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Art and Technology in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Although the work of Pierre Francastel has long carried the label “sociology of art,” it bears little resemblance to anything conventionally sociological. For too long, Francastel has been unavailable to English-language readers and hence known only through erroneous and second-hand characterizations. The translation of Art and Technology should open the way for a rediscovery and reconsideration of this brilliant, often misunderstood thinker.
Unlike the followers of the dominant schools of Anglo-American and German art history, Francastel was never obsessed with establishing a quasi-scientific methodology as the basis for his studies. But as art history itself is being reconfigured amid the technological culture of the twenty-first century, his nuanced meditations from the 1950s on the intricate intersection of technology and art gain heightened value.
The concrete objects Francastel examines are for the most part from the architecture and design of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Through them, he engages his central the abrupt historical collision between traditional symbol activities of human society and the appearance in the nineteenth century of unprecedented technological and industrial capabilities and forms. Francastel’s vision of the indeterminate, shifting relation between the aesthetic and the technological will be of crucial importance to anyone interested in the history of art, architecture, and design.
Unlike the followers of the dominant schools of Anglo-American and German art history, Francastel was never obsessed with establishing a quasi-scientific methodology as the basis for his studies. But as art history itself is being reconfigured amid the technological culture of the twenty-first century, his nuanced meditations from the 1950s on the intricate intersection of technology and art gain heightened value.
The concrete objects Francastel examines are for the most part from the architecture and design of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Through them, he engages his central the abrupt historical collision between traditional symbol activities of human society and the appearance in the nineteenth century of unprecedented technological and industrial capabilities and forms. Francastel’s vision of the indeterminate, shifting relation between the aesthetic and the technological will be of crucial importance to anyone interested in the history of art, architecture, and design.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
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March 31, 2020
Though clearly dated by its unabashed chauvinism, this overlooked study nevertheless succeeds in critiquing the vulgar materialist notion that technology strictly determines the aesthetic style of a period. Artists, claims Francastel, are not the metaphysical substrate for a transhistorical wellspring of absolute 'Art' filtered through the technical capacity of an era, as many theorists then implicitly maintained. Technology instead profoundly structures the symbolic representation of the real in a given period, and it is this semi-autonomous space of representation -- not the conditions allowing for its manifestation -- which should be the primary ground for any art-historical undertaking.
Indeed, the most significant art is that which not merely reflects an era's mode of comportment but anticipates it altogether. Wartime developments in aerodynamic engineering, for example, provided the technical-economic structuration for the mid-century design style of curvilinear, polished forms which proliferated across legion consumer objects; yet, the underlying technique (a crucial and delicate term originating in French anthropology, roughly meaning "generalized productive style") may be traced back to the early 20th century sculptures of Bracusci and Lipschitz, who in turn were shaped by modernist currents to focus their efforts on the tactile, objective qualities of plastic material. In this manner, Francastel arrives at a rich, holistic understanding of how aesthetic forms arise from and dissolve into the productive forces of society.
Sidenote: a resonance between Francastel's thought and that of fellow contemporary Gilbert Simondon is apparent (yet curiously never made explicit), and there seems to be potential in incorporating the former's ideas of aesthetic morphogenesis with the latter's notion of "technical milieu" towards an understanding of contemporary art.
Indeed, the most significant art is that which not merely reflects an era's mode of comportment but anticipates it altogether. Wartime developments in aerodynamic engineering, for example, provided the technical-economic structuration for the mid-century design style of curvilinear, polished forms which proliferated across legion consumer objects; yet, the underlying technique (a crucial and delicate term originating in French anthropology, roughly meaning "generalized productive style") may be traced back to the early 20th century sculptures of Bracusci and Lipschitz, who in turn were shaped by modernist currents to focus their efforts on the tactile, objective qualities of plastic material. In this manner, Francastel arrives at a rich, holistic understanding of how aesthetic forms arise from and dissolve into the productive forces of society.
Sidenote: a resonance between Francastel's thought and that of fellow contemporary Gilbert Simondon is apparent (yet curiously never made explicit), and there seems to be potential in incorporating the former's ideas of aesthetic morphogenesis with the latter's notion of "technical milieu" towards an understanding of contemporary art.
Displaying 1 of 1 review