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

Questions / Prompts

  • Consider if and how these manifestos addressed the concepts of authorship/ownership, universal systems of communication, and social/political engagement.
  • 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? 
  • How has the communication process changed since the early 20th Century, specifically with regard to “feedback” and “noise”?

Response

There is an emphasis on the increasing importance of the earliest forms of art like the book. There was a time where books were hard to purchase, now, it is still somewhat expensive but more accessible. This addresses the concept of social engagement because there is now more perspective and additions welcomed thanks to many including artists who’s work challenged society and it’s ideals and testing how impactful they could make their work and works. “Artists yesterday, Constructors today,” is a view of these artists since art affects a lot of the structure and foundations we see today. This text refers to the importance of ownership since most work introduced can grow in importance making proof of one owning their work increasingly crucial since technology is consistently improving and making it easy to get left out of being credited. “Technology is-the mortal enemy of art” relates to how technology challenges the need for physical art. This is a shared view where artists may disagree since comfortability can be expensive. This text is relevant because to save time, one must spend more time and money on technology. Through physical art one can have more time to think and communicate effectively, whereas with technology, it can be easy to offend due to the ease of communicating and the terms of service that come with it. Communication processes have become more complicated and impactful due to how easy and significantly they can generate noise in the online community. This makes feedback increasingly important since one must be more prepared than ever for majority negative feedback. “The idea that moves the masses, materialism” is a view that many artists would agree with since it has made “Noise” more important than feedback at times, which has made materialism more significant. The text argues that not everyone can afford these tools that are promoted as essential but are detrimental to ownership since they can overshadow the importance of the foundations they are built on.

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