Research for MA film

 Modernism and Utopian living

Searching for Utopia

'Modernism was not conceived as a style but a loose collection of ideas. It was a term that covered a range of movements in art, architecture, design and literature, which largely rejected the styles that came before it. The methodology flourished in Germany and Holland, as well as in Moscow, Paris, Prague and New York and was prominent in the years between the World Wars.'

My project seeks to show a misrepresented idea of Utopia. As these intentions change our fundamentals of living after world changing events. The pandemic acts as a modern standpoint for this. The Government with their widely known corruption can therefore act as the vehicle for building this utopian/dystopian world.

'At the core of Modernism lay the idea that the world had to be fundamentally rethought. The carnage of the First World War and the Russian Revolution led to widespread utopian fervour, a belief that the human condition could be healed by new approaches to art and design. Focusing on the most basic elements of daily life – housing and furniture, domestic goods and clothes – architects and designers set out to reinvent these forms for a new century.'

The rethought concepts that the Government hatch are suspicion, lack of human contact and Government supremacy: All advertised as necessary in the reshaping of the world through propaganda. However, this will not be going smoothly. The landscape will be overpopulated and mental health will be an issue. People's living will seem regimented. Flats will have almost identical interiors with plain, but utilitarian aesthetic.

EKCO AC 74, radio, designed by Serge Chermayeff, manufactured by E. K. Cole Ltd, 1933, England. Museum no. CIRC.12-1977. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This radio is an example of new household items promoting the Utopian existence. This will be useful as reference and has given me the idea that adverts for homeware products can promote the 'Stay at Home' philosophy.

Design for White City housing scheme, drawing, Eric Mendelsohn, 1934, UK. Museum no. E.677-1993. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

'Many artists and architects were intoxicated by the endless possibilities offered by science and technology. They envisaged a world entirely recreated in terms of the machine: everything from clothing to architecture, music to theatre. The house could be a 'machine for living in' and the task of art was 'not to adorn life but to organise it'.

Example of the kind of regimented existence society was threatened to become for the sake of National growth and prosperity. Instead of artistic expression being creative, people were beginning to operate like machines. The forms of protest I will represent in my film will represent breaking away from this. Creative acts of expression will contrast with orderly backgrounds and settings.

Frankfurt Kitchen (detail), Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, 1926 – 27, Germany. Museum no. W.15:1 to 89-2005. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This image serves as good visual inspiration for the kind of automated homes which were being constructed in the Modernist Age. The claustrophobic, yet utilitarian aesthetic is a good one to adopt in my visual representations.

Citation:

Victoria and Albert Museum. 2021. V&A · What was Modernism?. [online] Available at: <https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/what-was-modernism> [Accessed 8 November 2021].