Page 27 - Studio International - March 1969

and Van der Rohe (sic), and the experimenter are three great classes of mechanical power Association Lecture Series, London, Febru-
Schlemmer.' Edwin Mullins. Sunday Telegraph, namely, (a) vital muscular power; (b) natural ary-June, 1968.
London, 22.9.1968. There is plenty in the mechanical power of wind, water, electricity; Forty-five professors at M.I.T. have an-
writings of the Bauhaus masters (Claude and (c) artificially produced mechanical nounced a one-day 'research stoppage' for
Schnaidt's book on Meyer, London, 1965, for power.'" Note that Ruskin supports electricity March 4 in protest against government mis-
instance) to jar the carefully-fostered image -the basis of our century-four years before use of science and technology. They will be
of Gropius the benign Bauhaus Vater. the first large-scale use of electric filament joined by professors at Cornell and Yale.
Here is a sample of the Bauhaus polemic on lighting (St Petersburg docks), eleven years
mechanization and Capitalism, from the writ- before the exhibition of the first electric rail-
ings of a prominent pupil of the Bauhaus, who way (Siemens, Berlin), and twenty-two years
attended the metal workshop between 1922 before the manufacture of the first a.c. motors 1 bt. Milan. Vol. 2. No. 3. June, 1968.
and 1925 and thus studied under Itten and (Westinghouse, U:S.A.). Ruskin's advocacy 2 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago
Moholy-Nagy: 'Our industrial products are of 'vital muscular power' will seem less funny Vol. 3. No. 7. July, 1947, includes policy
actually nothing but a waste of labour and in 2068 when the inability of vast numbers to statement.
materials, to preserve a system which acts adjust to universal automation will have 3 M. Brodey and others. 'Art, Technology and
destructively and deterioratingly, just as bad created insoluble problems. Black Power with the Architect'. Architectural and Engineering
films and illustrated papers do.' Wilhelm its rejection of 'White' mechanization is rele- News. Upper Montclair, N.Y. Vol. 10. No. 2.
Wagenfeld, 'Artistic Collaboration in Indu- vant to a reassessment of Ruskin and Morris. February, 1968.
stry', Zurich, 1960. 6. 'Let it be noted that the development of 4 Alfred Chapuis, Edouard Gélis. `Le Monde
2. The revolutionary significance of this science is a control and communication pro- des Automates'. Paris, 1928. 2 vols.
group lies in having established the principle cess for the long-term understanding and con- 5 Barry Commoner. 'Science and Survival'.
where each profession warns society about trol of matter-in this process fifty years are as LondOn, 1966.
those dangers of which it has specialized a day in the life of the individual. For this 6 Fred J. Cook. 'The Warfare State'. London,
knowledge. It is evident that of all artists, reason the individual scientist must work as a 1963.
those engaged with science and technology part of a process whose time scale is so long 7 Douglas M. Davis. 'Art and Technology:
must take a lead in this crucial new form of that he himself can only contemplate a very The New Combine'. Art in America. New
social agitation.2 limited sector of it.' 25 Wiener's statement is in York, January/February, 1968.
3. 'Secret knowledge is the key to any system complete contradiction with the reality, ably 8 Marcel Duchamp. 'The Bride stripped bare
of total control ... Until printing was invented, summarized by Professor Paul Sears, the by her bachelors, even'. London, 1962.
the written word remained largely a class American authority on conservation; 'Part 9 Franz M. Feldhaus. 'Die Technik der
monopoly. Today the language of higher of the blame lies with a society which regards Antike und des Mittelalters'. Potsdam, 1931.
mathematics plus computerism has restored profit as a supreme value, under the illusion 10 WulfHerzogenrath, Ed. '50 years bauhaus'.
both the secrecy and the monopoly, with a that anything that is technically possible is, Catalogue. Royal Academy, London, 1968,
consequent resumption of control.'18 therefore, ethically justified.' Daily Telegraph, 11 p. 36.
