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00:01The Bauhaus. It's best known for its striking modernist architecture, attention-grabbing typography and stylish form meets function design.
00:11But beneath all this was a pioneering art school that revolutionised the way we teach art, placing collaboration, experimentation with
00:20materials and the flouting of art convention at centre stage.
00:24The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, but today we're bringing its guiding principles to a new
00:33generation.
00:34In a unique experiment, we'll be bringing the radical ideas of the Bauhaus to life here at Central Saint Martins
00:41in London in a Bauhaus takeover.
00:46Over the course of a week, six Central Saint Martins graduates across fine art, fashion, graphic design and architecture will
00:55be taken back to basics to discover if the school's groundbreaking approach to training artists still holds its power a
01:02hundred years on.
01:04I feel like I'm at a crazy boot camp. I don't know what's coming next.
01:08Each day, the students will be challenged to create a new work of art, design or performance, sticking strictly to
01:15rules inspired by the artists who taught at the Bauhaus.
01:19From Oscar Schlemmer, the cutting edge costume designer, to Vasily Kandinsky, one of the early pioneers of abstract art, the
01:27Bauhaus tore up the old rules of art and design and placed radical new ones in their place.
01:33Yes!
01:33Yes!
01:34Setting the rules for our students will be key figures from today's worlds of art and design.
01:40Leaping and wild stamping the feet are absolutely essential.
01:43Now, in my experience, art school students don't like sticking to the rules, so it'll be interesting to see how
01:49they cope with that.
01:50Let the Bauhaus begin!
02:06Welcome to our Bauhaus experiment.
02:10Each day, you're going to be challenged to create something new and in each case, you must stick to the
02:17strict Bauhaus rules.
02:19There are no tests, no grades and no winners, but all the classes are compulsory.
02:27Oh, and you'll be staging a Bauhaus party on Saturday, so you might want to invite some people along to
02:33that.
02:33Now, what does a Bauhaus conjure up for you?
02:36A very minimal design.
02:38I know there were some really great typographers involved. I really don't know anything, so I'm kind of excited.
02:43Okay, get some nice warm clothes on because your Bauhaus experience begins on the roof.
02:54Swiss painter and teacher Johannes Itten was invited by Walter Gropius to lead a preliminary course for the new students,
03:01the very first of its kind.
03:04He was shaven-headed, strictly vegetarian, and people approached him only in whispers.
03:12Itten believed that to become successful artists, students must gain a greater sense of self-awareness.
03:18And artist Ian Whittlesey has studied the mysterious set of exercises that were designed to achieve this.
03:26Welcome. I'm here to help you discover your own true talents and temperament.
03:32The key to all of the exercises is the breath, and simply breathe slowly in, and slowly out.
03:43Retain the breath, and bend slowly forwards.
03:49Following the horrors of the First World War, the Bauhaus sought to create a new humanity,
03:55and Itten's exercises brought together body, mind and spirit.
04:05I think it's like what they do in Japanese industry, when it works there, it gets everyone kind of together.
04:11Breath in, three circles.
04:13It makes you realize that the day is about to begin.
04:16And out.
04:20The three circles, take your fist and touch the ground.
04:24That's actually not a bad dance.
04:26And down.
04:32If you practice this regularly, you should be able to generate light from within your own body.
04:37As you breathe in, raise your arms, keep your wrists loose and hands dangling.
04:44What's supposed to happen now is that they create light, and it comes out of their body.
04:49And it's said that if you enter a dark room, you will see a glow on the end of your
04:54fingers.
04:55So, now we should be prepared for work.
04:59Your body should be full of energy.
05:01Your mind should be fresh.
05:03And your spirit should be lifted.
05:09It made me feel like I'm very grounded and aware of my surroundings.
05:13It was bizarrely meditative.
05:16I became really aware of my body.
05:17I noticed my hands were, like, slightly different sizes.
05:21They are different sizes.
05:23It's really freaking me out.
05:25Johannes Itten was part of a spiritual cult called Mazdasnen, which was deeply influential amongst students.
05:32About half of the first group of Bauhaus students converted with Itten to Mazdasnen.
