Dr Jon Cockburn - cacs102

Vogue. May 1926. Cover design:
Eduado Garcia Benito (1891-1953)
Jazz as the gramophone, the
mechanically reproduced
sound represented in
photomontage (the
mechanically/technically
reproduced image).
Early 20th Century Modernity and Technology
Spring 2011. Lecturer: Dr. Jon Cockburn
• Photograph
• Telegraph
• The Gramophone
• The Typewriter
• Moving film/cinema
• The Automobile
• The Aeroplane
• Electric lights and signs
• Scientific management/
efficiency movement/
Taylorism/Fordism/
Americanism
• Sound film
• Cathode Ray tube – Radar
Heinz Loew. Self Portrait in
Record Player: Sandwich
Photo. c.1928. Photograph
BAUHAUS.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. 1927. Dir. Walther
Ruttmann. B&W. 62min. Grab: 3min 28sec.
In 1920, Richard Hülsenbeck, a German Dadaist on Jazz:
“While we are speaking of music, Wagner had shown
all the hypocrisy inherent in a pathetic faculty for
abstraction – the screeching of a brake, on the other
hand, could at least give you a toothache. In modern
Europe, the same initiative which in America made
ragtime a national music, led to the convulsion of
bruitism” (‘En Avant Dada... 1920’ rpt. in Chipp 1968,
p.379).

Technological context 19th Century to early 20th Century
• 1837: Samuel Morse (1791-1872), Telegraph (Morse code) [ELECTRONIC MEDIA THAT MOVES ACROSS
SPACE, VIA FIXED LINE, BETWEEN SENDER AND RECEIVER]
• 1839: Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre (1789-1851), Photography [PHOTOCHEMICAL MEDIA CAPTURES LIFE]
• In 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes(1819-1890) patented the first typewriter, although several others had
been experimenting with such an idea since 1713. [CLERICAL & BUREAUCRATIC LONGHAND MAKES WAY
FOR STANDARDIZED INSTANT RECORDING AND PRINTING, OFTEN WITH CARBON COPY DUPLICATES]
• In 1873, Sholes signs a contract with the gunsmiths E. Remington and Sons to manufacture an improved version of
his typewriter. [MASS PRODUCED OFFICE MACHINES CAPABLE OF STANDARDIZED INSTANT RECORDING AND
PRINTING, OFTEN WITH CARBON COPY DUPLICATES]
• 1871: Maddox-Eastman, Bromide print [IMPROVED PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY]
• 1876: Bell-Gray, Telephone [ELECTRONIC MEDIA THAT MOVES ACROSS SPACE, VIA FIXED LINE, BETWEEN
SENDER AND RECEIVER]
• 1877: Edison, Phonograph [ THE EPHEMERAL QUALITY OF SOUND IS RECORDED AND REPRODUCED IN
MULTIPLE COPIES]
• 1889: Kodak markets portable cameras that shoot with transparent film [PHOTOCHEMICAL MEDIA THAT IS
CONVENIENTLY MOBILE]
• 1897: Marconi, Wireless [ELECTRONIC MEDIA THAT MOVES ACROSS SPACE, WITHOUT NEEDING A FIXED
LINE, BETWEEN SENDER AND RECEIVER]
• 1895: Louis Lumière (1864-1948) and Auguste Lumière (1862-1954), cinematograph [PHOTOCHEMICAL
MEDIA THAT CAPTURES MOVEMENT]
• 1895: Rontgen, x - rays [LOOKING INTO THE BODY RATHER THAN SIMPLE LOOKING AT THE BODY – THAT IS
NO LONGER THOUGHT OF AS NATURAL, BUT INSTEAD THOUGHT OF AS ATOMIZED AND DIVISIBLE]
• 1901: Marconi, sends and receives radio signals from US East Coast across the Atlantic
• 1902: Korn, Telegraphy of pictures [ELECTRONIC MEDIA THAT MOVES IMAGES ACROSS SPACE, VIA FIXED
LINE, BETWEEN SENDER AND RECEIVER]
• 1903: Motorised aeroplane: Wright Brothers [THE FIRST TIME HUMANS FLY IN A POWERED HEAVIER-
THAN-AIR MACHINE]
• 1905: Einstein, Theory of Relativity [E=MC2 ]

Mechanical and Technological Modernists
contra
Anti-modernists
(Criteria: Modernist supported a social engagé outlook and/or experimental use of “new-media”)
MODERNIST ANTI-MODERNIST
• Deutscher Werkbund (early-20 th C Germany)
• Italian Futurists (1909–c.1922)
• Soviet Avant-Garde (1917–1934)
• Bauhaus (1919–1933)
• Ring neue Werbegestaler (Circle of the New
Advertising Typographer)
• Arts and Crafts Movement (late-19 th C England)
• Die Brucke (The Bridge, early-20 th C German
Expressionist group)
• Soviet Socialist Realism
• Fascist (NAZI) propoganda
De Stijl (THE STYLE – early-20th De Stijl (THE STYLE – early-20 C Dutch art and design movement)
thC Dutch art and design movement)
Dadaism
Surrealism

Guglielmo Marconi
(1874-1937),
Photograph 1908,
Library of Congress,
Washington DC, USA
Marconi and assistant in his North
American radio building 1901
Advertisement for Grebe Radio, in
Radio News, April 1921, USA
RADIO
Ninotchka (1939).
Dir. Ernst Lubitsch,
1hr 46min., MGM, B/
W, Sound, Writ:
Charles Brackett,
Billy Wilder, Walter
Reisch. Perf: Greta
Gardo (Nina
Yakushova
"Ninotchka"),
Melvyn Douglas
(Count Leon Dolga).
Grab: 2min 10sec
Cover: Radio News,
June 1923, USA
Cover: Radio News,
April 1924, USA
• In 1901, Gulielmo Marconi on the US East Coast sends and receives a radio messages from across the Atlantic
• In 1922, in the UK, BBC Radio commences broadcasting
• First commercial Australian Radio station broadcast from November 1923
• Australian Broadcasting Commission established in 1932

Lucien Faure (French graphic designer, 1872-1943),
The Empire Typewriter, 1897, Colour Lithograph
(poster), nd. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
The Oliver (Typewriter
Booklet), ca.1898, Oliver
Typewriter Co. St. Louis,
MO, USA (Located at: Duke
University Libraries, Digital
Collections, Emergence of
Advertising in America,
Database of over 9,000
items dating from 1850 to
1920.)
The Oliver (Typewriter Booklet), ca.1898, Oliver Typewriter
Co. St. Louis, MO, USA ( Duke University Libraries, Digital
Collections)

Stenographers and Typists in the United States by Sex, 1870–1930
Year Total Men Women Women as a
percentage of
total
1870 154 147 7 4.5%
1880 5,000 3,000 2,000 40.0
1890 33,400 12,100 21,300 63.8
1900 112,600 26,200 86,400 76.7
1910 326,700 53,400 263,300 80.6
1920 615,100 50,400 564,700 91.8
1930 811,200 36,100 775,100 95.6
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940: Population (1943), as
cited in Davies 1974, p.10. (rpt. Kittler 1999, p.184).

