manifesto craft

Caught in a contradiction, playing both despot and revolutionary, artist and critic, “straight man” and clown, the manifesto writer must persevere. The secret to this perseverance is drama. The theater of the absurd. You build a little self-contained world and invite the audience in. Describe this world in detail. Don’t be afraid to make it enterta

Fleeting and permanent, serious and ridiculous, sincere and ironic, always undermining their own authority, manifestos are unstable texts in the extreme.

In its highest form, the manifesto acts as a magic spell incanted by the visionary artist. It is a performative speech/act that attempts to bring a new reality into existence.

In 1909 the Futurists refused reverence and predicted, even begged for their overthrow by the next generation: “Younger and stronger men will throw us in the wastebasket like useless manuscripts,” they cried. “We want it to happen!” Like all good manifestos, they built in their own obsolescence, clearing the way for the next vision of the future.