David Mather's Futurist Conditions is an essential contribution to the study of Italian Futurism. Replacing the machine with the camera and temporal contingency as central themes, Mather produces highly original new readings of well-known Futurist works, including Boccioni's Unique Forms.

Linda Dalrymple Henderson, David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor in Art History, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

Offering a fresh perspective on Italian futurism, David Mather argues that critics have overplayed the movement's reputed interest in the destructive effects of technology. It was through the camera that futurists turned towards more spiritual aims. Utilizing Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni as exemplars, Mather imaginatively rethinks their inventions through the lens of photography.

Nancy Perloff, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Collections, Getty Research Institute, USA

With exceptional care and concern, David Mather offers us a brilliant yet moving eulogy for modern art by revealing the violent creativity of a future fixated on the past and the deep wrinkles connecting art and technology with authoritarianism and reactionary politics.

Jimena Canales, author of A Tenth of a Second: A History (2009) and others