Page 16 - Studio International - April 1974

The new industrial system replaced the standardization of parts (in the use, for example, developed. Two forms of depictive art, an
craftsman and his handicrafted sequences of of modular proportions), and both a knowledge industrialized form and a handicrafted form,
production, though vestiges of the system which of and feeling for the nature of materials. It is developed more or less consistently within
supported him, that is to say the guilds, true of course that most of these values possess their respective belief-structures, while
remained. a history which ante-dates the Industrial maintaining a mimetic relationship. My point
The industrial system has not, however, Revolution; but it is without doubt the about method is that in this instance again a
replaced the fine-art system. They have conditions of industrialism and the industrial more balanced account of post-Enlightenment
developed, it seems to me, parallel to one society that have endowed them with their art might emerge, if instead of writing
another in a two-system situation; the art contemporary significance. separate accounts of, say, the influence of
system sustained by beliefs and values Around the central values and beliefs of the photography upon painting, or of painting
associated with the production of objects which industrial system and its modes of invention upon photography we kept constantly in mind
have become symbols of human freedom, the there have developed appropriate new methods the interaction of both arts in their sharing of
industrial system sustained by beliefs and of drawing and designing, a supporting the total depictive demands of society at any
values associated with the production of educational philosophy and programme, and its particular time. An account of the development
objects which provide for demonstrable human own forms of marketing. Since both the of the film as an art form sharing the depictive
needs. industrial system and the fine-art system are field with painting might well put a two-system
Let us consider briefly some of the central involved in the sequential production of approach to a crucial test, because it can fairly
values of the industrial system, as we did in material products which are valued and be argued, it seems to me, that the film is the
connection with the fine-art system, by marketed it is to be expected a priori that the one unique and unquestioned artistic
reference to its mode of sequential production. two systems will possess common features. The achievement of industrialism.
First, we have noted that mechanical invention degree to which they function independently, A balanced account of change in post-
operates within and along long-standing trains interact, conflate and overlap in the functioning Enlightenment art might arise from a study of
of assumption concerning generalized human of their component parts, must be a matter for interaction between the two systems. For
needs and aspirations. Inventions for example empirical investigation. creative persons, dissatisfied with the beliefs
in the field of transportation assume a general What seems, however, to be indubitably clear and values of the system within which they
need and a general aspiration to travel faster. is that the industrial system, although it has work, the beliefs and values of the alternative
The industrial system therefore gains coherence largely destroyed the craft system, has not system might be found to hold special
from a belief in its capacity first to generalize destroyed or even replaced the fine-art system. attractions. On the fine-art side, Joseph Wright
concerning needs and then by providing The fine-art and industrial systems have of Derby's positive response to early
mechanical inventions to satisfy those needs. developed beside one another in a two-system industrialism and much later the continued
Around this central core of belief a cluster of situation. In seeking to understand this attraction of industrialism in its later phases for
aesthetic values, comparable but distinct from situation it is important, it seems to me, from such avant-garde movements as Constructivism,
those associated with the fine-art system, has a methodological point of view, to keep the Futurism and Pop Art. On the industrial side,
emerged. These emergent values appear to whole range of productive activity constantly Josiah Wedgwood's and Matthew Boulton's
have their origin in certain necessary conditions in view, in order to ascertain at any given time positive response to the fine-art system of
which must be fulfilled in successful machine how the two systems are sharing the total their day, and much later Eisenstein's realization
invention and the maintenance of machine social range of production between them; not, of the importance of painting methods in the
sequences successfully. for example, architecture only, but the whole development of cinematic techniques.
A successful new mechanical invention must range of building activity; not painting only, I began this enquiry with the conviction that
introduce a machine to the market which renders but all forms of depictive activity. By means of the critique of industrial society developed by
its predecessors obsolete, or at least, seriously such a method we may be able to distinguish John Ruskin and his followers had never been
disadvantaged. Furthermore, since the machine more precisely where the two systems conflict, answered convincingly by even the most
itself is invented to be replicated it must be where they interact, or conflate, or reinforce thoughtful champions of industrial art. But it
demonstrably replicable in a form cheap enough each other. also seemed to me that if his critique were to be
to render its competitors obsolete or seriously For example, during the nineteenth century taken seriously it would have to be re-examined
disadvantaged whilst remaining equally or conflict of belief between the two systems was within the terms of a reservation that Ruskin
more efficient. One of the ways of achieving most marked in architecture, the art of the would not have been prepared to make, that is
economy and efficiency in replicated objects is academic triad most involved with utility, and that industrialization was one of the supreme
by means of the standardization of parts. utility as we have noted emerged as an achievements of mankind. For it's surely
Again, since machines, whether designed for important value in the industrial system. The beyond question that industry, in its alliance with
performance or the production of industrial history of this conflict has been written in science, has for the first time in history provided
product sequences, place great demands upon recent years with a strong prejudice in favour the technological preconditions for freeing
the raw materials of which they are themselves of industrial values over fine-art values : human society from the imperatives of
composed and the raw materials which they are functionalism, for example, in preference to necessity, from poverty and disease, so that
designed to process, mechanical invention calls historicism. This may indeed be a fair verdict; life need not be for the bulk of mankind, in
for a special knowledge of the composition, but I would suggest that a conceptual Hobbes's phrase, 'nasty, brutish and short'.
durability and strength of materials. From such framework which posits the continuing Yet for many, if not most, members of the
necessary conditions for successful mechanical presence of the two systems, and the advanced industrial societies the promise has
invention there emerged, during the time when inevitable triumph of neither, may provide not been realized and the values upon which it
the industrial system was developing as an art a better balance and a deeper perspective. has been established are perhaps now more
system (in the general sense) and replacing the In the depictive arts the industrial system seriously questioned than ever.
craft system, an interrelated group of aesthetic developed new forms of visual art, notably Any account of the effects of industrialism
values by means of which the standards of photography, film and television. They too would have to consider the emergence of a
machine sequences and industrial product have come into conflict with the existing fine-art critique of industry by artists from the moment
sequences are maintained and improved. These forms, painting and the associated graphic arts. it appeared, in Blake or wherever. If written
include: novelty, obsolescence, functional But in this instance a greater degree of in the terms of a two-system account it would
efficiency, economy in the use of materials, the independence and interaction appears to have be desirable to establish the degree to which
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