Processing hogs in a slaughter-house – origin of the
modern assembly line, Cincinnati. c.1870.
Standardised and exchangeable components
becomes the model for mass-production
• Mass produced components imply reliable and
tested quality (reducing product variation found in
bespoke manufacturing).
• Interchangeable parts (spares) allows for extended
and cost effective life of capital equipment
• Simplification of design for mass production
enhances items functional use-value.
In-line processing becomes the model for the
Fordist conveyer belt assembly line
manufacturing
• Systemized processing
• Regular patterns of movement
• Standardized methods
• Planned and predictable output
• Manageable quality and health control
In USA, Manufacturers Catalogue (1867) showing the
early use of interchangeable parts for a reaper – large
agricultural machine.

Frederick Winslow Taylor
(1856-1915) c.1907.
“In the past the man has
been first; in the future
the system must be
first”(Taylor F. W 1911, The
Principles and Methods of
Scientific Management, p.7)
Scientific Management and the Efficiency Movement
Frank B. Gilbreth (1868-1924) and Lillian M.
Gilbreth (1878-1972) c.1920.
Frank Gilbreth motion studies for his
Bricklaying System c.1909-10. Grab: 2 min.
“Scientific management is
simply management that is
based upon actual
measurement. Its skilful
application is an art that must be
acquired, but its fundamental
principles have the exactness of
scientific laws which are open to
study by every one.” (Gilbreth F. B
& L. M 1917, Applied Motion Study, pp.
211-212)
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth in their Motion
Studies studio c.1916

Gilbreth uses
spare moving
film stock to
capture a Wright
Brothers type
aircraft
overhead. c.1910
Modernity as motion study
c.1910
Horse and wagon
Horse-less
wagon
(automobile)
Gilbreth’s specially built chronometer measuring the comparative efficiency of horse
drawn and horse-less carriages (crossing far distance and moving toward the horizon)
Gilbreth Studies c.1910. Grab: 1 min. 28 sec.

Motion study
studio, with
champion
typist at
typewriter and
Lillian M.
Gilbreth,
centre of
picture,
toward the
back
observing
proceedings.
c.1916.
Proof sheets documenting comparative study
of two different typists hands as they type and
change paper. Box 12. File: N File 14. 0031-30
NAFDR. n.d. (c.1913-1919). Gilbreth Library of
Management.
Motion Studies: Typing
“Motion study consists of dividing work into the most
fundamental elements possible; studying these elements
separately and in relation to one another; and from these
studied elements, when timed, building methods of least
waste.” (Frank B. and Lillian M. Gilbreth, Applied Motion Study 1917, p.
220)
The Gilbreths, Remington and the efficiency of champion typist. c.1916.
Grab Length: 1min. 18sec.

The automobile – being in control of machine, space and time
The Mercedes advertisement, from 1888
or 1889, ... extols the virtues of the Benz threewheeler,
invented in 1885. Due to its perfect
integration of engine and chassis, it is
considered by many to be the world's first true
automobile. Only a few cars were made during
this period; volume production was still years in
the future.
25 years later the motorvehicle
has moved from
bespoke and exclusive to
mail-order and
straightforward it its
utility.
Sears, Roebuck & Co., Motor Buggy
Catalogue. 1910 'Changing
Speeds' (Schroeder, jnr & Factor 1973,
p.14)

Leopoldo Metlicovitz (no dates),
Poster for an internal combustion
engine 1905, Treviso, Italy, Museo
Civico Luigi Bailo, Salace Collection.
1909 Ford Model T New York to Seattle Racer
Cover by Clarence F.
Underwood. Saturday
Evening Post, 15 June 1912.
Marcello Dudovich (1878-1962),
C’e’ una Bugatti, non si passa,
1922, Colour Lithograph, 195 x
140 cm.
From the pages of
Vogue: ‘… dressed
for the open road;
the Comtesse
Bernard de
Pourtales wears a
checked helmet,
goggles, and long
gauntlets of
washable buckskin,
1922’ (Hall, p.111)

Powered flight and principles of rational
construction
Wilbur (1867-1912) & Orville Wright (1871-1948) First heavier than air powered
flight at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, USA. 17 December 1903 – Wright Brothers
flight lasts 3 minutes.
• 17 December 1903 – Wright Brothers flight lasts 3 minutes
• 25 July 1909, Frenchman Louis Bleriot – flew across the
English channel (Calais, France to Dover, England) in 43 minutes
at 64 kmph
• 1919, first aircraft are produced capable of flying at 192 km per
hour with an all-metal construction and an enclosed
compartment for pilots and crew.
25 July 1909,
Frenchman Louis
Bleriot – across
the English
Channel
Vogue's suggestion for travel in a small
plane was a knitted chiné woollen suit by
J. Suzanne Talbot. The attached helmet
suggested a sailor collar when it was
slipped off, 1926. Photograph: Edward
Steichen (Hall, p.113)

Marcello Dudovich (1878-1962),
Touring Club Milano, 1912, Colour
Lithograph, n.di.
Anonymous, International
Aviation Tournament Belmont
Park, USA, 1910, Lithograph,
210 x 99 cm, American
Lithograph Co.
Anonymous, for the Automobile Club of France,
Manufacturer: Affiches F. Lochard, 24-30
December 1908, 155 x 117cm, Lithograph

• In 1910, USA, the Sears, Roebuck & Co., Motor Buggy Catalogue features a
car for women.
• In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) published his lecture, “The
Principles of Scientific Management”
• In 1913, Henry Ford (1863-1947) introduces the conveyor belt manufacturing
system at his Detroit car plant and ushers in Fordism.
• In 1913, in the USA, the zipper is patented.
• In 1914, in the USA, Mary Phelps Jacob patents the Bra.
• Between 1915-17, Frank B. Gilbreth (1868-1924) and Lillian M. Gilbreth
(1911-1917 “Motion Studies”).
• In 1920, Christine Frederick (1883-1970) publishes, Scientific Management in
the Home: Household Engineering.
• In 1922, in the UK, BBC Radio commences broadcasting.