05:38So, they followed a special diet and they shaved their heads.
05:43What Itten ultimately believed was that art was a way towards humanity evolving to a total state of spirituality.
05:56Go for it, Itten.
05:59Even the Bauhaus canteen was subject to Itten's Mazdasnen takeover.
06:03So, whether they liked it or not, students were forced to eat a rather potent garlic mush.
06:10Everybody had to eat garlic mush.
06:13People always said that you could smell them coming.
06:15It smells great, though.
06:16It does.
06:18I don't think I could have this every single day.
06:20Compared to what I ate as a student, this isn't too bad.
06:24You really like it.
06:26Give me the recipe.
06:28The Bauhaus was a commune in those early years.
06:32All of the students would have been eating the same thing.
06:36I had no idea that the Bauhaus was so spiritual and mystical.
06:41It's almost like you're going to an art school and then you get there and you find out it's a
06:46monastery.
06:46Yeah.
06:47Eventually, he came to see himself more as a religious figure than an artist and the original Mazdasnen thought somehow
06:56became translated into eugenics and race evolution.
07:00Yeah.
07:02And they had their own workshop in Switzerland called Heriania.
07:08So, there's a sinister side to it all as well.
07:11How do you feel about it?
07:13It's totally not what I expected.
07:15No, nothing at all.
07:16There's this sort of darker side to things.
07:19I don't know how I quite feel about the whole thing at the moment.
07:23Itan's abhorrent views on race were not widely shared at the Bauhaus.
07:27He was brought to the school not as a spiritual leader but as a radical teacher.
07:34Itan believed artists should learn their craft not by copying old masters but by starting from the beginning again and
07:41rediscovering the most basic of materials.
07:44Your task for today is to create an artwork that expresses contrast of materials.
07:50So, you should think of rough and smooth, light and dark, blunt and sharp.
07:55All of your materials need to come from on the ground or from in the bins.
08:01I've had a quick look in there.
08:03There's a lot of rough and smooth.
08:05There's sharp, blunt.
08:06The whole lot's in there.
08:07Are you going after the chair?
08:08Yeah.
08:09Oh, fuck.
08:15Oh my god, garlic.
08:17There's no better place to find materials than the bin.
08:20This is the saddest party ever.
08:23They're rock hard.
08:24I've been in this very skip quite a few times.
08:27So, you've done all this rummaging around.
08:28It started off at the Bauhaus and then ended up in every art school.
08:32It's the first thing you ever do.
08:36This is a tap and a pool of some kind of white mulch that's come out of it.
08:41It's kind of like a condom filled with something.
08:46OK, that's it, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
08:49Load up.
08:50We'll ship it all out and get it up into the studio and make some fine art.
08:56Itton's reinvention of art education didn't end at the rubbish tip.
09:00I've got here a blindfold for each of you and I'd like you to put the blindfold on each other
09:06and feel some of your materials.
09:08Itton believed that artists must engage all of their senses to understand the true nature of materials.
09:15It's light, but I'm feeling the sides, which I wouldn't have normally done.
09:20Still got some sort of life in there. I can smell what's in the inside.
09:25Itton wrote,
09:26The students had to explore this series of textures with their fingertips.
09:31In a short time, their sense of touch improved to an astonishing degree.
09:36Slow down your breathing and think back to when we were on the roof.
09:39And maybe in that way we'll get to a deeper understanding of what it is.
09:44Does that make any difference?
09:46Not really.
09:48Now think about how the contrast between materials reveals the essence of them.
09:54You have an hour and a half.
09:56Now you can begin.
09:58Right. Time to take my senses on a tour of the room.
10:02I have some essences to discover.
10:05Oh!
10:06It's that thing there. It's horrible.
10:09Oh, when you squeeze it.
10:11Oh! I used to, when I was a kid, I used to have nightmares.
10:14It was like rough and smooth. I used to dream in.
10:16Yeah.
10:17And awful nightmares.
10:18And it's right there.
10:20That's weird there, isn't it?
10:22Because you're touching something firm.
10:24And it's jelly-like.
