Balázs Eszter: Art in action. Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum, 1915-1927 - The avant-garde and its journals 3. (Budapest, 2017)

/ From Machines to Images-Themes and Interpretations in Dokumentum

FROM MACHINES TO IMAGES-THEMES AND INTERPRETATIONS IN DOKUMENTUM

The wide-ranging topics presented by Dokumentum, alongside their interpretations, can be formalized even though the editors often maintained a productive contradiction between them. With a gesture typical of synthetiz- ing journals, Dokumentum regularly presented technological innovations and cityscapes without any commentary. These photographs were like visual manifestos proclaiming that such modern developments visually manifest the essence of the era. Synthetizing journals are multimedia works, presenting a wide variety of different forms of expression, from texts through film scripts and design to visual artworks. Dokumentum simultaneously upheld the possibility of both rational and irrational modes of cognition; explored the relationship between individual and community; formulated ideas of the future with reference to already existing blueprints; and investigated the interconnections between modern technology and contemporary art. The journal proclaimed that science, technology, sociology, popular culture, and art mutually influence each other, therefore the primary task of an avant-garde journal is to create a link between these disparate fields.