Making Futures: Utopias, Projections and Bombs of the Avant-Garde

Historic avant-garde works, including Gerrit Rietveld’s model for the Rietveld Schröder House, function as aesthetic technologies or 'time machines' that condition audiences to perceive the future differently. This study shifts focus from Western scholars to underrepresented Cold War theorists—Andrzej Turowski, Aleksandar Flaker, and Juri Lotman—to analyze how avant-garde artifacts shape phenomenological encounters with time. By modeling alternative futures, these works challenge conventional temporal narratives, while Rietveld’s design underscores the need for historical contextualization to understand both projected and realized futures. The research bridges theoretical speculation with material history, revealing the avant-garde's enduring influence on futurity.

Bru, S. (2026). Making Futures: Utopias, Projections and Bombs of the Avant-Garde. Arts, 15(5), 87. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15050087