Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending a Staircase 1913

Premise

Our transition to the fourth part of the course is a little abrupt. From the streets and the forests we move to the world of art. Yet, the outlook of Modern art is itself at odds with the tide of industrialism. This art embraces the “newness” possible in the industrial world, yet its strong pose of individualism runs counter to industrial prefabrication and normalization. Can the radical simply pick and choose what parts of a culture he wants to protect and which he will refuse? Can Modern art and its manifestoes speak to a public from which they are increasingly distant? We will look at aesthetic manifestoes such as Pound’s “A Few Don’ts,” aesthetic/political manifestoes like Filippo Tomasso Marinetti's "Founding and Manifesto of Futurism," and the statements of Tristan Tzara and the Dadaists, and we'll inquire into the future that they suggest.

Preliminaries

Your fourth essay will be the most open of the course and to succeed you will need to find a subject that interests you and about which you have enough good things to say. To test the waters of your radical voice you'll prepare a few ideas and pitch them to a small group (me and your peers) in a Pitch Conference.

Essay Specifics

In 4 pages you will present your own manifesto. You will choose your own current issue—a contemporary inequality in need of redress, a recent cultural error that needs to be set straight, a private future. First, pitch your idea to us in a Pitch Conference. Then, with the response of a member of the class along with your experience of both the positive potential and the pitfalls of radicalism, refine your polemic into its full form and create the best version for presentation. On the last day you will present your manifesto to the class.