10:25Yeah, exactly.
10:26But I kind of like this just myself.
10:27But do you know what? I can't stop touching that.
10:29No. It's kind of fun, isn't it?
10:30Yeah, it really is.
10:32What's the overall purpose then of today's exercise?
10:35I think at heart is to allow the students to discover a sense of play with things.
10:42This activity allows them to engage with a huge number of materials really quickly
10:48to discover which materials they have an inclination towards.
10:54I'm looking at how the different objects and materials can work together
10:57to balance each other out and form a sculpture just by themselves.
11:01Is that just balanced on there?
11:02Mm-hmm. Yeah, very fragile.
11:04I didn't want to use any tools.
11:06So I'm kind of finding out about these grooves and things that you wouldn't normally pay attention to.
11:10Yeah, the glass on top of the pumice.
11:12Yeah.
11:13So what I'm looking at is how to identify the contrast of materials, but through sound.
11:17It's a new kind of piano, is it?
11:19Yeah, absolutely right.
11:21May I?
11:22Yeah, go for it, go for it.
11:30That's great, mate.
11:32It's very impressive.
11:33Thank you very much.
11:34It doesn't sound that great, but you've got the touch, you've got the horror of that.
11:40You've got everything going there.
11:42And what have we got here?
11:44I've got a bit of a beast.
11:45I'm trying to completely destroy the shape of the original chair.
11:51What my idea is, is that you'd touch this and try to break this, whether you use your face, your
11:56elbows, your hands.
11:57What face?
11:58The bum wrap's quite soft, and it protects things.
12:00So I was kind of thinking, well, what if it does the opposite?
12:02What if it kind of hurts you?
12:03Yeah.
12:03So you'd kind of like, back in your face, pop it with your mouth, get a roller around here, while
12:10blindfolded.
12:11As the Bauhaus students carried out these exercises, Itten was struck by their response.
12:16They were overcome by a creative fever, he said, and rediscovered their entire environment.
12:25It resulted in fantastic creations, which were, at the time, entirely novel.
12:32OK, everyone, time's up.
12:35We'll quickly look at them all together, and then each of you can talk a bit about how it was
12:40to make it.
12:41I wanted to have these clouds that you kind of want to go to, but then play with the desire
12:46of getting to the clouds,
12:48and so I put the broken glass on there.
12:50This is probably the one that looks most like what they made at the Bauhaus.
12:54I've not cut, chopped, or changed any of the objects. They're all exactly how I found them.
12:59Itten would say that it naturally balances because you've found the innate tension within the materials.
13:06Do you want to see a demonstration?
13:08Go on.
13:14One of the things I like most about it is that there's so little evident work.
13:18Yeah.
13:19That's something that we can all take from this.
13:22My piece was totally overworked and slightly over the top. I quite like that.
13:27Itten was interested in allowing people to reveal themselves. As long as it represents you and your thought now, then
13:34it is successful.
13:36I will be very honest. At the beginning, I kind of thought, I don't get how any of this is
13:40helping. I don't find it.
13:41But now sitting here, I'm going, oh, I see it now. I've been like relearning and re-examining what I'm
13:46doing.
13:47Everybody who's ever been to art school begins by doing a foundation course. All of those foundation courses are still
13:54based largely on the structure that Itten brought to them.
13:58What appears to be a very extreme form of mysticism is still bound up with how we teach our artists
14:05today.
14:07When Itten departed after four years at the school, many of his more extreme Mazdasnan practices left with him.
14:14But vegetarianism, daily exercise and experimentation with materials remained at the centre of life at the school.
14:24And the Bauhaus remained a deeply spiritual place, in part through the influence of Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky.
14:33Kandinsky had painted one of the first abstract artworks and he believed in a spiritual connection between shape and colour.
14:42Artist David Batchelor has returned to the theme of colour and geometry frequently in his own work,
14:49which you might have seen illuminating London's South Bank.
14:52Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the artist, David Batchelor.
14:58We're going to start with something really simple, which is a survey,
15:02with a little test I'm going to get you all to do.
