. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, works in this case because not everything has to be modernized. It’s important to remember the way things were done in the past so we can maybe improve them for the future. Rejecting the past technologies is like pretending it never happened and it shouldn’t be that way. It also embraced violence which is a bad idea right from the start. Aleksander Rodchenko also has some interesting views on artists and their part in society.  Art is all about self-expression and he wants to strip that away from them to serve society even though that’s the very core of art. Lots of red flags from both these men.