The Electronic Bauhaus Revisited

2 5 ~ ~ ANNIVERSARYLEONARD0 CELEBRATION SERIES The Electronic Bauhaus Revisited In the SIGGRAPH 1990Supplemental Issue of Leonardo Roger Malina quoted myvision of an ElectronicBauhaus [11. The title refers to my book, published in 1987,and to some other publications, among them an articlein Leonard0itself [2]. Some6years later it might be useful to ask-especially for myself-how we are goingto handle the ideas of art and technology as they relate to schoolsand educationalgoals . Before writing these few lines I returned from a visit to the historicalsite of the Weimar Bauham-the Henryvan de Velde building,which has been carefdly restored.A new facultyfor GRFtaltUng,with freevisual a r t s ,product designand visual communication,is being establishedwithin the framework of the Hochschulefir Architekturund Bauwesen Weimar. What is fascinatingis the relativelymodest scale of the buildingcompared to the worldwide fame of the schooland the movement .Fascinating,too, is how everything there is rootedwithin an artistic-intellectual context of some200years. “Having roots, aswell asvisions,“might be an accurate descriptionof the fame of the historical Bauhaus. When I presented my conceptof an ElectronicBauhaus,I pointed to the statement by SibylMoholy-Nagythat the school (from 1919to 1933)was the catalyst of the visual revolutionfor the twentieth century.The Bauhauswas related to the reshaping of a society that lost its completeinternal structureby the end of World War I. Thisreshaping embraced the search for consciously planned environments ,a new scale of visual values, and new formsof education and material evaluation. My own statementwas: These topics did not lose their actuality,but the content and the dimension have completely shiftedsince then towardsgreater scales, greater demands. Our actual-not to mention future-environment enlarged towards the biosphere [3]. Towards a Preamble for theElectronicBauhaus We know that ourperceptionsof reality, judgements,hopes and fearsfollowa primeval program.Thisis the resultof a chain of mutationsof somehundredsof thousandsof generations-indeed more than 2,000 generationson earth. Ourperceptionsof time/space are extremely limited .The same istrue for our expectations of the necessary ecological networks. Our “geneticsoftware”programsus-somewhat reliably-only in the msmsmos, i.e. in our perceptions of the near dimensions. We apparently do not have the “genetic software”to comprehend and realize the new frontiersin the m i m and mame cosmos. For example,we talk but do not act in response to the threatening developments of energyconsumption,of the greenhouse effect. My proposition regardingthe social and artisticresponsibilitiesof an Electronic Bauhaus *and stillis-to startwith the discussion of a preamble, formulatingthe goals and the vision that might lead us at least towards the turn of the millennium. I am verymuch awareo f the teaching staffs discomfortwith thisbasic startingpoint, o f the tendency to carefor one’sown sake and fame and agree only to the lowestlevel of institutionalproceedings. In thewords of the eminentGerman philosopherand physician C.F. von Weizsiicker ,we canrely on the factthat the fight forpower is ultimately decidedby truth (Wahrheit), Art isfundamentallyrelated to truth.Art is the seismographicperception of Gestauby creatingGestalt. Soa r tcan express andformulatethoserealities thatare usuallynonperceivable.Art has the most directcontactwith truth.Artis a culturally anchoredcorrectiveof technique [4]. Instead of fosteringthe accumulation of power as “superiority,” artisticexperience may open up structuresthat normally are encrustedin hate and national ideology.It may expand our sensesinto the biw and anthropwcosmoethosenew frontiersfor which we have not had the “geneticsoftware”until now. Using and teaching technologytowards these goals may allowus to talk about a human, legitimate u s e of technologicaland electronic media. Thismaywell be part of the preamble of an ElectronicBauhaus. Three Threadstot h eElecaonicBauhaus I would like to outline three threads leading from the historical to the actualElectronic Bauhaus: 1.the idea of the inclusionof the 2. the idea of broadening space:the 3. the idea of a social design One: In his book TheNew Vision,Laszlo Moholy-Nagyredefined function according to the concept of “organicdesign.” He related his workingprogram in the Chicago Institute of Design to the program of ”biotechnics”formulated by the natural scientistRaoulH. Franci [5].The biologicaland organic axis in art research leadsfrom there towards the art and new biology of today, includingthe complex field of artificiallie [6]. The continuing mysteries of natural and cosmic genesis could be part of the actualsearchfor a synthesis of the natural and the artificial. I...