This course examines how art, design and media practices responded to the modernist notion of progress exemplified in technological change and urbanization and the consequences of social dislocation and mechanized war. Covering the period from the mid-19th Century to WW2, the course demonstrates the importance of an historical perspective to contemporary culture and society. Topics explored include the development of the moving image, ‘primitivism’ and utopias, international exhibitions, and changing attitudes to modern life expressed in painting, sculpture, photography, graphics and design.