The Fourth Dimension and Futurism: A Politicized Space

Revolutionary Time

In sum, Boccioni's interpretation of the fourth dimension effectively bound that theory of space to a temporal conception of revolution. Beginning with a notion of time that was thoroughly politicized, Boccioni thought the unfolding of Bergsonian duree in its extensive form an expression of the revolutionary potential of Italian society. In breaching the limitations imposed on us by the intellect, intuition overcame the "finite" dimensions of measured time and Euclidean space and instigated a Futurist revolt against those systems of governance associated with nineteenth-century rationalism, most notably, parliamentary democracy. [105] Like the Russian mystic P. D. Ouspensky or the British social activist Edward Carpenter in their theories of the fourth dimension, Boccioni conceived of the fourth dimension as a means of transforming human consciousness; unlike Ouspensky, who tied such consciousness to a world harmony born of mystical insight, or Carpenter, who wedded this psychic transformation to a vision of homosocial fraternity based on anarcho-communist precepts, the newfound consciousness championed by Boccioni found its raison detre in the realm of political violence. [106] Rather than justifying a vision of universal brotherhood, Boccioni's fourth dimension would bring about a national revolution, with a Sorelian conflict between nations as its regenerative aim. Thus, the force lines and force forms springing forth from Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space were designed to involve the spectator in the very politics that led to Italy's intervention in World War I and, ultimately, to the rise of Fascism in Italy. [107]

Mark Antliff, associate professor of art history at Duke University, is author of Inventing Bergson: Cultural Politics and the Parisian Avant-Garde (1993), coeditor with Matthew Affron of Fascist Visions: Art and Ideology in France and Italy (1997), and coauthor with Patricia Leighten of Cubism and Culture (forthcoming) [Department of Art and Art History), Duke University, Box 90764, Durham, N.C. 27708-0764].

Frequently Cited Sources

Antliff, Mark, Inventing Bergson: Cultural Politics and the Parisian Avant-Garde (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Boccioni, Umberto, Pittura scultura Futuriste: Dinamismo plastico (1914; reprint, Florence: Vallechi, 1977).

Lista, Giovanni, "Marinetti et les anarcho-syndicalistes," in Presence de Marinetti, ed. Jean-Claude Marcade (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1982), 74--83.

Roth, Jack, The Cult of Violence: Sorel and the Sorelians (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).

Sternhell, Zeev, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

Notes

My thanks to Emily Braun, Perry Chapman, and Linda Henderson for their comments on an earlier draft of this essay, which is part of a projected study on the issue of aesthetic closure and modernism. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are my own.