Ruidos y susurros de las vanguardias - Medialab Prado

3.Enumerate and recognize every evening, in absolute darkness, all of the
objects in the bedroom.
4. It was precisely with giving myself over to this exercise in the underground
darkness of a trench in Gorizia, in 1917, that I made my first tactile experiments.
He also proposes the distinction of tactile values. These values are grouped in two
scales, one flat and the other with volume. The scale of tactile values or
educational scale of touch created by Marinetti, is as follows:
In this cataloguing, there is a significantly increasing evolution of the tactile values
related to form (from plane to volume) and temperature (from cold to hot). The
tactile values that need to mention objects, as well as those that refer to the skin or
hair, appear in the second scale of volumes, which reveals an increase in
complexity of those aspects of tactile perception related to the world of the subject
and the three-dimensional object.
Marinetti supports his argumentation with the conception of tactile boards, tactile
pillows, tactile sofas, tactile beds, tactile shirts and dresses, tactile rooms, tactile
streets and tactile theaters. From these means for the development and
education of perception, they emphasize the tactile boards and the theater, which
we will describe next.
The proposal of tactile boards is diversified and would be synthesized as follows: -
Simple tactile boards are harmonic or antithetic combinations of the catalogued
values that would be presented in conferences on the Art of Touch contactilations,
as he calls them.
- Abstract or suggestive tactile boards, also called hand journeys, have
arrangements of the values that allow hands to wander over them following a
succession of suggestive sensations at a rhythm regulated by exact indications.
- Tactile boards for opposite sexes, involve the existence of a different sensibility
in men and women, and they set out for the joint valuation of sensations. - In the
tactile boards for improvisations "Parolibere" (words in freedom): tactilists
express aloud in parolelibera, improvisation the different tactile sensations
transmitted by their hands. Marinetti's notion of light/darkness in these
experiences of tactile sensations is noteworthy. For the new initiates that they still
do not have trained their tactile sensibility, he proposes to be blindfolded. For
those already with experience it is preferable to be surrounded by the light of a
projector. He bases this preference for light on the excessive introspection of
darkness: "But, as for the true tactilists, the full light of a projector is preferable,
since darkness has the drawback of concentrating sensitivity into an excessive
abstraction."
From all of them we only have evidence of an abstract tactile board created by
Marinetti, entitled Sudan - Paris. It is described by himself in the Manifesto of Il
Tattilismo as follows: (...), contains, in the part representing Sudan, rough, greasy
coarse, prickly, burning tactile values (spongy material, sponge, sandpaper, wool,
brush, wire brush); in the part representing the Sea, there are slippery, metallic,
fresh tactile values (silver-coated paper); in the part representing Paris, there are
soft, delicate, caressing tactile values, hot and cold at the same time (silk, velvet,
feathers, down).
The idea of the Tactilism was already implicit in the proposals of previous
manifestos. They point out to an environmental simultaneity that causes the total
sensorial participation of the spectator: La pittura dei suoni, rumori e odori (Carrá,
- 147 -
1913), Le analogie plastiche del dinamismo (Severini, 1913); Il vestito
antineutrale (Balla, 1914); Ricostruzione futurista dell'Universo (Balla and
Depero, 1915); or later on La flora futurista ed equivalenti plastici di odori artificiali
(Azari, 1924).
The progressive transgression of traditional art genres and the tendency to the
total work of art in the sense of a total annexation and environmental implication is
expressed in the Ricostruzione futurista dell'Universo (Balla and Depero, 1915).
Later on, La flora futurista ed equivalenti plastici di odori artificiali (Azari, 1924),
retakes the topic of the analogies and recommends the resource at all the levels
of sensibility.
We considered that Marinetti's statements in Il Tattilismo: "The Tactilism created
by me is clearly distinct from the plastic arts. It has nothing to do with, nothing to
gain from, and everything to lose by association with painting or sculpture." are a
reaffirmation of the sense of touch. Painting or sculpture, subordinate the tactile
values to visual values, for that reason Marinetti wants to avoid any confusion or
attempt to restrict the term tactilism to one or another artistic discipline. However,
we will see that the specific reference to tactilism is gradual and constant after its
"invention" and the publication of the manifesto.
Tactilism, extended to theater, claiming the polydimensional theater, and the
futurist and tactile theater synthesis. The Manifesto of Futurist Synthetic Theater
(Marinetti, Settimelli, Corra, 1915) already attempts to eliminate the
preconception of proscenium and sends networks of sensations between the
scene and the public. In the Total Theater for the Masses, Marinetti gathers the
ideas by Piscator and Gropius, and outlines a theater space capable to
synthesize all the forms of expression of the futurist scene, from simultaneity to
tactilism, from ruidismo to chromium-light games. The complex device he
proposed had to include several simultaneous scenes in which the spectators
could participate, separated from the circular scene of the center by an a great
tactile and smell tape.
Tactilism, as Marinetti conceived it, affected multiple spheres, and what has been
described regarding theater, was expanded to poetry and cooking. Benedetta,
futurist artist and Marinetti's wife, made graphical and tactile poems. Marinetti and
Fillià in 1932, published La cucina futurista. This includes a tactile Menu, formula
of the futurist aeropainter Fillià . Introducing the sense of touch even in food,
reflects -something typical of the Avant-garde movements - how the intentions to
transform what is established are to be extended beyond the artistic scope, to the
rupture of the everyday conventions. In this menu, it should be pointed out two
aspects that identify the idea of maximum sensibilization to the tactile sensations
that Marinetti proposed with Il Tatilismo. The first aspect refers to darkness. The
manifesto had described that for the first attempts of education of the sense of
touch it was preferable to cover your eyes, however, for the experienced tactilist it
is preferable the total light of a projector, since darkness produces the
disadvantage of concentrating too much sensitivity on an excessive abstraction.
There are two situations of light and darkness in this menu for beginners. The
same number of covered tactile pajamas will have been prepared for the banquet
- made of different materials: sponges, corks, shavings, silks, etc. - as guests.
Each guest, wearing pajamas, is introduced in a dark room, where they choose -
guided by their touch instinct - another person to have dinner with. Next, all of
them are taken to the dining room, with light, and they can be astonished when