Modernism in Science, Art, Architecture and Cinema
Members of the Year 10 Athenaeum continued their study of Modernism with and exploration of the worlds of Science, Art and Architecture and Cinema.
Thinking back to work done about Quantum Computers in Year 8, the students were reminded about the pioneering work done in the field of Quantum Mechanics by Schrodinger and others, hot on the heels of Einstein’s groundbreaking papers on Relativity. The enormous Shukhov radio tower in Moscow sent out signals picked up by radio enthusiasts ( hams) in Essex! The world was becoming smaller and news of every development and discovery in Egypt or beyond was “instantly broadcast”.
Few may know that the film Nosferatu directed by F.W.Murnau, a vampire based silent horror movie, was heavily influenced not just by the work of Bram Stoker ( whose descendants didn’t like it) but also by the dreadful aftermath of the flu epidemic which broke out as the First World War was ending. Some of the post viral conditions that resulted could create horrific imaginings and one of the treatments offered was to eat garlic!
There were too many developments in Art and Architecture to do justice to, but we paused to consider the Narkomfin building in Moscow where form followed function, as the residents of the building had no private kitchen, forcing them to eat in the communal dining room. Evidence of Cubism was present in the work of many artists, such as Marcel Duchamps and the students thought about how a fractured reality might enable the viewer to see more not less. Remember the fractured narrative of the Modernist Authors.
A future talk on Modernist Architecture is planned before we tackle, what else…Postmodernism.