The machine was a primary concern of the futuristi. Besides being a material tool in the factory it was a social and political agent, an aesthetic emblem, a metonym of modernity and a living symbol of past crafts and technologies, from cosmic spirituality to the bulky apparatus of the Industrial Revolution.This book offers the first interdisciplinary exploration of the machine in Italian futurism after the First World War. Examining literature, the visual and performing arts, photography, music and film, it uses the lens of machine culture to elucidate the work of a broad set of artists and practitioners, including Giannina Censi, Fortunato Depero, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Bruno Munari and Enrico Prampolini. In doing so, it addresses a range of fascinating questions: what is arte meccanica? What are the underpinnings of the conceptual shift from human to mechanical in performance and the visual arts? How do machines intersect the dynamics of industrial and commercial diasporas across Europe and globally? And how does traditional mechanics gain traction in an age of relativity and indeterminacy?The machine emerges here as an archaeology of technology in modernity: the time machine of futurismo. Building on this insight, the book makes a highly original contribution both to the study of Italian futurism and modernism more generally. It is essential reading for students and scholars in art history and theory.