15:04The test involves taking three shapes, a triangle, a circle and a square,
15:09and three colours, red, yellow and blue, and giving each shape one of those colours.
15:16But not arbitrarily, you've got to feel the relationship.
15:20OK? Let's go and do it.
15:23I'm just mad about saffron
15:28Saffron's mad about me
15:29OK, ladies and gentlemen, you may turn over your papers.
15:32I'm just mad about saffron
15:36Very neat.
15:39What is it about?
15:41In 1923, Vasily Kandinsky circulated this questionnaire within the Bauhaus and beyond.
15:49He hoped the results would establish a universal correspondence between form and colour.
15:55They call me mellow yellow, quite frankly
15:58They call me mellow yellow, quite frankly
16:00They call me mellow yellow, quite frankly
16:03Oh, damn it.
16:05Is yellow.
16:06The circle
16:09is blue
16:10and, I hope I got this right, the square is red.
16:17Kandinsky felt that there was an intrinsic, deep, interior reason why these shapes and these colours had to belong together.
16:25And if you were a real artist, you could intuitively grasp those essential relationships.
16:33So we now have to find out whether you are real artists.
16:37First one, close but no cigar.
16:40Second one, oh, this one works.
16:44It is, yeah.
16:45Whose is this?
16:46Me!
16:47No, this corresponds precisely to Kandinsky's formula.
16:51I just knew that I wanted to put yellow with the triangle.
16:54I always feel like yellow's quite an unsettling colour.
16:57You said here yellow's a warning sign.
16:59Yeah, and the warning signs...
17:01Do you drive?
17:03There was only one other person who got it right, and that is me.
17:09So, the task we're going to set you today involves making something, anything, that employs the three primary colours and
17:19these three basic shapes.
17:20Kandinsky believed that if you get these relationships right, the whole work will have an inner harmony.
17:25I want you to make your work with this feeling of harmony about it.
17:32While art students of the past had been taught to paint landscapes and portraits, Kandinsky encouraged his students to explore
17:40the creative forces of colours and shapes.
17:44Blue had a depth which was emphasised in a circle and even evoked the taste of fresh figs.
17:52I want all the colours and shapes to harmonise together and kind of evolve in and out to each other.
17:58Kandinsky fundamentally believed that certain colours and certain forms and certain musical tones and certain moods all had these almost
18:07magical correspondences to each other.
18:09Itten was kind of quasi-religious and so was Kandinsky and it seems to be a recurring thing in the
18:17Bauhaus.
18:17It all sounds pretty wacky today but immediately after World War One you've got a world which appears to be
18:25falling apart and they're trying to stick it back together again in a new way.
18:30The artist becomes this figure who can somehow lead the world on their spiritual quest.
18:35So come up and join me here in my heavens.
18:39Are you guys going to keep within the colours that he told us what the rules were?
18:44I'm not going to stick to what was said. You're not saying those colours, yeah.
18:47No, I mean there's a reason why all mine were wrong.
18:49I don't agree with it, so...
18:51I'm doing what I did in the questionnaire, not what Kandinsky did because I trust myself more than Kandinsky, which
18:58is probably a Ricky error.
19:00I'm not sure if I agree with the colours.
19:02You rebels.
19:04But I'm quite enjoying the rigidity.
19:07Well, David, what do you think? A lot of them have disregarded all of Kandinsky's rules.
19:11Oh, frankly, I'm delighted.
19:14What are they going to get out of today?
19:16If you can radically limit, you know, the shape and form and colour that you can work with, it gives
19:22you something to push against.
19:25Kandinsky believed that students should start from the simplest forms and work up from there.
19:33It's a bit weird for me because I never work with, like, straight lines and these primary colours.
19:38You can take the circle or the triangle in this way and then destroy them.
19:42You can slice them up.
19:44It feels like I'm back at, like, primary school or something and I haven't discovered mixing yet.
19:49I'm going to make this a lantern. The lantern's going to be called my Bauhaus.
19:53Are you going to paint it?
19:54Yeah, I'll paint it and then the clay will hopefully air dry with the paint on it as well.
19:59Don't take a while for it to air dry, you know.
