Comparison Of Futurism And Surrealism Manifestos From The Early 20Th Century

Design Manifesto

According to the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) website, a manifesto can be defined as a short document that ‘manifest’ or makes public a set of ideas and goals, passionate, personal, and vivid. Hanna (2018) states that manifestos mark an adaptation a new vision, approach or ideas by the author by critiquing a personal issue of affairs but eventually proclaim anew idea, movement or even an era. In recent years, designers have been drawn into manifestos since it has a history of bringing groups of people together since art was created. Meggs (2017) suggests two of the biggest art movements, futurism and surrealism, have a history of both art and design. This paper will not examine futurism and surrealism manifestos but will explain how both manifestos compare to each other and how they managed in graphic design.

Futurism Manifesto

Futurism, as a new movement, was launched by Italian poet Filippo Marinetti. He published his manifesto in a Paris newspaper Le Figaro on February 20, 1909. His speech and words established the start of the revolutionary movement, which tested the ideas and forms of artists and poets against realities of the scientific and industrial society. The manifesto key points states:

• We intend to sing the love of danger of war with the habit of energy and fearlessness.
• Courage, audacity, and revolt with war will be essential elements of our poetry.
• We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed: A racing car whose is adorned with great pipes, that seems to ride on a grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
• Except in struggle, there is no beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece of its own.
• We will glorify war, military, patriotism, destructive gesture of freedom, with beautiful ideas worth dying for.
• We will destroy museums, libraries and academics of every kind.

Marinetti’s manifesto voiced excitement for war, the machine age and the spread of modern life. The public was shocked by the results of the futurist. Marinetti is proclaiming “We will destroy museums, libraries and fight against moralism, feminism and all cowardice. ” He urged poets to liberate themselves from the traditional grammar and layout to open up a new world of expression. They animated their pages with dynamic, nonlinear composition by pasting words and letters arbitrarily. After poets started viewing his futurist concept, typography became a concrete visual for them. Futurism became a major influence on their art movements with its violent and techniques. Artist initiated publications of manifestos typographic expressions and publications should not force designers to rethink typographic nature, its meaning and the actual word.

Surrealism Manifesto

In Meggs’ et al. (2017) proclaims Surrealism, created by Andre Breton, is “more real than the real world”, implying the world with magic and dreams, spirit of rebellion and its mystery of the subconscious. According to the surrealist manifesto, it sought ways to make how to make new truths, to reveal language of the soul. “Surrealism, noun, pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express either verbally or in writing, the function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, all aesthetic or moral preoccupations. ” It was not a style or matter of ascetics it was thinking and knowing, away the feeling is the way of life. Dada was negative, surrealism explained poetic faith in man and his spirit. Surrealism created communication that became impossible to produce images of emotional content, resulting in symbolism or fantasy triggering numerous people. Thiter (1994) states space, color, perspective and figures are rendered in a careful naturalism, but the image is an unreal dreamscape. Surrealism impact in graphic design has a diverse history, providing poetic example of liberation of the human fantasy. New techniques demonstrated how the mind could be expressed in visual terms. Unfortunately, ideas during surrealism has been exploited and impacted negatively in the mass media over the decades.

Comparison of the manifestos

Futurism and surrealism are both represented from poets to designers, with the performer also playing roles of the theorist whose manifesto informs not only by his works with indicating and contradicting ways and also associates. With research, historians show connections with different avant-garde movements not only at extreme level of etherical manifesto, with studies are done, but identifying a series of common concerns with relationship with artist and audience. Functions of serologic systems and between art and reality with considering how each movement, included each artist, define its own formal solutions in individual works. According to Somigi (2001), while Surrealism like futurism, brings the visual and the linguistic code together to obtain semantic short-circuit that fragments the writing of the artwork, plays more insidiously with structure of codes seeking to submit them from within through distortion and displacement rather than demolition. Many modern examples of surrealism and futurism can be found in ads by designers and in television and movies from directors for humor purposes and bizarre comic relief effects. Both art movements wanted to modernize traditional establishments by not being bound to it. They also have parallel manifestos, Breton’s manifesto repeats dream in reality, while Marinetti praises insomnia in an artistic sense but pursuing dreams of futurism are a bit different than dreamlike reality of Surrealist. Surrealist is aesthetic to the right while futurism is to the left. Both reimagining the normal norm of society and nature, rejecting realistic society representation and the means to be human.