Image as investigation: sciences of the otherworldly at the Bauhaus
The Environmentalist September 1, 2012 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/s10669-012-9400-y via Springer Nature
Summary
This essay argues that modern architecture and design, often viewed as harsh and impersonal, were deeply influenced by mysticism and the occult. Focusing on the Bauhaus, an interwar German reform movement, it shows that members produced images based on alternative religions, spiritism, and occult practices alongside their streamlined designs. These works participated in broader research into the otherworldly and a rediscovery of nature. Reintegrating this history reveals modernism not as cold and soulless but as part of attempts to perceive and shape a rapidly unfolding new world.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The Bauhaus's engagement with mysticism and the occult reveals modernism as part of attempts to perceive and shape a new world, rather than as cold and soulless. |
Abstract
While modern architecture and design have often been seen as harsh and impersonal, this essay reassesses this association through a closer look at the influence of mysticism and the occult on the Bauhaus, an interwar German reform movement and school for art, craft, design, and architecture. Even as they developed their famous streamlined designs, members of the school also produced images based on alternative religions, spiritism, and other experimental and occult practices. Such images participated in a broader context of research into the otherworldly and a rediscovery of nature and the environment. Reintegrating this other history into what we know of the Bauhaus allows us to understand modernism anew, not as cold and soulless but as part of larger attempts to perceive and shape a new world that was quickly unfolding around its subjects.