The Futurist Manifesto 2.0

At the Tate Modern there is a fascinating exhibition of Futurism, an artistic movement that kicked off with a Manifesto and a huge amount of publicity for being more visionary-than-thou (Move over Seth Godin, they had Tribes sussed out 100 years ago). Anyhow, the Manifesto is quite fascinating to read, as it was a wholehearted embrace of the technological future. In summary, it is:

Manifesto of Futurism

1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.

2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.

3. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggresive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.

4. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

5. We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.

6. The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.

7. Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man.

8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.

9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.

10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.

11. We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.

Today we may be a bit concerned about the glorification of war (you can kind of see why everyone marched off to the trenches) and the abhorrence of feminism and women in principle, but by and large its a New Next Thing pimpers' Bible. One of the more interesting features of the exhibition was the huge amount of - for want of a better term - PR this lot generated. They just would not be ignored. What was also interesting is how others doing similar stuff (Cubists for example ) insisted they were very different, while all were busily integrating each others' ideas as they argued. All in all, fascinating to look on at all the heat and light generated (and occasional great bit of art) with a 100 year armchair.

One cannot help but imagine how a similar group may write it today, but with the view that Startup Tech movements have replaced Startup Art movements for this generation's Intellectuals. I, of course, had a go

Manifesto of Futurism 2.0

1. We intend to sing the love of sitting on our *rses twittering into computers, the habit of torpor and online fearlessness in flame wars (so long as we never have to meet the other f*cker).

2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our (blog) poetry, as well as calling all opponents of our brilliance total Nazis by line 50.

3. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggresive action (so long as its by others), a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap (on World of Warcraft, that is).

4. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A computer whose input jack sprouts great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring processor that seems to ride on liquid silica is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace (Hey, its on Wikipedia).

5. We want to hymn the man at the keyboard, who hurls the lance of his blog across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.

6. The poet must spend himself (on Twitter, Blog and email) with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements (aka Recruit That Tribe).

7. Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man. (ie Pimp Yo Stuff above all else, Sh*t on all others' ideas, Oldies are Mouldies, all that matters is getting the Next New Thing out there)

8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed. (But we could still do with more broadband bandwidth.... )

9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman. (Now this is a toughie in 2009, even capitalist red toothed competition has gone the way of the dinosaurs, and scorning women gets you fired, arrested or worse - just ask Larry Summers. Let us instead glorify New Tech, there's few enough women in it anyway.....)

10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice. (Actually, those libraries etc with good coffee are quite nice, and why risk un-PC umbrage to take on Feminism when women are tearing it apart anyway...)

11. We will sing/blog/twitter/IM of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will retweet of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of developers and of incubators blazing with violent electric moons; greedy datacentres that devour smoke-plumed pwer station output whole; tech campuses hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their award winning architect-designed buildings; information switches that stride the rivers of data like virtual gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous entrepreneurial companies that sniff the horizon; deep-chested startup CEOs whose hands paw the PR hacks like the hooves of enormous steel horses ; and the sleek flight of transatlantic Noo Meedja Gurus whose white papers whistle in the wind like Ad banners and whose astroturfed blogs seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd. (Perhaps a tad overdone here but replace 100 yr old tech for today's terms and you kind of get the picture - plus ca change)

So, not a bad little manifesto to use to recruit your Tech Tribe, methinks. One more example of Ecclesiastes Law of Nothing New Under The Sun - The more things change, the more they stay the same. (Also just a Whiff of Ecclesiastes Corollary - Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity )