1918: INNOVATIONS IN THE PAST
a visual story from different points of view
It's interesting how each of us can understand the topic
What do you think about at the first moment when you hear "Innovations of 1918"? Would you start from the history? Or are you going to look for some stories according to your interests?

One of us started to research the whole year events and looked for some particular artworks in that period. Someone decided to understand "innovation" term according to the past time: What could it be about? Let's suppose, some social changes were required. And the other one exclaimed: "And what about science? Or technics?"

Choosing and sharing the interesting facts about 1918 we can understand that it is all so different and it is difficult to place everything in one framework. Could the "Ecology Innovation" tool by L. Ferrara and M.G. Mattei become the Turning Point?

Let's have a look how could it be!

1
The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I.
The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. [*]


spring 1918
The Union Act of Bessarabia with Romania

On April 9 [O.S. March 27] 1918, Sfatul Țării decided with 86 votes for, 3 against and 36 abstaining (mostly non-Romanians), for union with the Kingdom of Romania, conditional upon the fulfillment of agrarian reform, local autonomy, and respect for universal human rights.

history

The League of Nations Union (LNU) was an organisation formed in October 1918 in the United Kingdom to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. [*]
New map of Europe showing new nations.

New Map of Europe 1918 outside Independence Hall Phila. PA on or about 10-26-1918. This map was also displayed in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC. [*]

2





c. 1910-1920: Suffragettes vs. police

A "Lancashire lassie" being escorted through the palace yard, in Westminster Palace, London. [*]






A Suffragette housemaid in 1908 during the campaign for the enfranchisement of women. [*]

February 1918, first women gain right to vote in parliamentary elections

more
Women had campaigned for this right for over 50 years.

6 February 1918: The Representation of the People Act of 1918 enfranchised women over the age of 30 who were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register.
About 8.4 million women gained the vote.

21 November 1918: the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, allowing women to be elected into Parliament. [*]

by Christopher Nevinson, 1917
Paths of Glory

The painting was censored by the official censor of paintings and drawings in France, Lieutenant Colonel A N Lee, on the grounds that displaying dead bodies would hinder the war effort.

Nonetheless, Nevinson included the painting in his official exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in March 1918, but the work was displayed with a brown paper strip across the bodies bearing the word "censored".

source





Costume for a nurse to protect against X-Ray in 1918. [*]



Smoking while wearing an influenza mask. [*]

3



Glove waistcoat

Light, warm, windproof waistcoat for soldiers is made from old kid gloves at small cost. [*]



Novel idea of converting shell-cases into shoe protectors

Bright and happy idea of some French soldier to use discarded shell-cases to strengthen the heels and soles of his shoes. [*]

by Finish artist Alvar Cawen

Members of The November Group

The November Group (German: Novembergruppe) was a group of German expressionist artists and architects. Formed on 3 December 1918, they took their name from the month of the German Revolution.

Linked less by their styles of art than by shared socialist values, the group campaigned for radical artists to have a greater say in such issues as the organisation of art schools, and new laws around the arts.

source

by John Nash, 1918
Over the top

It depicts a counter-attack on Welsh Ridge in northern France on 30 December 1917, during the First World War.

The painting is based on Nash's experience while serving in the 1st Battalion of the Artists Rifles (28th London Regiment). He made the painting in early 1918, having returned to England and been recommended by his brother Paul Nash to become an official war artist.


source

4
Launching a hydro-airplane from the British battleship in the harbor of Saloniki. [*]


Long internet surfing and several discussions of the topic brought us to one modern tool. Seems it could be good one for researching the changes of any period of time as a whole "product".
The ecology of innovation tool is a key step in the refinement methodology. The process embeds the 5 components of innovation: social, design, technical, business and political; and the 5 action that characterize them: virtualization, visualization, replication, propagation and institutionalization.

There is not a fixed starting point, but the process must touch every point to be successful and create a ground breaking innovation.
How it works
1
POLITICAL INNOVATION
What could be valuable for the people in the next years? How do you want the society to perceive the policy?
2
SOCIAL INNOVATION
What needs to change in the actual social environment to achieve the society as you want it to be? What are the new values of the policy? Is the role/relationship of the society members changed from the actual environment?
3
DESIGN INNOVATION
How does designed goods respond to the value they offer in regard with the other innovation types?
4
TECHNICAL INNOVATION
What are the flows in the ecosystem after the innovation?
5
BUSINESS INNOVATION
How does the industry operate now and after the innovation? How will the innovation modify the system?

The conducted analysis by the team of 3 members with their own interests and bases showed particularly changes in the political and social senses. So 1918 was surely innovative as the changes were radical.

It was the Turning Point in the history, being also supported by the technical, design innovations.
However we were unable to find the business ones, here there is some space left for reflection of ours and yours.

1918 product created by TURNING POINT team
Work with webpage: Anastasiia Smirnova
Front photo: source
Ecology of innovation tool: by L. Ferrara and M.G. Mattei

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