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How to Use Futurism in the TikTok Age – Try Kinetic Art for Your Next Reel!
TERAVARNA- May 10
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
What makes the social media sensation TikTok driving the Gen-X traffic crazy towards this video app? It’s simple – they enjoy short-spanned audio-visual contents boosting the ‘feel good’ hormones in a jiffy!
The TikTok algorithms are so addictive they’ve captured the spotlight attention of the youngsters who love speed, velocity, motion, and everything that keeps scrolling! Yes, it seems this generation is driven to the art of motion – the kinetic art!
Looking back, it almost collides with the Italian Futurist art movement’s passion for motion and speed! Think of the rapid-fire reels, the fast-paced videos of TikTok – capturing movement in every swipe and scroll. It seems the love for motion has already started in the early 20th century art & expression like the Futurism movement!
We know about Concept Cars or the futuristic car design, using out-of-the-world and radical engine models, or some unique layouts for the car doors, wheels, or the special features that you can hardly find in real cars!
Let’s dig more into this spirit of futurism & speed and explore how the Futurist artists’ brushstrokes find new expression in the TikTok & YouTube age!
We’ll talk about kinetic GIF art, video loops, Artificial Reality filters and more to show how these modern tools bring the Futurist art ideals to life, capturing the dynamic energy of the early 20th century art form in TikTok or Instagram! Let’s trace our steps back!
What Is Futurism? A Quick Recap of the Movement
Artists in the beginning of the 20th century Italy tried to look ahead of their times. They focused on creating a dynamic vision of the future portraying urban landscapes with unique depictions of trains, cars, and airplanes into their art!
The legendary poet Marinetti was the founder of Italian Futurism though the movement started between 1909 to 1914. It re-surfaced after the end of World War I.
Later, neo futurism art emerged in the early 21st century, as a modern movement in art, design, and architecture fueled by the futuristic aesthetic that embraces technology, innovation, and sustainability.
What were the Basic Themes of the Art Movement?
The Futurists greatly focused on the aspects of speed, movement, or dynamism. The group of artists invented some modern techniques to express motion, like blurring, repetition, and the use of lines of force as inspired by Cubism art.
Example: Dancer at Pigalle by Gino Severini
The painting of Severini shows a dancer in the center, with flowing lines and swirling fabric. Four stage lights are thrown on her, making her the center of attraction, while her spinning movements create circles that spread out to the edges of the painting. Inside the circles one can make out images of instruments, musicians, audience, and some musical notes – reflecting a happening and animated performance.
The Age of Scrolls: TikTok and the New Pace of Visuals
If we compare the fast-paced videos of TikTok with the Futurists’ obsession with motion, we can see some striking similarities. The Futurists were also obsessed by the kinetic pulse of modern life – an obsession that looks similar to TikTok’s speedy contents, charging the dopamine levels instantly.
Scrolling Looks Like Moving Objects in Constant Flux
The Futurist paintings also showed the love for dynamic motion, with a kind of blurring effect, repetitions in forms, just like TikTok thrives on rapid transitions, visual effects, and looping rhythms triggering motions. In both the cases, static form is discarded – giving way to a kind of engagement that demands constant scrolling and pace.
How Today’s Painters Capture Motion through Digital Brushes
Contemporary artists and animators create 2D and 3D models for films, TV, video games, and other forms of entertainment adding special effects, and a sense of simulation, that makes the images appear to move.
It has launched a more immersive kind of visual art and storytelling that captivates people. With appealing animation techniques and visual effects (VFX), films are now transporting viewers to otherworldly realms, recreating past events, and more such incredible things like retro futurism design, futurist graphic design, etc.
Futurism graphic design projects a fascination of the future, giving a lot of emphasis on movement, with a rejection of the past. By introducing geometric shapes, sharp lines, and vibrant colors, the designers create a sense of dynamism and energy.
We have seen a merger of past and future in some retro futurism design. Come to think of the sci-fi movie posters of the 1960-70s, how they projected the flying cars, space colonies, robots, etc. – wrapped in vibrant and chunky visual images! They all spread a message of nostalgia meeting optimism – in a highly technically-geek world.
Examples of TikTok video or short-form content that feel “artistic” in their movement:
Magic Looping Videos of Zach King
Zach King, a popular face in TikTok and YouTube, shows a rare talent in kinetic art looping, a video technique that uses visual illusions and tricks to create seemingly impossible effects. He uses objects like clothing, foods, etc. to create mesmerizing and looping visual sequences through illusions and magic! It’s about how he cleverly uses the camera angles and does smart editing to create a sense of illusion of objects moving rapidly! His art also echoes Futurism’s love for speed and transition.
TikTok and Instagram: The New Age of Algorithm and Expression in the Scroll Age
Do you know videos in TikTok can go viral in a day, while others still beat around the bush! Why? It’s because of the personalized content algorithm of TikTok that gives it an extra edge to understand the viewer’s preference – be it language, culture, their likes and dislikes, etc.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram engage viewers who love the short and vertical videos and like these fast-paced, algorithm-driven platforms that you can keep scrolling.
This love for mechanized versions is almost like the Futurists' love for technology. The Futurists saw machines as a symbol of progress and speed, just as algorithms sense the viewers’ likes and dislikes, constantly adapting to their behavior.
This ‘machine’ driven digital experience, deciding how people engage with contents and influence them shows a modern force of change, much like the machines the Futurists celebrated.
How to Channel Futurism in Your Digital Content: Motion Blur, Glitch, Repetition Techniques
To include Futurism style in your art, focus on movement, energy, and speed. Experiment with motion blur, dynamic compositions, and repetitions to evoke a sense of speed & transformation. Digital tools help create art that feels as if it's changing form constantly. Include more Futuristic elements like machines and abstract shapes in your digital art to reflect the fast-paced, ever-evolving world we live in.
Work with short video loops:
Using effects like timelapses and short video loops you can show change and movement in your creative content. Transitions make the change feel smooth and exciting.
Future In Motion: Blend Kinetic Art and Technology with Scroll-Speed
With a hashtag of #FutureinMotion, share your Futurism-inspired TikTok or Insta Reel – and show how you bring the energy of the future to life!
You can also call it a kinetic art challenge for your future post - where followers would submit their Futurism-inspired work, and the best pieces will get featured in the post. With a catchy hashtag like #FutureInMotionChallenge, people can easily find and submit works. This makes way for incredible creativity bridging modern technology with art!
Try this art of motion for your next reel – and create your own scroll age masterpiece!
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