20:02It's crossed.
20:03So I'm thinking of making a kind of garment all cut out of triangles.
20:10Yeah.
20:10So that's an iron-on foil.
20:12Do you know how it works?
20:14No.
20:15Not a clue.
20:18There's some ambitious designs here, but the clock is ticking.
20:22Will they crack under pressure, collapse under the weight of expectation, fall at the final hurdle?
20:29I've not actually used this before.
20:33OK, nothing happens.
20:35I really don't like working with primary colours, so that's why I'm a bit stressed about this time.
20:40So the good news is the walls are done.
20:42The bad news is it's not drying as quick as I thought it would.
20:46Ah, yeah.
20:47Oh, no.
20:49I'm making a full alphabet.
20:51I've got two M and I've got less than an hour left.
20:53We usually put a fixed one in it.
20:56OK, I think I've got the wrong idea of what this foil actually does.
21:04Students, you have 45 minutes left.
21:09So make good use of it.
21:13My foiling didn't work. I've had to spray them out no more.
21:16I'm trying to think of household items that I can deconstruct in a simple way.
21:20What, is this a see-saw?
21:21It's a shoe.
21:23Is it?
21:23It's a shoe, yeah.
21:25Oh, don't ask for that one.
21:28Is that the saucy one?
21:30Yeah.
21:31Sex aid.
21:34I mean, if that's a sex aid, then surely the teapot could be as well.
21:39Depends on what you're into.
21:41Well, I'd probably go for the teapot.
21:44I can see that it's the alphabet.
21:46Mm-hmm.
21:47I'm not entirely sure if I'll finish all 26 by the end of this time.
21:52Can it be a shortened alphabet?
21:54No.
21:55At the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition, Kandinsky's correspondence theory could be seen everywhere,
22:01from a mural design to a child's cradle.
22:06All right, people, time's up.
22:09Finish your artworks and bring them over here for display.
22:16It's still wet. I can't pick it up.
22:19You're going to have to, otherwise you're disqualified from life.
22:26I think you've been extraordinarily resourceful with very limited range of stuff to work with,
22:32and I think that's the point.
22:33This was my kind of failure, and I became really interested in the kind of offcuts.
22:38So this is now a do-it-yourself Kandinsky.
22:41Even though it sounds quite strict what the Bauhaus was up to with these rules,
22:46I think there actually was plenty of room for improvisation.
22:49And I think often with art, the bits that are left over have a sort of life and a charm
22:52to them that the art doesn't have.
22:54Who did these small bits of felt?
22:56Those would be me.
22:57I quite like the way you've got the sewn line provides a different kind of linear element.
23:01These actually look very much like little Bauhaus experiments.
23:05Yes.
23:06What have you got? Six, twelve, fifteen different designs.
23:10What, for example, is this one?
23:13It's a sofa.
23:14Obviously.
23:15This one?
23:16That is a teapot.
23:18This one's interesting. What's that?
23:21Oh, my God, are you really going to say it?
23:22It is a...
23:23You said they're all going to be sort of household, domestic things.
23:26Yeah, they are.
23:27They are.
23:27So where would you find that?
23:30In a couple's bedroom.
23:32Uh-huh.
23:32Yeah.
23:33Is it a butt plug?
23:36It's a butt plug.
23:38It's a butt plug.
23:39After completing a successful work, Bauhaus students would sometimes mark the occasion with a candlelit celebration.
23:47I think it would be interesting to still spend more time on this and think about harmonising and balancing these
23:52colours and forms.
23:53I think it made a difference yesterday of starting with the breathing exercises and it was very calming.
23:58Yeah.
23:59And then today we started with a test.
24:01It's like, do you think you know about colour?
24:02You don't.
24:04I really like to say just having the rules and either make them or break them.
24:08I got on with it much better than I did, yeah, so.
24:12Kandinsky transformed students' understanding of what it meant to be an artist.
24:16But the school's founder, Walter Gropius, had radical ideas of his own.
24:21An architect by trade, he encouraged students to direct their artistic gaze to the practical world around them.
24:29Rethinking the modern home in keeping with the spirit of the times.
24:34The Bauhaus forged relationships with leaders of industry across the country and today will be no different.
24:42Ladies and gentlemen, today please welcome Kate Butler, the Head of Product Design at Habitat.
24:49APPLAUSE
24:51This chair that you can see is one of the most iconic designs of the Bauhaus.
24:57Marcel Brewer took the inspiration from the handles of a bicycle.
25:01He just stripped it right back to its purest, simplest form.
25:05It sort of floats in these geometric simple shapes.
25:09It does look like it could have been made yesterday.
25:12I can see Dominic sitting in that.
25:16You're looking good in that. That's really working.
25:19It's almost a little bit intimidating, the chair, because it's kind of perfect.
25:22I don't see how I could improve it anyway.
25:25Broyer's Vasily chair was revered for its continuous line design and his tubular steel furniture completely reimagined the modern home.
25:35For today's task you are going to create a functional item for the home.
25:41Form must follow function and you will only be able to use basic techniques to create it.
25:47I can't do simplicity. I always just go overboard.
25:52You're going to be working in the metal workshop and you're going to be paired up for this, so use
25:57each other.
25:57There was a view at the Bauhaus that women couldn't think in 3D, so see what you make of that.
26:06Can you think in 3D?
26:08Well, we've got to prove that wrong.
26:10Let's go and prove them wrong.
26:13After their first year, everyone entered specialist workshops, but student Marianne Brandt wrote,
26:19the general opinion was that the metal workshop was no place for a woman.
26:26We're going to start with sketching your ideas on paper.
26:30You have one hour.
26:33Which ones are our favourites?
26:36Yeah, Teepo and Caffety Island we like.
26:38The function is to mainly just make a nice cup of coffee.
26:41In my head it would normally be like function follows form,
26:44because I don't normally make things that have a function.
26:46In a departure from the past, the Bauhaus gave equal weight to craft as it did fine art.
26:53Students were encouraged to create everyday objects that would serve the needs of the modern individual.
26:59When I'm sat at the table at home eating my dinner with my family,
27:03I always feel bad for my dog because I left out on the floor.
27:06So we thought we could build like a dog high chair.
27:10So your dog's eating with you at the table?
27:11Yes, it's kind of on our level.
27:13Do the rest of the family agree with this?
27:15I doubt it.
27:16It could have like a detachable cage depending on how much you trust your dog.
27:22We're thinking about the needs of millennials today.
27:24So what is it?
27:25It's a portable bird bar.
27:27Slash feeder, slash perch.
27:29You can put this on your bird's sill so you can encourage nature to come.
27:34What if you get a kind of brutal pigeon that's going to land down and it's going to kick it
27:39over, isn't it?
27:40Yeah, it might do.
27:42Maybe you get some hooks and hook it over your bird's sill.
27:46Right everyone, time is up.
27:49Let's start with the function.
27:51So we wanted to look at millennial urbanites who are moving from flat to flat all the time and you
27:57know your traditional bird bath is this like massive stone kind of thing and you need a garden.
28:02The idea is a good one, you know, adapt to what modern life is like.
28:06It's just that you don't want it to get fussy.
28:08We've created a high chair for dogs.
28:13It's got two frames which will kind of create the height and then we've got one sheet of metal which
28:20will include the ladder and the seat and the eating plate.
28:26Is it a ladder?
28:28So practically speaking, how is the dog going to get up the ladder?
28:32Climb up.
28:33We have got a cafeteria.
28:35You have no plunger mechanism so it wouldn't actually work.
28:38We just haven't figured out in terms of actually working.
28:42Actually making it work.
28:42Yeah.
28:44Luckily, Ricky's on hand.
28:46Alongside their artist teachers, Bauhaus students were trained in manual skills by specialist technicians known as Masters of Craft.
28:56It's actually quite difficult to make a cutting like this and you'll get a weak point there.
29:00Yeah.
29:01You might need to think about an external handle.
29:03We haven't got that long.
29:04So chop chop.
29:05In the early days of the Bauhaus, Gropius complained that the students were lacking a sense of craft.
