Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MWER (The Machine as a Code of the New Political and Social Order in the Artistic Avant-gardes in Western Europe and Russia after the First World War)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-02-29
. MWER will contribute to our understanding of and engagement with Europe’s cultural diversity and past. The goal of MWER is to study the interconnections and circulation between different artistic avant-gardes in Europe, especially in Western Europe and Russia, after the First World War and the Revolution, emphasising the history of social and political discourse and ideas.
- MWER also has a contemporary impact. It serves as an impetus to reflect on the ‘big machine’ of the present, produced by digitalisation and the internet: big data and social media, automatisation and artificial intelligence. The machine experienced a paradigmatic transformation in the twenties, describing the “archaeology” of the profound change confronting our societies today.
- The overall objectives are:
1. To analyse, for the first time, the pivotal role the discourses on the machine played in the interactions and entanglements of the avant-gardes.
2. To investigate the insufficiently studied connections between artistic theory and practice, on the one hand, and the visions of political and social reorganisation after the First World War and Revolution which resulted from references to the machine, on the other hand.
3. To systematically reveal, for the first time, the circulation of protagonists, ideas and initiatives between the artistic avant-gardes of Western Europe and Russia after the First World War and the Revolution.
4. To analyse the extent to which (social) sciences, such as Bogdanov’s systems theory, scientific management (Taylorism) and social, economic and management theory (Fordism), affected the artistic avant-gardes and, through them, entire societies.
- MWER also has a contemporary impact. It serves as an impetus to reflect on the ‘big machine’ of the present, produced by digitalisation and the internet: big data and social media, automatisation and artificial intelligence. The machine experienced a paradigmatic transformation in the twenties, describing the “archaeology” of the profound change confronting our societies today.
- The overall objectives are:
1. To analyse, for the first time, the pivotal role the discourses on the machine played in the interactions and entanglements of the avant-gardes.
2. To investigate the insufficiently studied connections between artistic theory and practice, on the one hand, and the visions of political and social reorganisation after the First World War and Revolution which resulted from references to the machine, on the other hand.
3. To systematically reveal, for the first time, the circulation of protagonists, ideas and initiatives between the artistic avant-gardes of Western Europe and Russia after the First World War and the Revolution.
4. To analyse the extent to which (social) sciences, such as Bogdanov’s systems theory, scientific management (Taylorism) and social, economic and management theory (Fordism), affected the artistic avant-gardes and, through them, entire societies.
During the 24 months of the MSC action, the researcher delivered two peer-reviewed publications. She has begun to write the final monograph. One conference, six invited talks, one talk, one public lecture, and one exhibition organization were undertaken.She participated to the organization of an exhibition.
Work Package 1 Research: During the first two years of MSC Action, the researcher was involved in developing the necessary theoretical and methodological structure of the project through discussions held with several colleagues in Italy, Berlin and the United States. Primary archival and library research was undertaken at the Scuola Normale Superiore, New York University, and critical libraries in Berlin, Rome, and New York. The intersection between archival and bibliographic materials allowed new results to be made in the state of the art. It allowed for the delivery of two publications and the writing of part of the monograph.
Work Package 2 Training: Both supervisors provided weekly face-to-face supervision. The researcher undertook initial teaching experiences, project management, and budgetary oversight with the Scuola Normale Superiore and New York University. This work allowed the researcher to develop future teaching roles and prepare for the final conference. Further activities in this sense will be undertaken in the final year of the MSC action. Over the first two years, the researcher conducted different training activities relevant to the project during the secondment phase at the beneficiary institution at Scuola Normale Superiore and New York University. These activities have allowed me to gain new knowledge and skills that will be useful in fulfilling the project's scientific objectives and improving the researcher's academic abilities and knowledge more generally. Furthermore, the researcher was involved in writing and delivering the Data Management Plan.
Work Package 3 Dissemination: The archival research will be structured by key presentations at seminars and a public lecture. The writing of two essays, participation in invited talks, and attending a conference allowed the dissemination of the project. One public exhibition allowed the dissemination of the project to a large audience. This work helped the researcher to develop further dissemination in invited talks and organize the final conference.
Work Package 4 Outreach: The project engaged the public beyond the academy through the organization of an exhibition together with Fabio Benzi, an eminent art historian (at Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands). Furthermore, a public lecture was held. The researcher took part at the European Researchers’ Night, and held a public lecture. This activity allowed it to reach a large audience. In particular, the European Researchers’ Night addressed families, children and young people who discovered research, science and innovation through entertainment.
No specific website has been developed for the project.
