Bauhaus - Film & Questions.

While watching a film about the Bauhaus school, we were each given a sheet with 3 questions on it which we had to answer during the lecture. 

Which key ideas constituted the Bauhaus philosophy?
The key philsophy and mantra of the Bauhaus was Form follows function, a term coined by American architect Louis Sullivan. They believed that the aesthetics of the design was secondary to it's functionality, and to create truly timeless work, we should forget style entirely and ensure it's form endures. 

In a time of great changes and developments in technology, they worked towards incorporating the new machines available into their work and and viewing them as a tool to work with, rather than a new threat to fight against. The industrial revolution at the time was hugely influential to many of their designs and practices. While many viewed the new machinery in a negative light, as many traditional painters believed that their realistic style would not become defunct with the development of technologies which could produce, on mass, photographic images, they used the new mass production methods to their benefit and creating designs to work with it directly.
Change the world. 

Another key philosophy was that, for the first time, the student was the priority. Students where acknowledges as individuals with their own creative capabilties and where allowed to express themselves in their own unique was, rather than having their works strictly outlines and then marked against a criteria. They where the first to truly encourage a sense of freedom from their students.


In what ways were these ideas innovative or new?
Up until this point, design was often over complicated and ineffective as each designer competed for their work to get the most attention. Every inch of space on a page was taking up, rather than embracing negative space and architecture and crafts where difficult to be mass produced because their focus was on form, not function.

In regards to their teaching methods, this was revolutionary as up to that point, students had, regardless of their creativity, being viewed as drones who where completing a task. Just like in a mathematics class, where there is a question, a correct way of working it out and one potential answer, design was viewed in a same way. The Bauhaus changed that by allowing each student to express their own ways of achieving their own results and so where able to come up with some truly innovative ideas. They believed that when it came to art, all students where equal. They where not judged on their merits by test scores or written works, every student was equal and was able to distinguish themselves through their own way of expressive their creativity.

They helped implement this philosophy by developing workshops, which are now standard in all schools and colleges, so that each student was allowed to work individually with all the tools neccessary at their disposal and subsequently developed the idea of kinaesthetic learning (whereby a student learns by doing, rather than being told) which is still today viewed as one of the best ways of learning. 

The result of all this was the development of what is now viewed as the standard 'Art Student'; a creative individual with their own ideas. Until then, everyone was boring and comformist, but the Bauhaus developed the politically radical student who would go out of their way to push the boundries of conformity. People started using household waste and even hair to create work, something which was absurd only years earlier.


How was art education rovlutionised under the Bauhaus principles?
As stated in the previous question, art education was revolutionised by the Bauhaus as they invented workshops, which are now standard and created the philosophy that the student is an individual who should be able to express their artistic side in the way they want, and go about a project in the way they see fit to find the solution ideal for them. It was because of Bauhaus that the briefs that are given out today and so general, to incourage the student to find their own answer rather than regurgitating everybody else's 'correct' one.  


Do any of the Bauhaus principles resonate with you and your studio practice? if so, which ones and why?
Their principle that the student should be allowed to express himself is still very prominant today. Like stated in the previous question, we are now given briefs which are very vague and general so that we can express our own interpretations and the result is that you will recieve 100 different, unique responses to a single brief. 100 years ago, you would have been given a brief and everyone else would have had to have tried to achieve the same outcome. 

I personally still take huge influence from their style of Modernism and believe that it is the momst aesthetically pleasing design style, which is incredible, as most styles are very shortlived and become dated quickly. For them to have created a style which has endured all this time is truly astonishing.