An original approach to avant-garde art and its transformative force. Presenting an alternative to the approaches to art developed in postmodern theory or cultural studies, Ziarek sees art´s significance in its critique of power and the increasing technologization of social relations. Re-examining avant-garde art and litrature, from Italian and Russian Futurism and Dadaism, to Language poetry, video and projection art, as well as transgenic and Internet art, this book argues that art´s importance has to take into consideration how art works question the technological character of modern power. To emphasize the transformative character of art, the book redefines art as a force field, in which forces drawn from historical and social reality come be to formed into an alternative relationality. Through discussions of key avant-garde figures, The Force of arts counters the pessimism about art´s social function by recovering and redefining art´s transformative role in modernity.