At the beginning of the 20th century a group of Italian artists and poets, led by F. T. Marinetti collaborated to write the Futurist Manifesto. It was a declaration of Modernist intent, in which the machine would play a part in creating a Utopia for mankind and a celebration of a world in which the old must be replaced by the new. They saw man's role "...at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit."
By invoking the image of the wheel, one of the key human inventions, they used the language of mechanics and engineering to suggest a new destiny for humanity. Of course they had entered an age when idealism was seldom tempered by doubt and almost a hundred years later we must view their optimism through a century where progress was more often towards war than towards a better world. Today we are less inclined to Utopian philosophies.
Excerpt from Urban Utopias by Jay Roche, April 2007
This 34-minute audio cd contains compositions and field recordings based on work from the recent exhibition commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland and Engineers Ireland.
