modernism

• Modernism was a cultural movement of the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. It changed art, literature, music, architecture and drama.

Modernism rejected tradition. It was interested in new ways of doing old things. Also, there was a belief that science and technology could change the world for the better.

This architecture embodies some of the ideas of modernism in the way that they do not play to the traditional shapes and materials of old buildings, but instead present new monochrome colours and simplistic shapes. They are also far larger than traditional buildings, showing the way society has begun to revolutionise and use more advanced technologies because it was believed that it would improve people’s lives for the better. 

Modernism relating to eugenics

In the film gattaca, directed and written by Andrew niccol, we are introduced to a modernism society in which children are ether born “naturally” in the way that we would currently consider normal, or more commonly through a process of genetic selection. This puts those born naturally at a social disadvantage. The main character, vincent, is a man who was was born naturally, however he decides to fake his genome so that he will be eligible to go into space, which has always been his dream. Even though one of the other characters, Gerome, has all of the desirable genetics, he has no desire to go into space. Even though vincent’s genetics are not seen as desirable, he is shown to possess a quality that is greater and more powerful than any gene. The human spirit, or quality of ambition. This relates to the modernism architecture in the film in the way that both the buildings and the process of genetic selection are put in place because of the belief that science and technology could change the world and people’s lives for the better.