Technology

The evolution of **technology** throughout history has had a constant affect on the human experience. As new practices have been adapted in light of new knowledge, perceptions of the world have fundamentally changed; in turn, human expression must continually reposition itself in the advent of new technologies. As technology affects the human condition, so too does it affect artistic expression. With the advent new technology comes the opportunity for new forms of expression--and destruction. War has always been a common theme for artists, and as technology has taken a deeper part in human conflict throughout the 20th century, the artistic portrayal of war and technology were fused both visually and textually.

=Conflicts and Artists Involved=

World War I
Lasting from 1914 until 1918, World War I was a conflict like never before. The technological advances made in the early 20th century were directly translated into the practices of war. The advent of rapid-fire machine guns created stalemates among opposing lines, resulting in the introduction of trench warfare, later came to characterize the war. In an attempt to break this stalemate, the newly developed combustion engine and car were combined with military armor and firepower to create the tank. Though initial creations were largely ineffective, it mark an important point in the evolution of warfare where machines would play an ever-increasing role. As machines became more utilized in combat, other technological inventions such as long-range artillery and chemical gas also made their debut. For soldiers participating in the war, physical harm was only part of the danger, as psychological health was constantly pushed to its limits in light of the sensory-overload resulting from the battlefield. The term “shellshock” was used to describe the enormous amounts of soldiers--from all countries—who were incapacitated from the experience of war. While the term “shellshock” is no longer used to identify this condition, it can be viewed as a predecessor to the modern-day Post Dramatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experienced by some soldiers.

F.T. Marinetti
F.T. Marinetti's "Futurist Manifesto" is riddled with mechanical imagery, expressing trains, cars, military technology and electricity. In the case of this work, technology feels like a vibrant expression of power and potential. To properly portray this mechanized imagery, Marinetti felt it necessary to break from the conventions of traditional language; in doing this, he developed the Words-in-Freedom technique. In 1914 Marinetti released //Zang Tumb Tuuum,//which utilized the technique to capture the movement of a train. Also, in another piece, //Apres La Marne//, Marinetti employs Words-in-Freedom to create a topographical viewpoint of war. Sequences of +’s and –‘s represent the shifting transmission of automobiles, groups of small numbers are troops, and larger letters of the alphabet act as terrain.

Hugo Ball
@Hugo Ball was a German artist largely associated with the Dada movement of the early 20th century. One of his most notable pieces, “Karawane” (1916), is a sound poem that employs constantly changing typeface to denote various forms of emphasis. This changing of typeface connects to the technology of printing and publishing, using manufactured fonts to portray a certain feeling.

Carlo Carra
Carra was an Italian Futurist painter whose works often reflected the presence of technology. He focused on war in many of his works, such as the painting //Interventionist Demonstration,// which in some interpretations portrays leaflets swirling down from the sky, an artillery blast, and others.

Gino Severini
Gino Severini's work //Cannon in Action// is a clear depiction of contemporary technology as it related to war, showing the power of a cannon being fired. His painting //Red Cross Train Passing a Village// is another example of contemporary technology as a subject.

Lorine Niedecker
@Lorine Niedecker was an American poet associated with the Objectivist school of the 20th century. In her 1968 release, //North Central//, Niedecker reflects upon a world where emerging Cold War technology presents the possibility of total annihilation. In the poem “//Shelter,”// Niedecker illustrates the paradox of surviving nuclear war, where survival doesn't necessarily mean living life.

"//Shelter."//

Holed damp cellar-black beyond the main atrocities my sense of property's adirft Not burned we sweat-- we sink to water Death (you hand!-- this was land) disowns

In the poem listed above, Niedecker is describing the horrible living conditions that fallout shelters bring about. Even though one //may// be saved from a fiery nuclear blast, the alienated life spent in a shelter can be just as much of a death. This is an example that explores the negative side of what would otherwise be viewed as beneficial technology--fallout shelters.

= External Links. =

[|Culture and Technology]

= **References** =

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