For today’s eportfolio blog I would like to discuss the reading we were assigned for Wednesday’s class. The reading was the literary piece called “Dreamworlds of History,” a historical critique of pre and post Bolshevik revolutionary Russia. What most interested me was not just the type of art that was spawned during this time period but how these ideas came to be. As discussion leader for the class involving this reading I asked a question as to, giving several options, what was the primary reason artists, authors, and general fervor was focused so obstinately on the future. This was the height of “futurist” movement. The period of course was the turn of the 19^th century into the 20^th century, so naturally the entire world was buzzing with excitement. I myself have lived through a centurial transition, although I was young, I remember the excitement of that New Years. Indeed many people immediately started asking the questions: What lies ahead in store for us? What new and exciting changes will this generation create? But I can discern a significant difference in the way each of these turning centuries viewed the future: relativity to the past. It seems the futurist artists as well as authors were not only turning their sights on the wondrous future but putting forth a deliberate effort to forget the past. I found this to be quite interesting. My temporal contemporaries as well as myself clearly did not share this ambition to that extent. And it is for that exact reason I believe this age of futurism was ushered in. Mixed partly with the technological advancements that had never seen an equal in the past, the desire to shatter the time/space continuum must be present to truly rely on the future. After all, how can something continue from nothing? A fresh start with a clean slate was what many of these artists and authors hoped to achieve. It is my opinion that this was one of the most pivotal turning points in human history because of the acceleration of advancement; probably brought on by these ground breaking electrically powered technological developments: cars, trains, airplanes, and etc. If you look back before the dawn of the 20^th century, to the previous centuries, humans slowly and gradually were developing. Since then, it seems as if each new day brings another monumental discovery or creation. So that is why this era should be heralded as the beginning of never ending beginnings; the futurists shaped the world into a trend that might not end for possibly another whole millennia!