Exploding Tongues: Language, Art, and the Russian Avant-garde Main Menu Back to Futurism: Russian Artist Books Introductory Page by Chris Gilman BookENDS: A Working Theory of Textuality as Cultural Dominant, 1912- An Introduction and Conclusion to a Semester's Investigation into the Book Arts as an Avant-garde Practice Book Case Studies Collaborative Research by Case Studies Big Bang: Timeline of Russian Avant-Garde Book Arts and Their Cultural Impacts A Timeline of Russian Avant-Garde Book Arts and Their Cultural Impacts CoaRse CaLIBration ARTS 227 "Introduction to Letterpress Printing" (Pedersen) and CSLC134/RUSN334 "Exploding Tongues" (Gilman) NthOlogy A limited edition collaborative book arts project by students of ARTS 227 (Pedersen) and CSLC 134/RUSN 334 (Gilman), Spring, '17 MANIFESTERS (AB & Kelly): A portfolio of process and products Appendix: A Path Through Russian Avant-Garde Books ILiADS (Institute for Liberal Arts Digital Scholarship)

Trajectile Tendencies

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In the Baroque era, painters and sculptors sought a visual language that would allow them to strike through the Renaissance ethos of stability and reflect a new era of drama, tension, and emotional dynamism. They found their answer in the diagonal line. Whether projecting upwards or slanting downwards, diagonal lines draw the viewer’s eye in a particular direction, simulating a feeling of movement. However, is movement always progress? Mathematically, diagonals are considered in terms of positive or negative slope. Positive slopes indicate that as x increases, y also increases. This is shown on a graph as a line with its lowest point in the left, increasing in height toward the right. Negative slopes go in the opposite direction, where y decreases as x increases. This gives the impression of a “downward” trajectory, beginning in the top left and moving toward the bottom right. While positive and negative may be neutral descriptors of direction, culturally they take on a moral significance. Positive=good, Negative=bad. Upward=good, Downward=bad. Progress=good, Regress=bad. Fittingly, in compositional analysis, positive diagonals are commonly referred to as “Baroque diagonals,” and negative as “Sinister diagonals.” This terminology may originate from heraldry, which uses the Latin words “dexter” and “sinister” to indicate the right and left sections of a coat of arms. The evolution of the word “sinister” in the English language clearly indicates the conception that anything leftward-leaning is evil or unlucky.
 
Given this culturally and historically-steeped reading of diagonals, what might we make of the fact that directional lines—specifically right-to-left diagonals—appear so frequently in Russian visual culture as a symbol of futuristic progress?
…Is a world that launches toward the left a “world backwards”? 
 

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