1. Modernity: Terrifying or Sublime?

2. “Modernity” The term is from 1600s Era began in 1400s with printing press –We are still in it and may never escape it…

3. “Modernity” The term is from 1600s Era began in 1400s with printing press –We are still in it and may never escape it… It is the belief that: We are in a new era, separate from all of previous history. We are different, more free than those who came before us.

4. Modernity We have to power to control and improve: –The natural world –The social world –Our minds –Our bodies

5. Modernity We have to power to control and improve: –The natural world –The social world –Our minds –Our bodies And in some cases the “power” to control and improve each other…

6. Modernity Politics (society as a system) –Capitalism/Socialism –Democracy/Fascism –Individualism/Collectivism Truth –Rationality/Progress –Science replacing Religion Technology –Urbanization, slums –Mass literacy, mass media –Industrialization

7. Modernity vs. Modernism Modernity: the historical, cultural, economic and political conditions of 1600s-1950. Modernism: the literary and aesthetic representations, visions and responses and to those historical conditions (1850- 1950).

8. Modernism Big Ideas… –Artist breaking with the past (Manet)

9. Moderism Big Ideas… –Artist breaking with the past (Manet) –Artist as Visionary Hero (Pollock)

10. Modernism Big Ideas… –Artist breaking with the past (Manet) –Artist as Visionary Hero (Pollock) –Universal Language (Kandinsky)

11. Modernism Big Ideas… –Artist breaking with the past (Manet) –Artist as Visionary Hero (Pollock) –Universal Language (Kandinsky) –Merging of Art and Life (Futurism, Dada)

12. Modernism Big Ideas… –Artist breaking with the past (Manet) –Artist as Visionary Hero (Pollock) –Universal Language (Kandinsky) –Merging of Art and Life (Futurism, Dada) –Art Informing Politics (Tatlin)…

13. Vladimir Tatlin Monument for the Third International (1919)

14. Vladimir Tatlin Monument for the Third International (1919)

15. Vladimir Tatlin Monument for the Third International (1919) Was to be Headquarters of the Comintern (Communist International) –Overthrow international bourgeoisie (capitalist countries). After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917

16. Vladimir Tatlin Monument for the Third International (1919) Industrial materials: iron, glass and steel. In materials, shape, and function, it was envisioned as a towering symbol of modernity. It would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The tower's main form was a twin helix which spiraled up to 400 m in height. Visitors would be transported around with the aid of various mechanical devices.

17. Vladimir Tatlin Monument for the Third International (1919) The Base: a cube venue for lectures, conferences and legislative meetings, and this would complete a rotation in the span of one year. The Middle: a pyramid housing executive activities and completing a rotation once a month. The Top: a cylinder to house an information centre, issuing news bulletins and manifestos via telegraph, radio and loudspeaker, and would complete a rotation once a day.

18. Metropolis (1926) by Fritz Lang

19. The Great City In awe of modernity… terrified by modernity Have we mastered technology or has it mastered us? Dystopia or Utopia… nothing in between Absolute class divisions and tensions –Workers (hands) vs. Intellectuals (brain) The film was inspirational for Hitler

20. Metropolis (1926) by Fritz Lang It is an Expressionist film—dramatically exaggerated and distorted to evoke an emotional and psychological effect.