Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.69.3
Object Name
Poster
Title
Experiment
People
Francis Bacon
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This poster is part of a set, 'Future Fictions', produced when the collective moved to the North London Polytechnic is a set of posters reflecting on technological development and leads us to address environmental issues of today. This is the third poster in the series; it is black with yellow text
and an illustration of Francis Bacon alongside blueprints for James Watt's steam engine. Yellow text reads: "Though the ideaof science goes back to Greek times, the organisation of scientific work begins largely in societies. A scientific method evolved starting from strict observation and from there moving into generalisation. Within this form of experiemtn was an emphasis on useful knowledge that would yield practical result. The foundation of experimental science was thus laid on the basis of mathematics, fine manipulation, accurate timing and exact measurement. / Francis Bacon 1561-1627. Bacon was the first major philosopher of science to envisage how science could and should be applied to industry. Bacon was largely responsible for the foundation of the Royal Society (1662) whose aim was to promote and foster natural technology. It was Bacon's view that a utopian society under the general leadership of scientists would evolve as the forces of nature were controlled and dominated
by technology.
