Call for Papers: Designs from a world to come. XIV. Internationales Bauhaus-Kolloquium, 10-12 April 2019
100 years after the founding of the Bauhaus in 1919, the 14th International Bauhaus Colloquium at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will reflect on the history of the Bauhaus at its original sites in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, as well as on its international reception and migration. In the anniversary year of the founding of the Bauhaus, the colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary community of researchers, providing a critical look back at its beginnings and at the historical context of the year 1919. It sheds light on the socio-political context of the Bauhaus in 20th-century history and examines the establishment of “Bauhaus architecture” as a style canon in the architectural historiography of the post-war period. Inevitably, the history of the Bauhaus also reflects on some of the core questions of the design disciplines of today. International architects, urban planners, artists, social scientists, historians and theoreticians will confront the historic Bauhaus with the present day.
The conference has four panels of which the forth panel Designs from a world to come invites papers in a Call for Papers. The deadline for submission of paper proposals is 15 August 2018:
In 2019, are we – like the historic Bauhaus – facing an epochal break? A radical reorientation of all areas of social and political life seems possible – but of a contradictory kind: After 100 years, a circle has closed. If the revolutions and manifestos of 1918–19 were marked by the hope of democratization and progress, then after a century of disenchanted expectations, no real optimism for the future can arise today. Since 1919, we have left behind the Weimar Republic, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the post-war era, inter- national independence movements, the Soviet Empire, the Gulf War, the war in the Balkans, and the post-9/11 wars, to name just a few. To this day, we are facing ongoing wars and an age of a great migration. Yet today, the future is no less of an open project, re- quiring design and social reflection. This said, how do we consider historical ties and their involvement in the complex structures of the present as parameters of future design? What inspiration could arise from the ambivalent fate of the historic Bauhaus? This section is conceived as a thought experiment and invites speakers of all disciplines to think about the present from the perspective of the future.
Please send suggestions for contributions of max. 10 minutes in length to the panel chair Johannes Warda by 15 August, 2018 (johannes.warda@fulbrightmail.org).The abstract should be approx. 400 words and include a short bio of 150 words. Notice of acceptance takes place on 15 September, 2018. Accepted proposals must be completed by 1 February, 2019. Contributions may be either in German or English.
The conference is open to scholars and practitioners, students and those interested in its program (further details will be published in October 2018. Registration will be open from February 2019). The conference languages are German and English.
Further information you can find on the website of the colloquium: www.bauhaus-kolloquium.de