Goldberg's "Futurism"

In RoseLee Goldberg’s first chapter, she discusses early performances in Futurism. Goldberg begins the chapter by explaining that these performances by the Futurists were, “…more manifesto than practice, more propaganda than actual production (p. 11).” This claim is thoroughly explored in the chapter and holds some truth. The manifestos, mostly written by Tommaso Marinetti, described in detail the sort of rules and goals Futurist performers should strive to complete. Futurist manifestos called for artists to disrupt the public and despise their audiences (pp. 14 and 16). They also believed that it was unimportant for their viewers to always necessarily understand performances, and to explain the performances would mean indulging “the primitivism of the crowd” (p. 27).

However, Marinetti praised variety theatre in its ability to involve the viewer, liberating the audience from voyeurism (p. 17). There seems to be some contradictions by the Futurists in that they were not necessarily concerned with being easily comprehensible to the audience, yet wanted the involvement of the viewer. This leads me to think that Futurist artists were more concerned with the artist’s role in a performance rather than establishing any sort of relationship with the audience.  This is not to say that a performance’s underlying meaning must always be legible, but I cannot help question the goal of a performance if the viewer’s understanding is not considered. It seems a bit exclusive in that only the artist and non-“primitive” individuals can comprehend a performance. This is interesting to me considering that Marinetti praised the audience for booing performers because it meant they were not blinded by “intellectual intoxication” (p. 16).