bauhaus imaginaries

we can afford to look back. the breathlessness of “disruption” often means that we fail to explore the consequences of the - cultural, epistemological, historical - decontextualization that comes with an emphasis on disruption. we need to cut ties with the past to reach for new futures - we disagree with this powerful yet misleading narrative. instead: the archive is full of futures - if we make an effort to explore this archive, we will end up with a wider range of futures.

cultural - an attempt to reimagine the “trans” in transcultural as a broad cultural technique of translation, of approaching the (new) bauhaus as a translation machine that abstracts and (re)contextualizes

geographical - to think europe is to think from the borders europe has collapsed and (re)created; continental views of europe are incomplete without maritime views of oceanic scapes of empire and encounter, of the visions and violence driving expansion and exchange

historical - a research collaboration to contribute to the ongoing (re)contextualization of the bauhaus - as institution, as network, as educational vision, as assemblage of actors across a wide terrain of design processes - that link the historical bauhaus to the current renaissance of systemic design, acknowledging and expanding the international resonances already traced and documented in bauhaus imaginista

technological - a foray into data space design, working with canvases as systemic design and eco-data literacy platforms to re-situate such tools as part of a broader political heritage of education and systemic design movements at least partially inspired by the bauhaus and framed by the current EU data space / green deal agenda

educational - an effort to draw on these archives to build systemic design modules for anticipation as ethico-aesthetic practice, building on research in anticipation and collective intelligence design as well as the performing arts to engage in the wide range of transformations the climate crisis calls for

 

team

sónia alves, david crombie, henrik elburn, julia hartnik, hannes käfer, david maulen de los reyes, michael schmitz, jan tretschok, soenke zehle

 

events

25/05/21 - hackathon / strategic narratives for regenerative economies / context: social economy canvas /  european social economy summit

23/06/21 - workshop / new imaginaries, collective departures: exploring co-created futures / context: ouisharefest 2021

28-29/10/21 - hbk conference / welt der gestaltung als wille und vorstellung / context: eser / neb