In 1909, Italian writer Fillipo Marinetti and his contemporaries expounded the virtues and ideals of Futurism in the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism. This movement was the opening salvo in the Modernist retaliation against Realism and Romanticism. By way of an auto accident, Marinetti embraced the Industrial Age with violent passion.
According to the Manifesto, the Futurists embraced speed, aggression, war, and the machines that executed these ideals. Futurist paintings and sculpture attempted to capture speed and momentum. Familiar subjects increasingly blurred into unrecognizable maelstroms of color as the movement progressed. In the theater, angular sets featured actors donned in robotic costumes while impossible-looking instruments simultaneously attempted to assault the ears.
The grotesque horror of machine and chemical warfare in World War One curbed the enthusiasms of Futurism and many of its adherents already had moved on to other Modernist forms of expression. As the twentieth century crossed the halfway point, Postmodernism reared it’s amorphous and indefinable head. As I write, New Media artists are attempting to fuse the aesthetics of Futurist art into their installations and works.
What fascinates me more than the look of Futurism are the ideals contained in the Manifesto. Although rough and preliminary, I speculate that many of the claims made can be reworked and fashioned into a Futurist manifesto regarding Computer Games and gaming itself. Realistically, some of Marinetti’s claims are chauvinistic and antiquated; however, you can’t make an omelets without breaking a few eggs…and some eggs will see some damage here.
It’s an interesting project idea and requires some consideration and would require a modicum of research. Hopefully, my interest won’t sputter out on this. I’ll keep you posted.
-R.
The Picklebandit's Barrel 