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) c.
1907. Photographer unknown.
Taylorism
The three fundamental principles of Taylorism are:
1) Dissociation of the labour process from the skill of workers
2) Separation of conception from execution
The Principles and Methods of Scientific Management (NY, 1911)
“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be
first”(p.7)
“The principal object of management should be to secure the
maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum
prosperity for each employee.” (p.9)
“One of the important objects of this paper is to convince its readers
that every single act of every workman can be reduced to a
science” (p.64)
“It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced
adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and
enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the
duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this
cooperation rests with management alone” (p.83)
3) Use of this monopoly over knowledge to control each step of the labour process and its mode of execution.

Henry Ford – Ford Motor Co.,
Highland Park 1913. 'Assembling
the flywheel magneto'
FORDISM
YEAR PRICE PRODUCTION
1909-10 $950 18,664 cars
1912-13 $600 168,220 cars
1916-17 $360 785,432 cars
1920-21 $440 to $355 1,250,000 cars
“Henry Ford (1863-1947): American Automobile manufacturer and
innovator. By developing the assembly line for building cars, he
pioneered mass production, achieving levels of output unheard of in the
days of craftsman built vehicles. At the same time he contributed to the
high-wage, high-consumption society. By aggressive marketing
(increasing volume and decreasing unit cost brought significant price
reductions) he provided motoring for millions. Over 15 million model-T
Fords were sold between 1908 and 1927. But mass production and mass
consumption also led to deskilled workers and changing expectations.
The Ford Motor Company was formed in 1903. Although Ford had no
formal title on the company, he dominated its management. Henry's
grandson, Henry Ford II, is still at the head of the Ford Company.” (The
Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thinkers. Eds. Alan Bullock & R.B.
Woodings. 1992. 233-234)
Ford Model T 1913 Runabout,
Anonymous photographer, USA, c.2010

Time and Motion Studies after 1917-18: The Post WW1 impact of the Efficiency Movement
FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH – MOTION STUDIES
Frank B. Gilbreth (1868-1924) Untitled
(Motion study-sorting buttons) 1917.
FROM ‘APPLIED MOTION STUDY’ 1917 – Frank & Lillian
Gilbreth. Published by Sturgis & Walton Co., New York, in
1917. Rpt. The Writings of the Gilbreths. Eds. William R.
Spriegel and Clark E. Myers. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D.
Irwin Inc, 1953
“Motion study consists of dividing work into the most
fundamental elements possible; studying these elements
separately and in relation to one another; and from these
studied elements, when timed, building methods of least
waste.” (p.220)
“The micro-motion method of making motion studies consists of recording motions by means of a motion
picture camera, a clock that will record different times of day in each picture of a motion picture film, a cross-
sectioned background, and other devices for assisting in measuring the relative efficiency and wastefulness of
motions.” (p.221)

Christine Frederick (1883-1970)
Scientific Management in the Home:
Household Engineering, (Preface by:
Frank Gilbreth) 1920.
Christine Frederick’s method:
I kept on studying, visiting plants and factories, and getting in
touch more widely with the movement. Besides studying
myself, I got friends to watch themselves at work and tell me
the results. I began to test equipment and household apparatus
in my own home so that I could tell other women what I found
out. I remodelled my own kitchen and then the kitchens of
friends. Before I knew it, I became a “household engineer,” and
was called in as “competent counsel” by other homemakers!
I was so enthusiastic over the results of my experiments that I
wrote four articles called “The New Housekeeping” which
appeared in The Ladies’ Home Journal of 1912. The interest was
so great that I later brought out the same material in book form.
(p.15-16)

Villa Jeanneret-Perret, La Chaux-de-Fonds. Amédée
Ozenfant, Albert Jeanneret et Charles-Édouard
Jeanneret dans l'atelier, c.1918 – (Left. to right)
Amédée Ozenfant, Albert Jeanneret and Charles-
Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) collaborated at the
magazine L’Esprit Nouveau launched by, Paul Dermée
and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. (Accessed 07 August
2011 @ www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/)
L'Esprit Nouveau, founded in 1919 by Le Corbusier, Ozenfant, and the poet Paul
Dermee, and published until 1925.
Cover, L’Esprit Nouveau, No.
24, June 1924, accessed 07
August 2011 @
www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/
L’Esprit Nouveau, No. 24,
June 1924, ‘The Modern
Office’
PURISM
‘everything that matters
is to be found in the
card box of the
researcher who wrote
it, and the scholar
studying it assimilates
it into his own card
index.’ (Benjamin
[1921] 1979, p.62)
Cover: L'Esprit Nouveau, No.
1, October, 1920, accessed
07 August 2011 @
www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/
‘Card Index File’ reproduced in L’Esprit
Nouveau, No. 24, June, 1924

Petit bourgeois anachronisms
Chesterfield (18th Century
English – c.1773: Earl of
Chesterfield) style button leather
arm chair.
Chesterfield style lounge setting
Le Corbusier (LC2 – 1929
modernist). The style of chair placed
in his office by Prime Minister Paul
Keating and replaced by John Howard
who preferred Chesterfield (both
anachronistic?)
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris
1887-1965) Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, 1929-30
(a house is a "machine a habiter," a machine for living,
1923).
Modernism for modernity
Le Corbusier et Joséphine Baker à
bord du Lutétia [sailing from Rio de
Janeiro to Bordeaux], 1929, © FLC/ADAGP,
accessed 07 August 2011 @

Early 20th Century Modernity in Graphic Design as Reductive Semiological Tautology
GERMANY
Photograph of Lucian
Bernhard (1883-1972)
Sachplakat
(“object-poster”)
Lucian Bernhard. Poster for Preister
Matches. 1905.
Tautology: the saying of the same thing twice in different words,
generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g., they arrived one after
the other in succession). (Oxford Dictionary. Mac OSX 2006)
Pierce’s Symbol and Icon
Saussure’s Signifier and Signified
Barthes’ denoted linguistic sign (anchorage) –
and non-coded iconic sign
Lucian Bernhard. BOSCH 1914. Lithograph, Automotive
Spark Plug Advertisement for a German Lighting
Company (The Modern Poster p.91)
• Pierce, Charles S (1895-1902), “Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs” in Innis R.E (ed) 1985, Semiotics: An Introductory
Anthology, Indiana UP, Bloomington, pp.4-23.
• Saussure, Ferdinand de (1913), “From Course in General Linguistics Part One: Chapter I, Chapter IV & Chapter V” rpt. in Adams H
(ed) 1992, Critical Theory Since Plato, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, pp.717-726
• Barthes, Roland (1957), “Myth Today” in Mythologies, Hill & Wang, New York, rpt. 1987, pp.109-158 (Please read the whole essay or at
least pp.109-117)
• Barthes, Roland (1964), “Rhetoric of the Image” in Image Music Text, Fontana Press, London, rpt. 1977, pp.32-51

