Modernisation is the response to the impact of the machine on human life. The new technologies and industries changed the way people live their lives, their experiences and their social culture. This Modernity created a form of experience, an awareness of the changes occuring and the improvements to modern day living. In the art world the responses to this were undeniable. Although collectively described as modernism, the branches from this reaction were distinctively different.
The Expressionists drew upon their new experiences with the notion of the 'self', real people and real lives. However, avante-garde artists distanced themselves from the urbanisation of modernisation and reflected upon the natural world. There was a distinct pessimism of the changes the 'machine' had brought and the loss of control that ensued. The futurists were forward-thinking, taking modernism to a whole new level. Futurism was idealist and utopian, the new technology bridged gaps between countries, communication was increased and made easier.
"For all that was being gained, there was a sense that life was losing a depth, a dimension of freedom, and that human beings were becoming imprisoned in what the German sociologist Max Weber saw as the 'iron cage' of modernity' (p126) Harrison, G. and Wood, P. (eds) (1997) : Art in Theory: 1900-1990, Oxford, Blackwell
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