Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/63454

Download PDF (Published version) (Adobe Acrobat PDF, -1 bytes)

Title

The art of speed

Author(s)

Huppatz, D. J.

Abstract

The earliest European avant-garde groups of this century had faith in a particular future that would fuse art, technology and politics. Their Europe was a world that had harnessed the power of steam, fossil fuels and electricity, and these energy sources were bearing fruit in the form of transportation, telecommunications and industrialisation on a massive scale. Their Europe was a world that boasted of the conquest of physical space one---could now cross from West to East (on the Trans-Siberian Railway) or around the globe in only weeks. The Italian Futurists and their comrades in Russia, England. Germany and France were embracing the newly mechanised world with a passion. The Futurists worshiped innovation, disruption and the heroic nature of a forward advance (hence the military term 'avant-garde') towards a utopian mechanised future. For them, the new communication and transportation technologies were a means to pursue speed.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Mesh, No. 11 (Spring 1997), pp. 97-100

Publication year

1997

Keyword(s)

20th century history;  Avant-garde art;  Design history;  Futurism;  New technologies;  Speed;  Transportation

Publisher

Experimenta Media Arts

ISSN

1326-8694

Publisher URL

http://www.experimenta.org/mesh/mesh11/11hup.html

Copyright

Copyright © D. J. Huppatz 1997. This article appeared first as: Huppatz, D. J. (1997). The art of speed. Mesh (11), available from: http://www.experimenta.org/mesh. The published version of the paper is reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher.

Full text