Luchian Bernhard (1883-1972),
Bosch-Licht, 1913, Colour
Lithograph, 92.1 x 67 cm.
Sachplakat (“object-poster”) – German graphic design
Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1949), Marque
PKZ, (Poster for men’s clothier), 1908,
Colour Lithograph, 127 x 96.5cm.
MOMA, NY.
Hans Rudi Erdt (1883-1918) Opel, 1911,
Poster, Deutsches Historisches Museum,
Berlin.
Sachplakat design implied modernity and
pointed toward future trends in advertising
with the use of:
• Radical simplification
• Blunt messages (Eskilson 2007, p.110)

Photograph of Peter Behrens
(German, 1868-1940)
Peter Behrens (1868-1940)
Logo for AEG (Allgemeine
Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft).
1907. Collection of Philip
B. Meggs.
Peter Behrens. (1868-1940).
Behrens-Antiqua font set c.1909
Peter Behrens. (1868-1940). Electric Kettle.
1909. Nickel-plated brass and rattan, 22.9
x 22.2 x 15.9 cm. Manufactured by
Allegemeine Elektricitæts-Gesellschaft
(AEG), Germany. Gift of Manfred Ludewig.
MOMA

Peter Behrens (1868-1940). 1912 Brochure
advertising nickel-plated and brass-plated
AEG Kettles, first designed in 1909.
Deutsche Werkbund 1907
Peter Behrens (1868-1940).
Advertisement for AEG
(Allgemeine Elektrizitats
Gesellschaft) of Berlin light
bulbs, 1908. Poster. (rpt. Aynsley,
p.17)
Peter Behrens (1868-1940).
Withrawn Deutsche Werkbund
Exhibition poster 1914.
"The Deutsche Werkbund's
exhbition in Cologne in 1914 was an
important climax to the
organization's initiatives to display
the outstanding aesthetic qualities
of German industrial goods. On the
eve of World War I, however,
Behren's design was considered too
aggressive and withdrawn, to be
replaced by a more moderate design
by Fritz Ehmcke." (Aynsley, p.17)

Adolf Meyer (1818-1929)
Architect.
Deutsche Werkbund 1907 to bauhaus
Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Adolf Meyer
(1818-1929). Fagus Factory, Alfeld an der
Leine. 1911.
Photograph (Atelier Schneider):
Portrait of Walter Gropius. 1920.
(Rpt. Droste 23)

1919 – BAUHAUS CORE SLOGAN: 'COMMUNITY-HANDICRAFT-ARCHITECTURE'
Director: Walter Gropius.
Walter Gropius (1883-1969). Bauhaus Manifesto. 1919. With a woodcut by the artist Lyonel Feininger (rpt. Droste 1990, p.18)
• Merging of Art and Craft (including architects, painters and sculptors).
• To form a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that will desire, conceive and create the new
structure of the future – which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the
crystal symbol of a new faith
• Organised around: Masters, journeymen and apprentices, with teaching arising from the character of the
workshop

Theo van Doesburg and the influence of De Stijl on the Bauhaus
1922 – BAUHAUS CORE SLOGAN: 'ART AND TECHNOLOGY - A NEW UNITY'
Director: Walter Gropius.
Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). The Bauhaus
conquered by De Stijl – Theo van Doesburg sent
this postcard of Weimar Bauhuas to Antony Kok
on 12 September 1921. BAUHAUS. (rpt. Droste
1990, p.56)
Theo van Doesburg
(1883-1931).
Composition (The
Cow). c.1917. Oil on
canvas. 38 x 64 cm.
MOMA. New York.
Theo van Doesburg
(1883-1931).
Photograph by Lucia
Moholy, 1924 (rpt.
Droste 1990, p.57)
"The aim of the formative artist is simply this: to give form to his aesthetic
experience of reality or, one might also say, his creative experience of the
fundamental essence of things. ... The only way in which visual art can be
developed and deployed is by revaluing and purifying the formative
means. Arms, legs, trees, and landscape are not unequivocally painterly
means. Painterly means are: colours, forms, lines, and planes. (Theo van
Doesburg (1883-1931). "from Principles of Neo-Plastic Arte 1917-25" in
Art in Theory, p.280)
Bauhaus Seals:
• Left: The First Seal for the Staatliche Bauhaus,
Weimar.1919. Design by Karl Peter Rohl.
• Right: Seal for the Staatliche Bauhaus,
Weimar.1923: Design by Oscar Schlemmer.

1927 bauhaus CORE SLOGAN: 'FUNCTIONAL-COLLECTIVIST-CONSTRUCTIVE'
Director: Hannes Meyer (1889-1954)
Marcel Breuer (1901-1981) Nest of Tables B9. 1925-26.
BAUHAUS.
Hannes Meyer on the workshops:
• 'Greatest possible cost-efficiency'
• 'Self-administration of each cell'
• 'Productive teaching principles'
• Calls for Bauhaus models which suit the 'needs of the
people – the proletariat'
• 'Popular necessities before elitist luxuries'
• 'Standard production' not the personalities or natures.
• Created a Workshop to address the subject of 'Advertising'
Hannes Meyer and two students at Bauhaus. c.1928.
BAUHAUS.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
(1876-1944) in Straw Hat
and Gloves. c.1909, B&W
14.5 x 10.5cm, Yale
University Archives,
Beinecke Library
Italian Futurism & the Russian Avant Garde
Futurist in Paris in 1912. Left to Right,
Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, F.T. Marinetti,
Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.
On the 20th of February 1909, Poet Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) announced
the new tendency 'FUTURISM' in “The
Foundation and Manifesto of
Futurism” (1908), published concurrently, in
France and Italy, in Le Figaro Paris and the
literary magazine POESIA Milano, Editor F.T.
Marinetti. (“The Foundation and Manifesto of
Futurism” 1908, originally published in Le
Figaro Paris, 20 February 1909, rpt. Art in
Theory 1992, pp.145-149)
• Later in 1909, Marinetti’s manifesto was also published in Russia.
• Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) "Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto" 11 April 1910. Originally published in a pamphlet in Milano, 11
April 1910 (rpt. Chipp p.284; pp.289-293)
• In his manifestos, Marinetti insisted that artists turn their backs on the art of the PAST and REJECT CONVENTIONAL STUDIO PROCEDURES,
in favour of NEW Concerns with the VITAL, NOISY life of the industrial city and the modern machine, such as automobiles and aircraft.
• The TOTAL EXPERIENCE OF MODERNITY promoted by Futurism was, as ideology if nothing else, VITAL, MOVING AND FRACTURED INTO
INTERCHANGEABLE COMPONENTS.
IN RUSSIA
• By 1912 the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky is referring to himself as a Russian Futurist and after the 1917 communist revolution he will
refer to himself as a ComFut (Communist-Futurist) poet.
• In December 1913, the poets Aleksei Khruchenykh, Vladimir Khlebnikov and the painter Kasmir Malevich issue a manifesto as well
as write and produce an chaotic futurist opera about an aviator entitled Victory over the Sun.
• In 1914, Marinetti visits Russia for the first time.

