LINES OF FLIGHT: RE-EXAMINING FUTURISM THROUGH GENDERED DIFFERENCE IN AESTHETICS OF AIR

Agency and/or Creator

• Susan Kelly Archer, IDSVA

Bureau/Division/Agency

Library

Files

Document Type

Text

Broad Creation Date

2026

Language

English

Location

Portland

Abstract

Traditional study of futurism typically focuses on the fascination with modern machines and speed as empowering control of the environmental Other from a misogynistic perspective with an explicit connection to early-20th century Italy fascist politics. I contend that this oversimplification negates an important constituent of the modernist aesthetic; that we instead should consider a counter-historical narrative of the human-machine and human-environment relationships by applying what Irit Rogoff characterizes as a paradigm shift for investigating visual culture that integrates gender and geopolitical lenses. Examining air- and aviation-themed artworks by male and female Italian futurists provides evidence of nuanced as well as significant differences in gendered perceptions of the Other and control, creating a distinct fissure in the idea that futurism was a misogynist monolith. Through an ontological dialogue of Hegelian Otherness that integrates feminist thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray, and further discourse focused on patriarchal concerns about the impact of advancing technology on the human-machine control dynamic articulated by Martin Heidegger and Paul Virilio with feminist response by Donna Haraway, I interrogate how Italian futurism does not fit its traditionally assigned mold. The differences in aesthetic interpretation of mechanization and control multiply when the investigation expands to include Russian futurism, magnifying the gender-based fissure and creating a geopolitical fracture to the monolith metaphor. The Bakhtinian polyphony of male and female Russian voices forces a reenvisioning of the futurist movement. Differing notions of gender rooted in culture and geopolitical tradition, as well as the construct of technology integration with a specific focus on the airplane and flight, are critical to distinguishing futurism as a Deleuzo-Guattarian rhizomatic connection between separate avant-garde movements on a plane of multiplicities rather than as a monolithic entity unto itself.

Keywords: futurism, aviation, Other, control, multiplicity

Disciplines

Aesthetics | Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Philosophy

Publisher

Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts

City

Portland, ME

Recommended Citation

Archer, Susan Kelly, "LINES OF FLIGHT: RE-EXAMINING FUTURISM THROUGH GENDERED DIFFERENCE IN AESTHETICS OF AIR" (2026). Academic Research and Dissertations. 87.
https://digitalmaine.com/academic/87