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Futurism Brought To Life Once Again in Creative Code

posted by Marcroy June 1, 2023

KesselsKramer and designer & creative coder Vera de Seyp reinvent futurism on behalf of the Dutch Kröller-Müller Museum.

The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands, has opened a brand new exposition on the widespread artistic influence of a rather unknown yet radical art movement; futurism. To help people remember this movement from their art history classes or encounter futurism for the first time before they set foot in the museum, the accompanying campaign also features futurism’s best pieces and uses visual elements from these pieces.

And to get those images out there into the world, the museum has adopted a creative approach that the futurists themselves would have probably agreed on, had they still been alive.

CODE IS THE FUTURE

After all, the future of the futurists may have been one of the industrial revolution, the future of artists today will largely lay in code – the digital revolution is already in full swing. Therefore, Vera van de Seyp was asked to lift the campaign to a higher level by using creative code. Van de Seyp often collaborates with other (digital) artists on projects and participates in various creative coding networks, and studies at MIT Media Lab, while also working with emerging tech and creating her own tools.

“The animations in the campaign were all built with simple code: HTML using CSS animations. This allowed us to experiment with motion in a way that circumvents the limits of more common motion software, and it also allows us to automate the process and generate a new version by just changing a word or a number in the code,” says Vera van de Seyp.

While Vera can relate to some artistic futurist concepts like collaborating with machines, she thinks the technological optimism the futurists had, is a dangerous way of thinking. Van de Seyp believes that, while technology can offer interesting ways of creating, it should not be seen as the sole path to a future utopia (both in the creative world and on a larger scale in society). She prefers a slightly more human-centric approach when working with new technologies such as Generative AI.

DESIGNING 2023 FUTURISM

The patterns that form the hallmark of the campaign, based on the colour usage of the futurists in their attempts to visualise speed, sound, and movement, are animated in code, giving the digital campaign a modern futurist touch.

“The futurists looked for new ways to visualize intangible things like speed and sound. When producing the campaign we wanted to work with new ways of expression in design. The automation of the graphic identity is something the futurists would probably have liked, as it is generated by a machine,” says Gijs van den Berg, Creative Director of KesselsKramer.

Credits:

Agency: KesselsKramer
Art-director: Onno Blase, Tristan Roques
Copywriter: Sophie Rijnaard
Creative director: Gijs van den Berg
Animation & coding: Vera van de Seyp
Music: Sounds by Thomas
Production: Ninnog Duivenvoorde