29:11He said, apprentices, journeymen, at present these terms are a joke.
29:18That's actually terrible.
29:22I think that's really bad.
29:25We're a bit behind.
29:27We've had to re-measure everything, being the all-female team.
29:32We've got a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.
29:34Yeah.
29:34Walter Gropius wrote, whether a container, a chair or a house, it must perform its function in a practical way
29:43and be durable, inexpensive and beautiful.
29:48Do you think our students are onto anything in there?
29:51Yeah.
29:51There was stuff to work out.
29:53The cafeteria, I don't think that they've reconciled what it actually is.
29:57What does the mechanism look like?
29:59How's it going to pour?
30:00The function might be compromised.
30:02But through failing and struggling and adapting, it hopefully will have improved.
30:08Yeah, so we've got the interior.
30:11How's it going over here then, huh?
30:13It's going well.
30:14When that's full of coffee, it's going to be pretty weighty.
30:17That's true.
30:18Could you say this is a model, but twice size?
30:21Yeah.
30:21Have we scaled it up?
30:23Yeah, we scaled it up.
30:24Collaboration was one of the founding principles of the Bauhaus.
30:27There you go.
30:28But will today's pairings prove fruitful, or will the students be left with no bananas?
30:35Nice cut.
30:36Oh, it went down the back.
30:38It's kind of quite curved.
30:42Yeah, I put loads on.
30:47I'm trying to fashion some sort of a handle on it.
30:50Ah, it's the old handle problem.
30:51The handle problem.
30:53Wow.
30:55That's all I've got to say about this.
30:57We've got a dog now.
31:01It's working, Kate.
31:03We're trying to make the nest.
31:04Oh, look, it's working.
31:08OK, everyone, time's up.
31:10Put down your glue guns and pop rivets.
31:13Kate's going to be here any second now to judge your work in a designer-ish way.
31:19So, bring it all over.
31:21Let's lay out the cafetiere.
31:23The bird feeder.
31:26The dog table walking device.
31:31I don't know how easy a dog could climb up this.
31:34It might be a bit slippery.
31:35But actually, I can see that continuous line spirit of the Vasily chair.
31:40It has to be celebrated because it's a very original idea.
31:44Yeah.
31:44I think the proportions are wrong because it is huge and it's sort of mass catering style cafetiere.
31:52Let's think of it as a coffee pot bringing art and design to a building site.
31:58And a lot of builders who are very thirsty.
32:01Wow.
32:03There's also the bath.
32:06Oh, you've done the bath.
32:07Yeah.
32:08And the storage space for the bird feed.
32:11And what about the base?
32:13Actually, we kind of wanted to have that continuous line.
32:16It's very neat and sharp and kind of quite pure.
32:19Yeah.
32:19So it seems, it's the women what won it.
32:23Female students may have been discouraged from entering the metal workshop.
32:27But Marianne Brandt rebelled, producing some of the Bauhaus' most enduring designs.
32:32I was a bit nervous this morning when Kate mentioned about the girls in the Bauhaus.
32:39And then when Kate liked it at the end, I was just like, ah, yes!
32:42I think it really helped me to see how you can fuse, like, fine art with product design.
32:49Working with Lizzie today, a fine artist, like, I've not done that before.
32:53So I think that was, like, the most different but the best part.
32:56I didn't do that much collaboration on my foundation, so I think it's nice being able to work with someone.
33:02I think it worked really well, and I kind of wish we'd have had more opportunities like that at university.
33:07Bauhaus is the cornerstone of contemporary design.
33:10We use the principles every day.
33:13From lighting, to wallpaper, to chess sets, the work produced by the Bauhaus was unrecognisable from that of art academies
33:22before it.
33:23But sculptor Gerhard Marx warned,
33:25production must never be allowed to become the goal in itself, otherwise the Bauhaus will become just another factory.
33:34The appointment of Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy ensured that, far from a factory, the school became a hive of
33:43experimentation.
33:43He encouraged students to seek out fresh perspectives through new media, like photography.
33:51Please welcome Constanza Isaza Martinez.