MARX, LENIN, THE OCTOBER 1917 REVOLUTION, TAYLORISM AND THE SOVIET AVANT-GARDE
Lenin in 1918 on the Immediate Tasks of the Soviet government and Taylorism:
“The Soviet Republic must at all costs adopt all that is valuable in the achievements of science and technology in the field. The
possibility of building Socialism is conditioned precisely upon our success in combining the Soviet power and the Soviet
organization of administration with the up-to-date achievements of capitalism. We must organise in Russia the study and
teaching of the Taylor system and systematically try it out and adapt it to our purposes. At the same time, in working to raise
the productivity of labour, we must take into account the specific features of the transition period from capitalism to Socialism,
which, on the one hand, require that the foundations be laid of the socialist organization of competition, and on the other hand
the use of compulsion, so that the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat shall not be desecrated by the practice of a
jellyfish proletarian government.” (p.471)
Ref: Lenin, V I (Ulyanov) 1918, ‘The immediate tasks of the Soviet Government’ (Pravda No. 83, and Izvestia of the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee No.85, April 28, 1918) Rpt. 1951, Selected Works in Two Volumes. Vol II., Part 1. Trans. Marx-Engels-
Lenin Institute, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, pp.470-471.
Aleksei Gastev (1895-1938), an
experiment in ‘psychotechnics’ in a
laboratory of the Central Institute of
Labour
Vsevolod Meierkhold
(1874-1940), ‘biomechanic’ for
actors – obligatory daily onehour
long exercise –
presented as ‘theatrical
equivalent of industrial timeand-motion
study’ –
Taylorized actor-training
(Braun 1998, pp.174-176)

Dziga Vertov in early 1921
Dziga Vertov (1896-1954)
Born Denis Arkadievitch Kauffman in Byalistok, Poland. Educated at the Music
Academy Byalistok, Poland 1912-15. Attended medical school in St.Petersburg/
Petrograd, 1916-17.
• 1916 becomes involved with Futurists and other avant-garde groups.
• 1917 adopts pseudonym "Dziga Vertov" (Spinning Top), becomes editor and
writer for newsreel section of Moscow Cinema Committee.
• 1919 Kinoks-Revolution Manifesto (published in LEF c. 1922-23): takes a
position against fiction films and for reportage-type films.
• 1921 organises film activities on agit-steamboats and agit-trains.
• 1922 begins developing theory of "Kino-Glaz".
• 1922-25 works on Kino-pravda and Goskinokalender newsreel series.
• 1924 Elizoveta Svilova (wife) begins collaboration with Vertov.
“…I am the Cine-Eye. I am the mechanical eye. I the machine show you the
world as only I can see it.” Dziga Vertov 1923.
Ref: D. Vertov. 'Kinoki. Perevorot', Lef, No. 3. June/July, 1923: 135-43. Rpt. as “Dziga Vertov: The Cine-Eyes. A
Revolution” Document 31, in Taylor, R and Christie, I (ed. & trans) 1994, The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in
Documents 1896-1939, Routledge, London, pp.89-94.

Vertov’s Kino-Eye Group
Members of the Cine-Eye group c.1923. From left to
right: Elizaveta Svilova, Ilya Kopalin, Boris Kudinov,
P. Zotov, I. Bushkin and Mikhail Kaufman, Vertov’s
brother.
Alexander Rodchenko Film Eye (Cine-Eye or
Kino-Eye) Poster for six films by the Dziga
Vertov group. 1924. Lithograph. 92.7 x 69.9
cm. Study Collection - Museum of Modern
Art, New York.

Vertov's manifesto, 'We', extolled the American film for its example of 'ostentatious dynamism', 'rapid shot
changes and close-ups' (69), and he also launched into his celebrated theme on the need to become a machine.
His pronouncement is worth quoting at length:
In the face of the machine we are ashamed of man's (sic) inability to control himself, but what are we to do
if we find the unerring ways of electricity more exciting than the disorderly haste of active people and the
demoralising inertia of the passive.
For us the joy of dancing saws in a sawmill is more familiar and easier to understand than the joy of
human beings.
WE exclude for the time being man as an object of filming because of his inability to control his own
movements.
Our path – from a bumbling citizen through the poetry of the machine to the perfect electric man.
By revealing the souls of machines, by making the worker love his lathe, the peasant his tractor, the
driver his engine –
We bring creative joy to all mechanical labour,
We bring men closer to machines,
We train the new men.
The new man, liberated from unwieldiness and awkwardness, with the precise, light movements of the
machine, will be the grateful object of the filming
(Vertov, Dziga. "My Variant Manifesta" in Kino-Fot. No. 1. 25-31 August 1922. 11-12. rpt. as "Dziga Vertov: We. A
Version of a Manifesto" Document 21 in Taylor R and Christie I (ed. & Trans.) 1994, The Film Factory: Russian
and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939, Routledge, London, pp.69-71).

Vladimir & Georgii Stenberg The Man with the
Movie Camera 1929. Offset lithograph. 100.5
x 69.2cm. MOMA. NY
Vladimir & Georgii Stenberg The Man with the
Movie Camera 1929. Offset lithograph. 104.5 x
66.4cm. Batsu Art Gallery. Tokyo

The Man with the Movie Camera. 1929. Dir. Dziga Vertov. Silent. B&W.
67 min. Grab: 1min 37sec “Cinema camera = Kino Eye & Kino
Machine. Kino Machine + Film Editor = Assemblage”

TYPOGRAPHER AND ART DIRECTOR AS EFFICIENCY ENGINEER/CONSTRUCTOR
Modernist special editions (avant-garde self promotion material), posters and other print based publicity:
• Reductionist – clarity
• Functionalist – readability (or at the very least legible rather than cluttered)
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) Merz Werbezentrale.
Envelope. 1924. Hannover, Germany. . Letterpress
(Lupton & Cohen p.54)
“This envelope for Schwitter’s advertising agency uses a
framework of heavy rules inspired by Constructivism. The
word “Drucksache” (stationary) is set in a delicate script
that contrasts with the rest of the design.
The text that edges the thick red rule announces the firm’s
services: modern posters, pictorial publicity, typo-logos,
logos, packages, catalogues, prices lists, advertisements,
lighted signs, texts. E.C.K” (Lupton and Cohen p.54)
In 1927, Kurt Schwitters with Jan Tschichold and others formed the Ring neue Werbegestaler (Circle of the
New Advertising Typographer).

