An excerpt from F. T. Martinetti's "The Foundation and Manifesto of
Futurism," 1908 (translated by Joshua C. Taylor)
1. We intend to glorify the love of danger, the custom of energy, the
strength of daring.
2. The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity, and revolt.
3. Literature having up to now glorified thoughtful immobility,
ecstasy, and slumber, we wish to exalt the aggressive movement, the
feverish insomnia, running, the perilous leap, the cuff, and the blow.
4. We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched with a
new form of beauty, the beauty of speed. A race-automobile adorned
with great pipes like serpents with explosive breath . . . a
race-automobile which seems to rush over exploding powder is more
beautiful than the _Victory of Samothrace_.
5. We will sing the praises of man holding the flywheel of which the
ideal steering-post traverses the earth impelled itself around the
circuit of its own orbit.
6. The poet must spend himself with warmth, brilliancy, and
prodigality to augment the fervor of the primordial elements.
7. There is no more beauty except in struggle. No masterpiece without
the stamp of aggressiveness. Poetry should be a violent assault
against unknown forces to summon them to lie down at the feet of man.
8. We are on the extreme promontory of ages! Why look back since we
must break down the mysterious doors of Impossibility? Time and Space
died yesterday. We already live in the Absolute for we have already
created the omnipresent eternal speed.
9. We will glorify war--the only true hygiene of the
world--militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchist,
the beautiful Ideas which kill, and the scorn of woman.
10. We will destroy museums, libraries, and fight against moralism,
feminism, and all utilitarian cowardice.
11. We will sing the great masses agitated by work, pleasure, or
revolt; we will sing the multicolored and polyphonic surf of
revolutions in modern capitals; the nocturnal vibration of arsenals
and docks beneath their glaring electric moons; greedy stations
devouring smoking serpents; factories hanging from the clouds by the
threads of their smoke; bridges like giant gymnasts stepping over
sunny rivers sparkling like diabolical cutlery; adventurous steamers
scenting the horizon; large-breasted locomotives bridled with long
tubes, and the slippery flight of airplanes whose propellers have
flaglike flutterings and applauses of enthusiastic crowds.
Sorry for the long post. If I remember correctly, Futurist visual art
tried to convey motion, often by imitating motion-study photography.
Jacob
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http://www.gridface.com/
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