Reading Response 3- NA

F.T. Marinetti, “Manifesto of Futurism”; Aleksandr Rodchenko, “Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group”; and El Lissitzky, “Our Book”, Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong, pages 19-31.

Questions / Prompts

  • What common views do these artists/designers share and where might they disagree?
  • Which elements of these texts remain relevant for the present, and which elements are problematic? 
  • Using visual examples from the Futurists and Constructivists, present the ways that political and economic power can be expressed through visual design.
  • How has the communication process changed since the early 20th Century, specifically with regard to “feedback” and “noise”?

Reading Response

Throughout these 3 texts, Marinetti, Rodchenko, and Lissitzky all share the common idea that whilst technology has improved the lives of people, art had remained unchanged. To them, this was wrong and they believed that in order to create more expressive forms of art, they would need to reject art of old and embrace new forms that spoke to people on a universal level. They believed that by turning away from more traditional art-creating methods and by embracing new technologies to make art, they could more easily create and distribute art that really spoke and resonated with common people. However, Lissitzky seems to think somewhat differently of technology when compared to Rodchenko and Marinetti. Lissitzky believes that newer technologies helped to improve societal communication and that it should be up to artists to develop and create new forms that help educate the societal masses.

I believe out of the 3 texts, Marinetti’s may be the most problematic as he states that things like war and scorn for women are beneficial to the agenda of the futurists. He believed in destroying academic institutions like libraries and museums and fighting opportunistic movements and beliefs like moralism and feminism. I believe his ideas would be shunned by most of our society today. However, Lissitzky’s belief that technology has dematerialized art remains somewhat relevant today. While more recent technology such as art software has allowed accessibility and easier creation and distribution of art, most art can now be distributed online. This dematerializes the art itself as we no longer only experience it through material means like paintings and posters but instead through screens and digital files. Rodchenko’s belief that more geometric forms should be utilized in art as a form of expression is very prevalent as a lot of graphic design today utilizes geometric shapes in things like characters to evoke certain emotions and ideals you couldn’t get with a more realistic rendering.

Some Futurists and Constrictivists utilized these new forms of art to create posters that demonstrated political power. One example is the Italian poster 1934 XII-Si created by the Italian Futurist, Xanti. In this poster, we see photomontage being utilized in both the letter “SI” as well as in Mussolini’s coat. In his coat, we can see the faces of people, presumably his loyal Italian followers. We also see what looks to be a marching band within the letter S. These elements help to make Mussolini look like a respectable political figure to the Italian people.

Il Duce looks down at massive crowd that forms his coat; green, white, black, white
1934 XII-Si, 1934, Xander

A Constructivist example can be seen in Oppressed Peoples of the Whole World (…) by Gustav Klutsis. In this poster, Klutsis utilizes both elements from Constructivism (simple shapes, minimal yet striking color palettes) as well as photomontage to demonstrate the political power and influence of Vladimir Lenin. Klutsis utilizes simple shapes to create the illusionary image that Lenin is speaking into a megaphone and spreading his communist ideals out to the Russian people. This paired with the photographs of Russian governmental officials and working class Russian people help show Lenin’s sheer political influence and the power his communist ideals had on the people of the new Soviet Union.

Oppressed Peoples of the Whole World (…), 1924, Gustav Klutsis

Since the 20th century, communication technology has undergone many changes, especially with the advent of social media. In the 20th century, the news was much more streamlined and most of society would get their news from the radio or television. However, with the creation and rise of social media in the 21st century, we are seeing news covering worldly topics through different lenses. From the more unbiased coverings of The Wall Street Journal to the absurd conspiracy theories from InfoWars, ideas of “truth” and the spreading of information have been muddled. Noise from networks like Occupy Democrats and InfoWars are riddled with political biases that only serve to get in the way of unbiased coverings and truth.

Hypothesis Annotations

  1. We say that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.
  2. but they have forgotten that all attention should be concentrated on the experimental laboratories, which show us new elements routes things experiments.
  3. Every invention in art is a single event in time, has no evolution. With the passage of time different variations of the same theme are composed around the invention, sometimes more sharpened, sometimes more flattened, but seldom is the original power attained.