FUTURISM: AN OVERVIEW OF

THE PAST AND PRESENT..

DONE BY: CHERMAYNE ONG 10237
Futurism Theatre

Beginnings
 First Futurist manifesto in Le Figaro(newspaper).
 Written by Italian poet, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 20
February 1909.
 Caused an upheaval , as the Paristian public sees it as ‘incendary
violence’.

Video of Marinetti- [FUTURIST MANIFESTO PREACHING]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY8kVa0qB9Q

Warning: information overload next.

Next page: Futurist Manifesto “rules and
regulations”
Futurist ideology
written by Marinetti..
Rules and regulations..
 t r a
s
Ab t
c
 We must
reach the
impossible
!
Muahhaha
h..
Examples
Of Other
Futurist
Manisfest
os..
 Luigi Russolo (Italian,
1885-1947),
 
Giacomo Balla
Shape Noise
Motorcyclist, 1913 

Joseph Stella (American,

1877-1946), 
Battle of Lights, Coney Island

Umberto Boccioni, 
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
First attempt of Futurism Theatre
Ubu Roi, an absurd production
Written and presented by Alfred Jarry, a poet and cyclist fanatic.

-Ubu Roi first staging is in 1876 at Lugne-Poe’s Theatre de

l’Oeuvre.

Poster of Ubu Roi drawn by Alfred Jarry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvnvwAYhZVM
[From notes.] video of Ubu Roi
Picture of Ubu Roi staged by Empty
Spaces .Theatre Company at the Orlando
Shakespeare Festival in September 2006.
Ubu Roi and other futurist
productions by Marinetti
 Ubu Roi’s production review 2006. Critical comment on it’s
influence of Futurism in art today.

 2 months after Ubu Roi’sfirst premier, Marinetti’s predecessor-

in-provocation, Jarry, Roi Bombance is presented in the same
theatre.

 Roi Bombance was a satire of revolution and democracy

similarly to Ubu Roi.

 ‘Poupees electriques’ a very influential play for young

Futurists at that time.

[Political situation in Italy; Marinetti’s strategy of making Futurism

a success.]
 Art to music?
Many Futurist painters/manifestos became performers.
For example, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi
Russoloand Gino Severini.

They written the “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting.”

Boccioni said, “Painting was no longer an exterior scene, the setting of

a theatrical spectacle.”

Music to Art?
Giacomo
Musician cum artist, an active
participant
of the Futurist Manifesto.
He studied music as a child, and is
mostly
a self taught artist.
Futurist performances
Actions Consequences
Spectator must be live at the Painters attacked by the public.
centre of the painted action.
Purpose: the surest means of
disrupting a complacent public.

Subsequent manifestos
instructed painters to ‘go out
into the street, launch assaults
from theatres and into the
artistic battle.
 Pictures of Painters

Sorry..I only have it my

printed notes.
 20thcentury multi
George
talented artist
Antheil •American avant garde composer, pianist,
author and inventor
•Born July 8 1900, Trenton, New Jersey
•Died February 12 1959 New York City
•He is a very passionate about music at an
early age.
•Eccentric piano technique.
•Among 300 over compositions, the most
notable work: Ballet Mecanique.
•Good friends: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali,
Ernest Hemingway, Eric Satie, and Igor
Stravinsky(his idol)
•Antheil wrote over 300 musical works in all
major genres, including symphonies, chamber
works, film music, and operas. He was
extremely outspoken and articulate, and
wrote numerous articles, as well as an
autobiography, Bad Boy of Music, which is
still in print.
 Ballet
Mecanique
Beginning
•It was originally written to accompany a Dadaist film of the same
name.

•It was directed by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger,with

cinematography by Man Ray.

•Antheil was not a Dadaist, though he had many friends and

supporters in that community.

•The score ended up being between 20 and 30 minutes long while

the film was only 16 minutes long.

•The film premiered on 24 September 1924 in Vienna presented

by Frederick Kiesler, later a world-famous architect.

•Antheil's music for Ballet Mécanique became a concert piece,

premiered by Antheil himself in Paris in 1926.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo0H8ztju78
Ballet mecanique (1929)film summary:
A pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack.
A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The
rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, kitchen
objects in concentric circles or rows - pots, pan lids, and funnels,
cars passing overhead, a spinning carnival ride. Over and over, a
heavy-set woman climbs stairs carrying a large bag on her
shoulder. An Art Deco cartoon figure appears, dancing. This is a
world in motion, dominated by mechanical and repetitive images,
with a few moments of solitude in a garden.
 The Music: Ballet
Mecanique
Due to the lack of technology, Antheil wrote several versions of the
piece. The very first, written in 1924 calls for…

In response to the technical difficulties, Antheil quickly re-arranged

the piano parts, changing the orchestration to include unspecified
multiple of 2 conventional pianos and a single player piano.

Antheil again revised the piece, using a very different ensemble of

4 pianos, 4 xylophones, 7 electric bells, 2 propellors, timpani,
glockenspiel, and assorted percussion. This version, which is much
tighter and shorter than the early versions, is performed fairly often
and has been recorded several times.

Listen to Ballet Mecanique

Version 3: 4 pianos, 2 electric bells, 2 airplane
 Futurism
legacy
New Wave: Merging various Art mediums and movements into an
innovative project.

Poupee Electriques :1909-2009 A Hundred years

A multi media group who named themselves after the production.

Myspace page:
www.poupeeselectriques.com/myspace/poupelecs.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwm2PDTxtUg

Influences
•futurism
•dadaism
•surrealism
•anarchism
•cyberpunk
•Vegan
•machines
 Sources
Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurist_Manifesto
http://www.unc.edu/~jimlee/AaronYontzFuturism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Antheil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_(art)#Futurism_in_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_mécanique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_(music)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_Futurist_Musicians
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto.html
http://www.mishabittleston.com/artists/giacomo_balla/
http://www.antheil.org/george.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014694/plotsummary
http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol0302/stevedixon.html
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/f/futurism.html
http://www.youtube.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist#Italian_Fascism

Books
Art and the future: A history/prophecy of the collaboration between science, technology
and art written by Douglas Davis Praegaer Publishers, New York, Washington, 1973.
Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present written by RoseLee Goldberg, United
Kingdom by Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1979, 1988, 2001