SUBMISSIONS: the modernist 47 MACHINE
The Modernist magazine is a quarterly print publication. You can submit an article or a photo story at any time, although we do work ahead of schedule on a theme by theme basis.
If you have an idea, we'd love to hear from you - please get in touch if you are interested in submitting an article. We are looking for essays or photo stories (around 1000 words) that focus on set themes below within twentieth century architecture and design. Our main focus is architecture, or art and design related to architecture such as interiors, glass, murals, furniture etc. These can be from anywhere in the world but we do like to feature lesser known examples. At present we are working with guest editors for each issue, which is a collaborative process. For questions relating to specific upcoming issues, please contact the relevant guest editor (details below).
As always, we invite contributors to interpret the theme in their own inimitable manner and with a broad imagination.
Issue 47: MACHINE
Contributions are sought for short articles (1,000 words or less) with strong visual content, as well as photo and image essays, for the Summer 2023 edition of the Modernist Society's quarterly magazine, the modernist. For the 2022-23 series, the magazine is tackling the letter ‘M’, and for this issue we are focusing on the word MACHINE.
Machines power the modern world and inform (or control?) our day-to-day lives to an astonishing extent. We are surrounded by machines, and modernists have always been slightly obsessed by them. It was, of course, Le Corbusier who famously wrote “Une maison est une machine-à-habiter” (“A house is a machine for living in”). Let us, in this next issue, extend Corb’s axiom into the wider world of machines.
Are you perhaps intrigued by typewriters, or enamoured by trains? Do early IBM computers excite you, or does the inner working of a jet engine send you giddy? How about the way that machines have influenced and shaped modernist architecture, both technically and aesthetically? Or perhaps you might wish to explore the way that machines have driven modern art and culture?
Early modernists placed the mechanical beauty of machines at the heart of their thinking, and some of the postmodernists turned buildings inside out, putting the mechanics of their buildings on the outside. Meanwhile, Kraftwerk took the idea of The Man Machine to its logical conclusion, not only replacing ‘real’ instruments with machines, but finally replacing themselves with machines too.
With the above in mind, we are seeking proposals for written and visual articles that celebrate and worship our MACHINE overlords. Get in touch.
Resistance is futile.
Please send proposals directly to Ashiya Eastwood at editor@modernist-society.org by Friday 24 February 2023 (5PM GMT).
We kindly ask that you refrain from sending full articles at this stage; just a few sentences and/or images outlining your idea is all we need. All those who submitted proposals will be contacted by Friday 3 March 2023 (5PM GMT). If your proposal is accepted, final articles and accompanying images will be required by Thursday 30 March 2023 (EOP).
The issue is due for publication in June 2023.
See www.the-modernist.org for further details of the publication
Please note, The Modernist magazine is a not for profit social enterprise run on a shoestring, and relies on the generosity of like minded people and fellow travellers to share their ideas, words and pictures with us and our readers. There is unfortunately no budget available to pay fees for contributions as articles and photographs are requested in a spirit of friendly collaboration.
We might not be able to reply to every submission. Our apologies if you do not receive a response.
For further information and general submission enquiries please contact editor Ashiya Eastwood editor@modernist-society.org
Thank you
The Modernist
It is the responsibility of the contributor to ensure that any content submitted to The Modernist does not infringe legal rights.
This includes submitting work that; could be libellous or maliciously false; be obscene or indecent; infringe copyright, moral rights, database rights, trade mark rights, design rights, rights in passing off, or other intellectual property rights; infringe rights of confidence, rights of privacy, or rights under data protection legislation; constitute negligent advice; constitute an incitement to commit a crime; be in contempt of court, or in breach of a court order; be in breach of racial or religious hatred or discrimination legislation; be blasphemous; or be in breach of official secrets legislation.
All contributors must obtain permission to reproduce images and any other non-original content prior to submission.
Image: Betty Jennings (Mrs. Bartik) Right: Frances Bilas (Mrs. Spence) setting up the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The ENIAC, completed in 1945, was the world’s first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer.