PLAN B: SPIRIT OF THE BAUHAUS
AUGUST / 2019
Special Thanks: Caro Trigo, Simon Johnston
Part of ArtCenter’s TestLab Berlin program celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus school.
In 1920’s Weimar, Germany, Bauhaus designers envisoned a transformation of the advertising that illuminated their local streetscape at night. Rejecting the accepted style of light advertisements that merely mimicked a company’s logo or wordmark, they imagined a street filled with avant-garde, abstract art that would illicit wonder and engagement in pedestrians rather than just driving consumption.
This project explores the boundaries between abstraction and promotion, focusing on the coexistence of art and industry, removing brand names and abstracting taglines and logos beyond recognition. Do we perceive objects as promotional material because of their signified meaning, or do their medium, location, and graphic language contribute equally to our interpretation of their message?