1927: Ring neuer
Werbegestalter (Circle of New
Advertising Designers)
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). Title page of
Merz, No. 11, 1924. Letterpress. June and
Robert Leibowits Collection, New York. (rpt.
Andel 2002, p.203)
Gefesselter Blick [The Captured Glance],
edited by Heinz and Bodo Rasch in 1931,
promoted the ideas of the Ring by
presenting 25 short monographs on
designers, accompanied by examples of
their work. The cover shows a photocollage
by Will Baumeister and a photogram by El
Lissitzky. (rpt. Aynsley 2001, p.71)
Graphic Designers listed on the
cover of Gefesselter Blick are:
• Otto Baumberger
• Willi Baumeister
• Bill
• Max Burchartz
• Johannes Canis
• Cyliax
• Walter Dexel
• Cesar Domeia
• Herman Elias
• Werner Gräff
• John Heartfield
• Franz Krauss
• Geschwister Leistikow
• El Lissitzky
• Robert Michel
• Moholy-Nagy
• Brüder Rasch
• Hans Richter
• Paul Schuitema
• Kurt Schwitters
• Mart Stam
• Karel Teige
• G. Trump
• Jan Tschichold
• Vordemberge-Gildewart
• Piet Zwart

In Germany, beyond the bauhaus: independent graphic design initiatives.
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974)
Head of design, Penguin Books,
1946-1949
Typographiche Mitteilungen,
1915
Contributors listed on the cover of the Typographische Mitteilungen are:
• Natan Altman • Otto Baumberger • Herbert Bayer • Max Burchartz
• El Lissitzky • Ladislaus Moholy-Nagy • Molnár F. Farkas
• Johannes Molzahn • Kurt Schwitters • Mart Stam • Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974). Cover of
Typographische Mitteilungen;
Sonderheft; Elementare Typogrphie
[Typographical Newsletter; Special
Issue; Elementary Typography], 1925.

Jan Tschichold (1902-1974). Title page and frontpiece of Die Neue
Typographie [The New Typography], 1928.
In Tschichold’s definition of New Typography the organising elements have in common:
• Asymmetrical layout
• Preference for recently foundered san serif fonts
• Incorporation of photography, photomontage and/or photograms
• Elimination of non-essential or illustrative decorative elements
• Reduction of colour and form
• Use of standard DIN sizes and weights of paper: such as A5; A4; A3, etc.
Tschichold commences his text by
emphatically stating that the New Typography
must embrace modernity and introduce into its
procedure and outcomes:
• The laws of machine production
• Primary shapes –geometric forms
• Economy, Precision and function
• Construction – the typographer and graphic
designer as engineer (not artist)

Beatrice L. Warde (1900-1969)
Portrait of Beatrice L. Warde, by
Bernard Brussel-Smith. 1950.
Wood engraving on Basingwerk
Parchment.
Beatrice Warde being
introduced before giving a
lecture in the Heritage of the
Graphic Arts lecture series at
Gallery 303. New York. 1967.
‘Talking, broadcasting, writing, and printing are all quite literally forms of thought transference, and it is this
ability and eagerness to transfer and receive the contents of the mind that is almost alone responsible for
human civilisation.
[...]
Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the
transmission of words, ideas.’ (Warde 1932 rpt. Swanson 2000, p.92)

Penguin cover, 1935.
“...the mental eye focuses through type and
not upon it. The type which, through any
arbitrary warping of design or excess of
‘colour,’ gets in the way of the mental pictures
to be conveyed, is bad type.” (Warde 1932 rpt.
Swanson 2000, p.94)
A mixture of fonts appear on the cover, but in the form of a grid
structured banner or poster in a reductivist layout.
The font used for the text of the book would invariably be a serif
font, such as Times or Times New Roman.

R.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) . Photograph of the
1923 New York Production
TAYLORISM
Modernity = Taylorism + Fordism = Dystopia
Fredrick Winston Taylor (1856-1915).The Principles and Methods of Scientific Management. 1911
The three fundamental principles of Taylorism are:
1) Dissociation of the labour process from the skill of workers
2) Separation of conception from execution
3) Use of this monopoly over knowledge to control each step of the labour process and its mode of execution.
Karel Capek
(1890-1938)
“Robot, a word coined from the Czech 'robota' (meaning drudgery). A play by the Czech novelist Karel Capek
(1890-1938) entitled R.U.R. (1920), which stands for 'Rossum's Univeral Robots', was first performed in
England in 1923, and the concept of the mechanical robot has opened up a whole new vein of Science Fiction
as well as adding a word to the English language.” (Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature, Drabble
M and Stringer J (eds) 1996, Oxford UP, Oxford, p.497)
“dystopia |disˈtōpēә|
noun
an imagined place or state in which
everything is unpleasant or bad,
typically a totalitarian or
environmentally degraded one. The
opposite of Utopia.” (Oxford
Dictionary, Mac OSX 2009)

Metropolis Dir: Fritz Lang (1890–1976)
(1925-1926: released 1927) Film poster.
METROPOLIS 1927 Dir. Fritz Lang. Writ. Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou
Paul M. Jensen’s synopsis of the film:
Film Still: Metropolis (1926).
Showing: Jon Fredersen
(Industrialist/Capitalist),
Rotwang (Mad Scientist) and
Robot (Evil Cyborg) Maria
In the year 2000, Freder, the son of the Master of Metropolis, rebels against the
way his half of the city—the idle "aristocracy"—has dehumanized the labourers.
Limited to lives of hard and lengthy work, the latter live underground, below the
halls where the machines are located. Potential rebellion has been prevented by
Maria, who urges her companions to await the arrival of a mediator who will
unite the city. Freder is that saviour, but he is hindered by his father, who orders
a robot that exactly duplicates Maria to spread dissatisfaction among the
workers. The plan succeeds and a mob smashes the machines, thus causing
their own homes to be flooded. Thinking that they have drowned their children,
the workers attack the robot and burn "her". Meanwhile, Freder and the real
Maria have rescued the children. Suddenly Rotwang, a scientist who built the
robot, chases the girl on to the cathedral roof. Freder follows, and in the ensuing
struggle Rotwang loses his balance and falls to his death. Seeing his son's
danger, Joh Fredersen relents and agrees to shake hands with a representative
of the workers. (p.6)

