Group
work: Digapeng Mothibe, Vanlida Dias, Eunice Ushe, Paulo Mbunga
Manifesto
Definition
According
to Merriam-Webster online dictionary a manifesto is a written public
declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an
individual, group, political party or government. It often is political in
nature, but may present an individual's life stance. Manifestos relating to
religious belief are generally referred to as creeds.
The
Futurist Manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was
published in the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dell'Emilia in Bologna on 5
February 1909. It started an artistic philosophy, Futurism, which was a
rejection of the past, and a celebration of speed, machinery, violence, youth
and industry; it was also an encouraging of the modernisation and cultural
innovation of Italy. The
Italians were among the first to identify and place their own claims upon these
new ways of perceiving and acting. Marinetti took a group of Italian painters
to Paris to show them how they should be painting and particularly expose them
to Cubism.
Marinetti
highlights a very interesting point about human nature which is the need for
struggle. In literature, all stories require struggle, some kind of conflict for
it to be interesting, whether the struggle is internal or external. Revolutions
bring about change but are often violent. In that respect he is right; however
this view is on the extremist side. He doesn’t simply state violence as a
necessary evil. In this manifesto, it seems as if he views it as purely the
greater good. Marinetti’s utopia basically wants the public to embrace new
ideas, technologies, art and progressive ways of thinking.http://www.wendtroot.com/spoetry/folder6/ng63.html
De
Stijl, Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a
Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl
is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands.
Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual
harmony and order. The architecture of the De Stijl artists was made up of
geometric shapes including sphere shaped windows and triangular chairs. Both
their art and architecture was considered very radical and even to nowadays
standard would seem radical. However the architecture that they produced was
incredibly successful. Colour wise, the De Stijl artists used primary and bold
colours which creates a very striking look and style.
During
the Immature period the artists displayed mainly paintings and sculpture. They
formed together to create the De Stijl magazine
De
Stijl supported pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the
essentials of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to the
vertical and horizontal directions, and used only primary colors along with
black and white.http://www.allbuyart.com/art-movement-Destijl.asp (de stilj)
Two
Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929.
The first was written by André Breton, the second was supervised by him. The
promoters of the surrealist movement, in their desire to appeal to the
unconscious and to set surrealism along the path of greatest freedom, have
already begun to organize a Bureau to unite all those who are interested in
expression where thought is freed from any intellectual worries; all those who
are closely or remotely concerned with surrealism will find all the information
and documentation relative to the surrealist movement.http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/174115.html(surrealist)
The
utopian version of surrealism proposes a gathering of the greatest possible
number of experimental elements, for a purpose that cannot yet be perceived.
All those who have the means to contribute, in any fashion, to the creation of
genuine surrealist documents, are urgently requested to come forward: let them
shed light on the genesis of an invention, or propose a new system of psychic
investigation.
The
contemporary game we chose for this assignment is Assassin’s Creed series.
Assassin’s Creed is game about assassins versus the Templars fighting for
ancient artifacts and control of the people. Assassins trying to free them and
the Templars trying to control them, the story follows Desmond and a machine
called the Animus. Through this machine accessing his DNA, Desmond can live the
memories and activities of his ancestors. Through this machine and struggle
between the two sides they fight to find the ancient artifacts and the truths
of ancient times.
The
two sides different opinions and perspectives of utopia. Assassins are trying
to free the people and prevent a cataclysmic event before the end of 2012,
while the Templars are trying to control them and keep them in their illusion.
The attitude this game shows is that if you have tyrants trying to control
everything you can overcome them with unity. It deals with issues such as
brotherhood, responsibility, leadership, conspiracy and commitment to a higher
cause. As the assassins say “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” which
they are willing to do whatever it takes to free themselves physically, socially,
politically and mentally, for the greater good.
Technology
has affected and helped us in many ways, it affects most people nowadays.
Technology has made people interact with each a lot easier and quicker,
everything is almost instant now from emails, texts, websites, podcasts,
cellphone and television. Everyone is basically interconnected with each other.
It affects most things in life; urbanisation keeps moving people to more social
and most popular places like malls and wi-fi zones. People do not believe in
religion as much as in old times as it isn’t as relatable to today’s problems.
Since people can are very visual and the internet provides literally millions
of pictures and videos which has made want to share those moments and imitate
the people and things we like, especially celebrities.
H.
G. Wells’ proposal for social reform was the formation of a world state. One of
his earliest and most ambitious attempts at portraying a world state was A
Modern Utopia, in 1905. In this book two travelers fall into a space-warp and
suddenly find themselves upon a Utopian Earth controlled by a single World
Government. Wells' idea of a perfect world would be if everyone were able to
live a happy life. This book is written with an intimate knowledge of former
ideal commonwealths and is a conscious attempt to describe a utopia that is not
utopian.
For
thousands of years philosophers and thinkers have dreamed of utopian societies
in which people can live in perfect harmony and peace with one another. As mankind has progressed through the millennia,
from ancient times through medieval times, the renaissance, and the industrial
revolution and up to the present day, civilization has been evolving. As people live their lives for their brief
moment in history, the general desire is leave things better then they
started. Better off implies some
direction from bad to good, correcting the flaws that exist, until none
remain. The end result would be perfect
society, a utopia. This is contemporary utopia.
http://rabareview.com/2011/04/18/utopian-societies-identifying-the-problems-of-today
Manifesto
·
Time
waits for no one so we must use it wisely
·
Never
forget the past as it will lead us to a future
·
Don't
waste your time on jealousy
·
Enjoy
the power and beauty of your youth; it’ll be gone before you know it.
·
Your
body is the greatest instrument you’ll ever own
·
Understand
that friends come and go, but hold on to a precious few.
·
Don’t
rely too much on technology as it is fragile
·
Have
patience with the people you care about
·
Being
stuck in the past will prevent you from building a future
fjFuturist Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti;
hDe Stilj Manifesto;
sSurrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton;
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