Work Package 1 Research: During the first two years of MSC Action, the researcher was involved in developing the necessary theoretical and methodological structure of the project through discussions held with several colleagues in Italy, Berlin and the United States. Primary archival and library research was undertaken at the Scuola Normale Superiore, New York University, and critical libraries in Berlin, Rome, and New York. The intersection between archival and bibliographic materials allowed new results to be made in the state of the art. It allowed for the delivery of two publications and the writing of part of the monograph.
Work Package 2 Training: Both supervisors provided weekly face-to-face supervision. The researcher undertook initial teaching experiences, project management, and budgetary oversight with the Scuola Normale Superiore and New York University. This work allowed the researcher to develop future teaching roles and prepare for the final conference. Further activities in this sense will be undertaken in the final year of the MSC action. Over the first two years, the researcher conducted different training activities relevant to the project during the secondment phase at the beneficiary institution at Scuola Normale Superiore and New York University. These activities have allowed me to gain new knowledge and skills that will be useful in fulfilling the project's scientific objectives and improving the researcher's academic abilities and knowledge more generally. Furthermore, the researcher was involved in writing and delivering the Data Management Plan.
Work Package 3 Dissemination: The archival research will be structured by key presentations at seminars and a public lecture. The writing of two essays, participation in invited talks, and attending a conference allowed the dissemination of the project. One public exhibition allowed the dissemination of the project to a large audience. This work helped the researcher to develop further dissemination in invited talks and organize the final conference.
Work Package 4 Outreach: The project engaged the public beyond the academy through the organization of an exhibition together with Fabio Benzi, an eminent art historian (at Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands). Furthermore, a public lecture was held. The researcher took part at the European Researchers’ Night, and held a public lecture. This activity allowed it to reach a large audience. In particular, the European Researchers’ Night addressed families, children and young people who discovered research, science and innovation through entertainment.
No specific website has been developed for the project.
- Through the analysis of the International Crisis after World War One and the Russian Revolution, it is possible to maintain that the Italian "Left-Futurism" was strongly intertwined with the Russian ideologue Alexandr Bogdanov and Anatolij Lunačarskij, the Russian future Soviet People's Commissar (Narkompros). Focusing on two "Left-futurists", Vinicio Paladini and Ivo Pannaggi, it is also possible to state that they were powerfully intertwined with the artist El Lissitzky and the writer Ilya Ehrenburg. They founded the journal "Vešč/Gegenstand/Objet" in Berlin 1922. This journal had strong relationships with French Purism and its review of "L'Esprit Nouveau": the idea of a new order appears also intertwined with the ideology of Frederick J. Taylor. El Lissitzky conceived a "German Constructivism" influenced by Western suggestions, which seems very different from Russian Constructivism. Pannaggi, who, in the middle of the 1920s, was in Berlin too, was affected by El Lissitzky. Against this complex cultural and political background, Paladini and Pannaggi aimed to establish a proletarian order. Nevertheless, the Italian Communist Party was not able to acknowledge those ideas. In October 1922, Fascism rose to power, allied with another broad group of the futurist movement. The main result of this analysis has shown the ideological and political diversity of Italian futurism and the interdependency among avant-garde movements in Europe.
- Focusing on the Russian avant-garde, particularly Constructivism and its idea of the machine, has given several results. First, the significance of materials in Vladimir Tatlin's idea and work, which were powerfully intertwined with the Russian Icon tradition and new technology, is absent in the European avant-gardes. Nevertheless, Talin's trip to Paris before the Great War created the conditions of the entanglements between him and the European avant-gardes: Indeed, he visited Pablo Picasso's atelier and Umberto Boccioni's exhibition. Second, Constructivist's pursuit of a synthesis between art, sculpture and architecture seems related to Marxist scientific materialism.
- Focusing on the Soviet avant-gardes and their banishing during the Stalin era gives food thought to Russia's socio-political situation.
- Focusing on the Russian avant-garde, particularly Constructivism and its idea of the machine, has given several results. First, the significance of materials in Vladimir Tatlin's idea and work, which were powerfully intertwined with the Russian Icon tradition and new technology, is absent in the European avant-gardes. Nevertheless, Talin's trip to Paris before the Great War created the conditions of the entanglements between him and the European avant-gardes: Indeed, he visited Pablo Picasso's atelier and Umberto Boccioni's exhibition. Second, Constructivist's pursuit of a synthesis between art, sculpture and architecture seems related to Marxist scientific materialism.
- Focusing on the Soviet avant-gardes and their banishing during the Stalin era gives food thought to Russia's socio-political situation.