“Metropolis - vertical city” Metropolis 1927. Black & White. Silent. Dir: Fritz
Lang. Writ: Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou. Novel: Thea von Harbou. Perf:
Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Grab
Length: 1min 05 sec.
"The imagery of the tower of Babel (the machine centre of Metropolis is actually called the
New Tower of Babel) relates technology to myth and legend. The biblical myth is used to
construct the ideological message about the division of labour into the hands that build and
the brains that plan and conceive, a division of which, as the film suggests, must be
overcome" (p.200)

Siegfried Kracauer
(1889-1966)
MASS
ORNAMENT
“The underlying meaning of an epoch and its
less obvious pulsations illuminate one
another reciprocally.” (p.462)
“The structure of the mass ornament reflects
that of the general contemporary
situation.” (p.464)
Laurence Tiller Troupe, from Folies Bergère at London Palladium, 1925.
Mander and Mitchenson Collection, Beckenham. Photograph by Eddie
Richardson
FEMALE BODY AND TAYLORISM BECOMES MACHINE LIKE
“The production process runs its course publicly in secret. Everyone goes through the necessary motions at the conveyor belt,
performs a partial function without knowing the entirety. Similar to the pattern in the stadium, the organization hovers above the
masses as a monstrous figure whose originator withdraws it from the eyes of its bearers, and who himself hardly reflects upon it. –
It is conceived according to rational principles which the Taylor system only takes to its final conclusion. The hands in the factory
correspond to the legs of the Tiller Girls. Psycho-technical aptitude tests seek to compute emotional dispositions above and
beyond manual abilities. The mass ornament is the aesthetic reflex of the rationality aspired to by the prevailing economic
system.” (464)
“No matter how low one rates the value of the mass ornament, its level of reality is still above that of artistic productions which
cultivate obsolete noble sentiments in withered forms – even when they have no further significance.” (465)
Kracauer S, "The Mass Ornament" Frankfurter Zeitung, 9-10 June 1927, rpt. Harrison C & Wood P (eds) 1992, Art in Theory. 1900-1990: An Anthology of
Changing Ideas, Blackwell, Oxford, UK:, pp.462-465.

Female golfing: ready-to-wear
sports clothes. c.1910 (Mendes
& de la Haye 1999, p.30)
CLOTHING MODERNITY
FASHION & MODERNITY
USA-Female cyclists, popular
pastime requiring
appropriate modifications to
fashion. 1902. (Mendes & de
la Haye. 20th C Fashion 1999,
p.28)
French poster by de Passe for Ford
Automobiles, c.1905. Musée des Arts
Décoratifs (Gallo, p.173)
‘The new craze for motoring called for
protective clothing suitable for travel in
open cars, though in April 1905 the
Duchess of Sutherland (President of
the Ladies Automobile Club, London)
dispensed with the usual gauntlet
gloves, veils and goggles. She guarded
her hair with a large, flat-crowned hat
(its streamers firmly tied under the
chin) and wore a roomy dustcoat over
her daytime ensemble.’ (Mendes & de la
Haye 1999, p.31)

NEW EFFICIENCY IN DRESS AND WORK – WORLD WAR I (1914-1918) AND ITS LEGACY
Casualties of World War One (1914-1918)
• United Kingdom: 745,000 dead and approximately
160,000 men wounded or gassed.
• Australia: approximately 60,000 dead (Total population
about 5 million in 1918).
Jonas Lucien (1880-1947), Emprunt
de la Liberation – Souscrivez
[Liberation Loan – Subscribe],
1918, Lithograph, 119.4cm x
78.7cm, for Crédit Industriel et
Commercial, Paris, France.
(Imperial War Museum, UK)
Manufacturing and filling
shells. U.K. munitions
Factory. c.1915.
Women's Royal Air Force Motorcycle Dispatch Rider. c.
1917. Imperial war Museum, London. (Mendes & de la
Haye 54)
1916 (1914-1918 World War) German dead
lie round a machine gun post at
Guillemont.

Ernst Deutsch. Detail of a poster for:
Mercedes Typewriters. c.1911. Stuttgart,
Staatsgalerie. (Gallo, p.159)
NEW EFFICIENCY IN DRESS AND WORK
The First Bra: The original patent
granted to Mary Phelps Jacob in 1914.
(O'Hara, p.50)

Beginnings of the ‘flapper’
Cover of the popular French
novel: La Garçonne 1922, by
Victor Margueritte. (Mendes & de
la Haye p.59)
Fashionable young garçonne
wearing an afternoon dress in
pale mauve crepe-de-chine by
Welly Sœurs. c.1926. (Mendes
& de la Haye p.59).
Cloche
“Woman’s hat worn from c.1915 until the
mid-1930s, achieving greatest popularity
during the 1920s. The cloche is tightfitting,
covering the head from the neck
and worn pulled down low over the
forehead. It can be brimmed or brimless. In
the 1920s cloches were often decorated
with grosgrain ribbon.” (Callan 1998 p66)
The broad appeal of the garçonne
The transition from Romantic to Modern
Style–1924. Left and centre by Jean
Patou, Right (red) by Jacques Doucet.
(Mendes & de la Haye p.56)
Lyrics & Music: Noël Coward Dance
Little Lady, 1928, 2min 48sec

“Louise Brooks was one of the many
actresses to wear Patou’s gowns in the
1920s” (O’Hara Callan 178)
French fashion designer Jean Patou and the flapper
Louise Brooks Bob - “The
Hollywood actress Louise
Brooks, whose vivid beauty,
chic, bobbed hair and
vitality personify the 1920s
goddess” (Mendes & de la
Haye 61)
Jean Patou (1880-1936) French Fashion Designer -
“Jean Patou in 1924, with the six American models
he brought over to Paris to show his new
collection” (O’Hara Callan 179)

Louise Brooks (1906-1985) – the American flapper (garçonne)
Documentary: Looking For Lulu (On the life of Louise Brooks).
Keffner & Turner Production. Color & B/W. Sound. 60 minutes.
Grab: 3min35sec
Shots from early films (c.1926-27) starring Louise Brooks
Shots of flappers doing the charleston (jazz dance).

