Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: The Poly-Expressive Symphony of Futurist Cinema
- Section 1 Joyful Deformation Of The Universe
- 1 Introduction: The Poetics of Futurist Cinema
- 2 Speed and Dynamism: Futurism and the Soviet Cinematographic Avant-garde
- 3 Futurism and Film Theories: Manifesto of Futurist Cinema and Theories in Italy in the 1910-1920s
- 4 Film Aesthetics Without Films
- 5 Marinetti’s Tattilismo Revisited: Hand Travels, Tactile Screens, and Touch Cinema in the 21st Century
- 6 Dance and Futurism in Italian Silent Cinema
- 7 Futurism and cinema in the 1910s: A Reinterpretation Starting from McLuhan
- 8 The Human in the Fetish of the Human: Cuteness in Futurist Cinema, Literature, and Visual Arts
- Section 2 Daily Filmed Exercises Designed To Free Us From Logic
- 9 Yambo on the moon of Verne and Méliès: From La Colonia Lunare to UN MATRIMONIO INTERPLANETARIO
- 10 An Avant-Garde Heritage: VITA FUTURISTA
- 11 Thaïs: A Different Challenge to the Stars
- 12 VELOCITÀ, a Screenplay by F.T. Marinetti: From Futurist Simultaneity to Live Streaming Media
- 13 Velocità/Vitesse: Filmed Dramas of Objects and ‘avant-garde integrale’
- 14 From Science to the Marvellous: The Illusion of Movement, Between Chronophotography and Contemporary Cinema
- Section 3 Shop Windows Of Filmed Ideas, Events, Types, Objects
- Chronology: Fernando Maramai
- Filmography
- Index
- Film Culture in Transition
12 - VELOCITÀ, a Screenplay by F.T. Marinetti: From Futurist Simultaneity to Live Streaming Media
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: The Poly-Expressive Symphony of Futurist Cinema
- Section 1 Joyful Deformation Of The Universe
- 1 Introduction: The Poetics of Futurist Cinema
- 2 Speed and Dynamism: Futurism and the Soviet Cinematographic Avant-garde
- 3 Futurism and Film Theories: Manifesto of Futurist Cinema and Theories in Italy in the 1910-1920s
- 4 Film Aesthetics Without Films
- 5 Marinetti’s Tattilismo Revisited: Hand Travels, Tactile Screens, and Touch Cinema in the 21st Century
- 6 Dance and Futurism in Italian Silent Cinema
- 7 Futurism and cinema in the 1910s: A Reinterpretation Starting from McLuhan
- 8 The Human in the Fetish of the Human: Cuteness in Futurist Cinema, Literature, and Visual Arts
- Section 2 Daily Filmed Exercises Designed To Free Us From Logic
- 9 Yambo on the moon of Verne and Méliès: From La Colonia Lunare to UN MATRIMONIO INTERPLANETARIO
- 10 An Avant-Garde Heritage: VITA FUTURISTA
- 11 Thaïs: A Different Challenge to the Stars
- 12 VELOCITÀ, a Screenplay by F.T. Marinetti: From Futurist Simultaneity to Live Streaming Media
- 13 Velocità/Vitesse: Filmed Dramas of Objects and ‘avant-garde integrale’
- 14 From Science to the Marvellous: The Illusion of Movement, Between Chronophotography and Contemporary Cinema
- Section 3 Shop Windows Of Filmed Ideas, Events, Types, Objects
- Chronology: Fernando Maramai
- Filmography
- Index
- Film Culture in Transition
Summary
Abstract
This contribution introduces an archaeological approach to the study of the Futurist reception of cinema at the beginning of the 20th century based on the important role of the principle of immediacy as a milestone for new collaborative and immersive environments of interaction in the digital age. It also provides a richer horizon for understanding the impact of new technologies in their multifaceted and often contradictory roles in the contemporary media ecosystem. Through their manifestos, artistic projects, and public interventions, Futurists tried to capture the acceleration of every single aspect of daily life. One of the most interesting and unknown Futurist documents is VELOCITÀ, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s cinematographic script, written between 1917 and 1918. The documentation selected has been collected from research conducted by the author at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Yale University, USA) and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Italy).
Keywords: Marinetti, Velocità, Futurism, Media Interaction, Media Ecosystem
Introduction
Futurism became famous for being the main avant-garde that promoted the assumption of new technologies and scientific discoveries into the cultural sphere. At the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein proved that the traditional notions of space and time turned out to be inevitably obsolete due to the vertiginous rhythm of a reality in a continuous process of transformation. Inspired by everyday life and the theory of relativity, Futurists demonstrated how central the experience of speed was to modern aesthetics.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and his colleagues grasped the full impact of the emergence of industrialization, new transportation, and communication systems on the artistic field. From the dynamist paintings of Umberto Boccioni to the first experimental ‘noise music’ performed by Luigi Russolo, Futurist intellectuals produced creations inspired by a new artistic impulse based on mechanical velocity.
In the founding manifesto, we read: ‘We affirm that the beauty of the world has been enriched by a new form of beauty: the beauty of speed’ (Marinetti 1909: 51). Marinetti constantly insists on the ‘acceleration of life’ and the impact of technology and new media in the Modern lifestyle: ‘Time and space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, for we have already created velocity which is eternal and omnipresent.’ (1909).
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- Futurist CinemaStudies on Italian Avant-garde Film, pp. 181 - 194Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2017