1908-1916
Werkbund
Futurism


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industrialisation
deutscher werkbund
dutch expressionism (wendigen)
german expressionism
futurism+constructivism
DADA
WW1
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Werkbund
1907 Hermann Muthesius, Peter Behrens and other sympathetic designers and manufactures form Deutscher Werkbund("German products association"). Their motto: "From sofa cushions to city-building".


In the same year AEG hires P.Behrens to design their corporate identity (he was responsible for all aspects of design, from letterhead and electric light fixtures, to production facilities); he is now considered the first industrial designer.
P.Behrens, poster for AEG

Peter Behrens was a teacher and employer of such great to be architects as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer.


In part as an oppositionary reaction to Werkbund, German Expressionism movement appeared: anti-rationalistic, emotional, concerned both with form and utopianism. Central to it was Paul Sheerbart's writing and his vision of glass/crystaline architecture. In 1914 Werkbund exhibition in Cologne, Bruno Taut's pavillion was presented, embodying Sheerbart's thoughts. Erich Mendelsohn offered another approach to expressionist architecture in his Einstein Tower:

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1909 Filippo Marinetti publishes Futurist manifesto.


I find futurists' passion for speed, machinery, violence, youth, technology rather fascinating; especially the aesthetics of a machine, they so heartly advocated: precision, function, movement, productivity. As I admire Arthur Ganson's machines, their sole purpose of existence being to be a machine and perform the function:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/arthur_ganson_makes_moving_sculpture.html
The fascination of machines comes when they start displaying human features, e.g. Edward Ihnatowicz's SAM sculpture (video here: http://cyberdesign.ning.com/video/2052966:Video:49)
I want to create this effect as well, so I am putting artificial lungs into my installation - a hoover motor, to make my creature breathe.
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I also find Futurism's effect on music to be very interesting.
In 1913 Luigi Russolo (painter and self-taught musician) writes The Art of Noises. It classified "noise-sound" into six groups:

• Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
• Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
• Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
• Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Humming, Crackling, Rubbing
• Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
• Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs

L.Russolo and his brother Antonio used instruments they called "intonarumori", which were acoustic noise generators that permitted the performer to create and control the dynamics and pitch of several different types of noises. 

Intonarumori

Almost like primitive indigenous tribal music of simple rhythms and noises, worshipping spirits of the nature, gods of earth, sun and water, futurist music celebrates the Machine, its coveyer belts, cogwheels, screws and engines.
Some of Luigi Russolo music here: http://www.ubu.com/sound/russolo_l.html