Norbert Wiener, who had supported the con- 3.12.1968, p. 22. As a result of solar activity Johannes Itten. 'Design and Form'. Lon-
struction of the two large computers used in leading to the dehydration of earth, our planet don, 1964, p. 11.
the American war effort, had doubts and will become uninhabitable, and it is eminently 12 Herman Kahn and Anthony J. Wiener.
fears when the war ended.24 reasonable to prepare for this period millions `The Year 2000'. London, 1967.
`But, more seriously, the real danger that of years ahead so that humanity might trans- 13 Gyorgy Kepes, Ed. 'Vision and Value'.
cybernetics-the science of controlling informa- fer to other planets; but what are the connec- London, 1966. 6 vols.
tion and communication-may bring about, tions of this long-term plan with the present race 14 Lothar Lang. 'Das Bauhaus 1919-1933'.
and indeed already is, is that it makes more to land men on the moon? (`Mr Nixon would Berlin, 1965, p. 40.
likely and more easy the establishment of a do well to regard the space race as a matter 15 Marshall McLuhan. 'The Mechanical
fascist autocracy; a community wholly con- not only of scientific advancement and Bride'. London, 1967.
trolled by central government... I've always prestige but of sheer survival.' From Leader, 16 Gustav Metzger. 'Machine/Auto-Creative/
thought that this is one of the biggest dangers `Imperialists in Space', Sunday Telegraph, 19 Auto-Destructive Art'. ARK, London, No.
of the subject and it's connected with what January, 1969.) See Sir Bernard Lovell's 32, 1962.
the students are on about in British Uni- article 'The dangers of polluting the planets', 17 William Morris. Collected Works. London,
versities.' Extract from interview 'Towards The Times, February 10, 1969, p. 9. 1910. 24 vols. See vols. 22 and 23.
Machine Intelligence' with Professor Frank 7. The impulse to break up a diseased art 18 Lewis Mumford. 'The Myth of the Ma-
George, Director of Institute of Cybernetics, world, sponsored by nationalistic art corn- chine'. London, 1967, p. 199.
Brunel University. Science Journal, London, missars, and catering to a nineteenth-century 19 Frank Popper. 'The Origins and Develop-
September, 1968. ego cult, is to be encouraged. For a general ment of Kinetic Art'. London, 1968.
4. Whenever you see-or hear-a statement statement.21 Documentation on Milan and 20 John Ruskin. Works. Library Edition.
about the neutrality of science or technology- Venice.' New Society and The Listener have London, 1903. 39 vols. Vol. 17, p. 543.
reach for your gun! carried articles and editorials on Hornsey and 21 Claude Schnaidt. 'Architecture and Politi-
5. The strength of Ruskin and Morris lies in Guildford since June 1968. It is not accidental cal Commitment'. ULM, No. 19/20. Ulm,
their visionary power. They foresaw the con- that a quotation from William Morris takes 1968.
sequences of science and technology in the up one page in 'Documents prepared by the 22 Dennis Sharp, Ed. 'Planning and Archi-
hands of Capitalism. When they condemned forty dismissed teachers of the Guildford tecture'. London, 1967.
mechanization they were looking beyond their School of Art'. October 30, 1968. 23 Alan F. Westin. 'Privacy and Freedom'.
century; when Ruskin is saddened by dirt 8. 'Time is short; we must work rapidly with- New York, 1967.
from a railway soiling the country miles from in the natural process of evolution; we MUST 24 Norbert Wiener. 'Cybernetics'. New York,
the tracks, his mind is fixed on the Los accelerate evolution'. From the foreword to 1948, p. 38.
Angeles of today. In a pamphlet dated 1868, the pre-publication of 'Man, His Environment 25 Norbert Wiener. 'Some Moral and Tech-
he sums up the possibilities of mechanical and The Future?' by Robert D. Underwood, nical Consequences of Automation'. Science,
power supply in order of preference: 'There the student-organizer of this Architectural Washington, Vol. 133, 6, May, 1960.