Josephine Baker. c.1925, Paris. ”In the
1920s Josephine Baker [USA]
captivated the whole of Europe with
her completely new, rather absurd
dancing style to the accompaniment of
jazz music. Dressed only in s costume
of feathers or bananas, she introduced
many of the Charleston-style
movements” (Lehnert p.19)
• Jazz and mass culture (Chinitz 1997, pp.320-321)
• Gendering of jazz and “the relation of both jazz and the feminine to the primitive” (p.321)
Thor Bogelund. Poster for Tivoli
Amusement Park, Copenhagen. 1930.
(Gallo p.225)
“In 1920s criticism, jazz was perceived to be so deeply implicated in avant-garde aesthetics that what we now call modernism
could usefully be termed jazz art.” (p.322)
Josephine Baker C’est lui,
c.1924, 3min 3sec
Paul Colin. Poster for the Revue
Nègre at the Champs-Elysées
Music Hall, 1925. Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale.

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) Advertisement
appeared on 4 September 1935, before the word
'Zipper' was in general use.
Marcello Dudovich (1878-1962) FIAT
BALILLA per tutti – eleganza della Signora.
1934. Colour Lithograph. 30x22 cm. FIAT
Collection. Turin, Italy.

“The Kestos bra, from a 1935 advertisement,
described as a ‘cunning wisp of
loveliness’” (O’Hara Callan, p.44)
“… widely adopted during the 1920s when fashionable
at-home dresses and, later, cocktail dresses were
often made of revealing, semi-transparent fabrics. By
1925, brassieres had adjustable front straps and a
division between the breasts in the Bandeau front.
During the late 1920s the Kestos Company of America
produced a brassiere made of two triangular pieces of
fabric secured to elastic that pulled over the
shoulders, crossed at the back, and buttoned at the
front under a darted "cup." During the late 1920s and
1930s corsetry companies began manufacturing
brassieres which were boned and stitched into
different cup sizes. A boned strapless brassiere
appeared in the late 1930s and it was during this
decade that the word bra came into popular
usage.” (O’Hara Callan, p.43)

READING THE IMAGE
Kanti Schawinsky (1904-1979) Olivetti.
1934. Lithograph. 51 x 34.5cm.
“The graphic artist responsible for the Olivetti poster was Xanti
(Alexander) Schawinsky (1904-1979), born in Switzerland but died
an American. Schawinsky trained at the Dessau Bauhaus in the
late 1920s, producing student works noted for their clarity of
composition in a Surrealist inspired manner (Droste 188). At the
time Schawinsky was completing his training, Adriano Olivetti, in
an effort to modernise the company's systems of production,
toured the United States. Subsequent to this trip, the Olivetti
Company established its advertising section and employed
Schawinsky between 1933 to 1936” (Woodham 1997, p.149)
The poster was the result of Olivetti's advertising initiative
stimulated by the study of American commerce. Paradoxically,
Olivetti's interest in American efficiency, in contrast to Soviet
Americanism, was on behalf of a company operating in a Fascist
country, while the poster was the product of a graphic artist who
graduated from a German design school closed by the Nazis in
the year prior to the poster's publication. In short, the political and
ideological background to the image is informed by the
substantial differences that existed between the USSR, Nazi
Germany, Fascist Italy and the capitalist democracy of the USA.
However, the image carries representations that ride above these
differences, namely the appeal of managerial efficiency,
represented as the type of modern woman.

Bibliography: Technology and Early 20th Century Modernism [MLA FORMAT]
Primary Text –Required Readings (Chronological)
• Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso. “The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909). Trans. R. W. Flint Rpt. Art in Theory 1900-1990: An
Anthology of Changing Ideas. Eds. Charles Harrison & Paul Wood. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. 1992. 145-149.
• Taylor, Frederick Winslow. “The Principles of Scientific Management” (1911) Rpt. F. W. Taylor. Scientific Management, New York:
Harper and Row, 1964. 5-144.
• Lenin, Vladimir Ilich (Ulyanov). “The immediate tasks of the Soviet Government” (Pravda No. 83, and Izvestia of the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee No.85, April 28, 1918) Rpt. Selected Works in Two Volumes. Vol II., Part 1. Trans. Marx-Engels-Lenin
Institute. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951. 470-471.
• Vertov, Dziga. “My Variant Manifesta” Kino-Fot. No. 1, 25-31 August 1922: 11-12. Rpt. as “Dziga Vertov: We. A Version of a Manifesto”
Document 21, in The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939. Ed. & Trans. Richard Taylor and Ian Christie.
London: Routledge, 1994. 69-71.
• Capek, Karel. R.U.R. [ROSSUM'S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS] (1920). Trans. Paul Selver, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page &
Company, 1923. (Fiction/play)
• Kracauer, Siegfried. “The Mass Ornament” (first published in the FrankfurterZeitung, 9-10 June 1927) Rpt. The Mass Ornament –
Weimar Essays, (1926-1933). Ed. & Trans. Thomas Y. Levin. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1995. 75-86.
• Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry
Zohn. London: Fontana, 1992. 211-244
Secondary Texts – Required Readings (By Author)
• Gunning, Tom. “Ch. 2. ‘Now You see It, Now You don't’: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions” The Silent Cinema Reader. Ed.
Lee Grieveson and Peter Krämer. London: Routledge, 2004. 41-50.
• Staller, Natasha. “Melies ‘Fantastic’ Cinema and the Origins of Cubism” Art History. Vol 12. No 2. June 1989: 202-232.
• Wollen, Peter. “Modern Times: Cinema/Americanism/The Robot” Raiding the Icebox. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University
Press, 1993. 35-71
Secondary Texts – Additional Readings (By Author)
• Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity: Utopianism in the circle of new advertising designers” Montage and
Modern Life 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1992. 36-59
• Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. Ed. Michael Minden and Holger Bachmann. New York: Camden
House, 2000.
Cinema
• Metropolis. Dir. Fritz Lang. 120 mins. B/W. Silent. 1926. (Restored DVD edition. Kino. 2002)
• Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. 1927. Dir. Walther Ruttmann. B&W. 62min.
• The Man with a Movie Camera Dir. Dziga Vertov. 67 min. B/W. Silent. (Chelovek S Kino Apparatom) Production: Vufku (Ukraine). 1929.
Background Reading & References
• Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1990.
• Ehrenburg, Ilya. The Life of the Automobile (1929). Trans. Joachim Neugroschell, London: Serpent's Tail, 1999.
• Ford, Henry. My Life and Work: in collaboration with Samuel Crowther (1922), Arnold Place, Sydney: Cornstalk Publishing Company,
1924.
• Gilbreth, Frank B. and Lillian M. Writings of the Gilbreths. Eds. William R. Spriegel and Clark E. Meyers. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D.
Irwin, 1953
• Hughes, Thomas P. American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870-1970, New York: Viking, 1989.
• Kittler, Friedrich A. “Gramophone, Film, Typewriter” Trans. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young & Michael Wutz. Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press, 1999.

END OF
LECTURE