The machine is the one factor that defines the 20th-century identity. At the turn of the 20th century, the role of the machine was an innermost one; to introduce the dawn of a modern age facilitated by productivity and energy of the machine. It was during the 20th
century that the focus of life transformed to the urban from rural and from day to night. This particular transformation precipitated a new manner in which humans viewed the world and for a moment the whole experience felt like nothing was possible. Paying close attention to the poems, the music the visual arts and the experience of the 20th century after the introduction of the machine, this experience was close to an innovation representation. The reconstruction and fragmenting of the visual world of art was the beginning of viewing the world in a different manner. Through the window of futurism of poetry, production of metal books, the art of noise and the larger reconstruction of the universe, new perspectives of the world were made possible from the technological innovation and aesthetics of the machine.
Poems
The futurist style in Italy began by the ‘words of freedom’ (Giroud 3) from Marinetti’s book. Italy’s futurist style employed the use of cubism elements to reveal the goals of the revolution and political views. Futurism was initiated as a literary concept by Fillipo Marinetti the Italian poet. Marinetti wrote the Founding and Manifesto of futurism and in his writing, he stated clearly how Italy needed to let loose its Neo-Classical and Renaissance artistic values for them to become modern. Marinetti also believes that the classical ideas were slowly dying out and there was a need to replace them with the new avant-garde.
To prove his statement, Marinetti in his poem went as far as claiming that ‘a roaring motorcar that was similar to one running on a shrapnel could be more beautiful the Samothrace victory’. His futurism manifesto expanded the belief that the needs of the body, as well as, the body itself should shape the surrounding. He looked into the future of machine aesthetics with an emphasis on comfort and convenience for the purpose of achieving imperceptibility. Therefore, in looking into the future of machine aesthetics, he favored architecture in a way that is suitable for all and emphasized also on transport modes that would extend the function of spaces intermediately. From his works of poetry, the new city came as a support to the idea of using machine designs to create automobile transport.
The metal book
Designers in Europe during the 21st century took machine aesthetic creation towards the production of mass objects would later begin to appear in stores and homes within the city. Such a production was evident in the second version of a photo-lithographic metal book published by Marinetti (Giroud 4). The production of this book came with poems depicting the future of machine aesthetics as the book was bound and held together. To give us a futuristic view into the design of machines, the Marinetti printed the poems not on paper but rather on tin sheets which were a reflection of the texture and materials of the age before the machine. With the emphasis on the original metallic aspect of Europe, the producer of this metallic book has an intention of drawing the attention of the public to human creativity not with ancient structures but with modern technology. While this futurist movement changed the meaning of machines as inspired by art, other futurists were now focused on designing new abstract qualities that would be produced in mass and sold in department stores all over Europe.
The art of Noise
In the 19th century and the previous ancient life, the universe was silent. It was after the invention of the machine that the birth of noise became. After Russolo presented his audience with something similar to a comical brief on the history of music and sound, the author makes his thesis bold ‘before the 19th century, the noise was not born but with the advent of machinery, noise reigns supremely over all human sensibility. In the present, musical art is aimed at the shrillest, most dissonant and strangest sound amalgamations. This means noise-sound is approaching. Music revolution is parallel to the increasing production of machinery’ (Russolo 3). Russolo’s work was one of the important documents used in the 20th century musical aesthetics. Russolo (1) precipitated the wide range of aesthetics and musical notions that comprised of the avant-garde pictured in the previous decades.
The noise machines he created used to smell, sounds, and noise to be the most practical in Western music. In his futurist ideas of using noise as part of machine aesthetics, Russolo pictured a time when the composers of music would have no absolute control or choice of sound in which their music used. His look into the evolution of music using machines is parallel to the multiplication of machines that enable collaboration with the man at any front. With the art of noise, there is a strong belief that this concept was derived from the influence of every sound during industrialization as well as all the noises during modern warfare as Russolo writes quoting from futurism Marinetti’s poem of ‘ferocity, pendulum game, violence and fatality’ in battles. The system of noise from Russolo’s composition involved the screams, shouts, laughter, moans, sobs, and rattling from human voices.
The larger reconstruction of the universe
On the snail-shell of the Guggenheim Museum, there is a large exhibition of the Italian Futurist movement occupying the place. Just like the futurists discussed above, the reconstruction of the universe section of futurists was also dedicated to motion in relation to machine aesthetics. These futurists had a strong belief in the machine and how it created a big excitement. The show of reconstruction begins with the familiar work movement of Boccioni Umberto in his spiral torque image design that indicates the pathways of machine aesthetics. Guggenheim’s concept of abstract speed and sound in machine aesthetics notes repeatedly that in as much as the futurist movement was in praise of the future and technological innovations, they did not forget to cling to traditional representation means of drawing, painting and theatre representations (Gunneheim foundation 1). For instance, Umberto Boccioni’s (1910-11) The city Rises was created using simple energetic but small marks which depicted the dawn of machine aesthetics. Looking at the paintings on the Museum, it could be concluded that futurism did no cause the machinery developments but instead advocated for radical changes that would represent all the talk of a rapid rate in technological advancements.
In the futurism work of (Martin 3), there is a vivid movement in canvases that employ the use of speed, color, and light created in the liveliest documents achieved for technological transformation in the 20th century. Martin was an affiliate partner to other futurist architects, painters, and designers who designed new age of strong, sleek and elements of pure modernity. His movement is very important as it pioneered other revolutionary methods of machine aesthetics such as light, speed, and designs that convey movement. The harmonious interplay between the objects and the colors used by Martin are specific to show that the time to create a historical relationship between man and machine had arrived. The visual appearance and design of his paintings are combined as compositional elements that migrate the universe from what seems to be contained into what needs to be a metaphorical reference for the new style of machinery. Martin’s work provided artists with a visual language and representations of the future of aesthetics machines in a consumer-led society.
The illustration of the human figure like a robot in motion and something similar to a machine is a theme that reoccurs throughout the poems, sculptures, and pictures of the futurism movement of the 1900s. With the new movement to machine aesthetics, there also came a different though new view of the universe and all those who inhabited it the fear of having machines take the place of animal and human labor came also along with the idea of aesthetics, design, and beauty hidden in the dynamism and speed of technology and machinery. However, all these ideas were perfectly depicted in the poems, music and art of futurists in the early twentieth century through different styles.
Works Cited;
Giroud, Vincent. Parole in Liberta. Marinetti’s Metal Book. Code (x)+2 Monograph Series (No. 1), The Codex Foundation, 2012.
Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe. The Solomon R. Guggenhein Foundation, 2014.
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso. Parole in LibertaFuturisteOlfattive, Code (x)+2 Monograph Series (No. 2), The Codex Foundation, 2012.
Martin, Sylvia. Futurism.Taschen, 2005.
Russolo, Pratella, et al. The Art of Noise: Destruction of Music by Futurist Machines. Sun Vision Press, 2012.