33:55Constanza is at the forefront of today's experimental photography scene.
33:59For today's task, you must create a photograph that explores the theme of light and shadow. The only catch is,
34:06you can't use a camera.
34:09Yes, what?
34:10I have no idea what to expect.
34:13I bet you took loads of photographs on your phone.
34:14I know nothing about the old techniques.
34:17All you've got is some chemicals and a piece of paper.
34:19Yeah.
34:20Moholy-Nagy breathed new life into camera-less photography with what he dubbed the photogram.
34:27It involves simply placing objects on light-sensitive paper and exposing them to light.
34:33What we're going to be doing here is the kind of planning and design phase.
34:36What you see here, when it's black, it's going to be white in your print.
34:40How's that?
34:42Does it work?
34:43Yeah, you can even see eyelashes.
34:44I remember doing this in the 80s when photocopiers first appeared.
34:51With your face?
34:53No, with my arms.
34:54That's what I thought.
34:56What did Moholy-Nagy bring to the photogram?
34:59Well, Moholy-Nagy was really interested in the abstract possibilities of the medium and in a new way of seeing.
35:07And just a way of using the medium that really pushed the limits of what people had thought photography was
35:13capable of.
35:14For Moholy-Nagy, the preparation was key.
35:18He said, the choice of object, segment, light and shadow are highly creative, artistic decisions.
35:26Is that a little salt?
35:27Yeah.
35:28I'll be honest, I'm a bit bored because I just want to go up there and play.
35:31I don't like this sense of planning, which is a bit anti-Bowhouse in a way.
35:35I'm really looking forward to being in the dark room because at the moment I've just been taking those photos
35:40on my phone.
35:40Yeah, I've never been in one.
35:42I've never used one, ever.
35:43I don't even know.
35:44Remember that your paper is not sensitive to red light, so a piece of this would be the same as
35:50having a black sheet on top.
35:54At the Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy worked in makeshift dark rooms with his wife, Lucia.
36:01Today, the students will be assisted in the dark room by Melanie King from the London Alternative Photography Collective.
36:08What on earth's happening here?
36:11So I want to look at the movement of my hand.
36:14Ready? One, two, three.
36:16As Ammar exposes his image, everything he blocks out to light will be white.
36:22Cool.
36:22Well timed.
36:24My heart was beating.
36:25Now for the developing stage.
36:28What will emerge?
36:30Oh, look.
36:31Oh, wow.
36:32That's worked really well.
36:34I spent all the last night practising turning your hand over in five seconds.
36:39OK, one, two, three.
36:45Oh, wow.
36:47I'm going to be a bit weird and...
36:51Shall I use a paper?
36:53Goodness.
36:53You forgot to put the kitchen sink on.
37:00Wispy.
37:02It's like when you push your face deep into a hedge.
37:07I'm going to make my own tribute to Moholy-Nagy, who reinvented the self-portrait with his photograms.
37:14But I've moved on since the 1980s.
37:16This time, I'm going to use my face.
37:20Wow.
37:21Cool.
37:22It does look a bit like smoke and balls, doesn't it?
37:26I think it looks like a black cat in a wig.
37:29Yeah.
37:30OK, I'm going to leave you to do your second one.
37:32I look forward to seeing the results.
37:37They're going to be the eyes, hopefully.
37:41Gloves as a pair.
37:43Fabulous.
37:46Moholy-Nagy was trying to get a very deep connection with his materials and a really deep understanding of how
37:53they worked and how they reacted to certain things.
37:55Oh, my God.
37:59Half a bit white.
38:00Yeah, why is half a bit white?
38:02It might be a red cellophane.
38:04I just think that this is very relevant artistically because people are really striving for that hands-on way of
38:11making images.
38:13Ooh!
38:15Hello.
38:17Let's see if we can guess who did which.
38:21Erm, Dominic.
38:23No.
38:25Nailed it, yeah.
38:26Yeah.
38:27Yeah.
38:27It's that flash-style hand.
38:30That one.
38:30Who did that?
38:31Me.
38:32It went a bit wrong, though.
38:34Yeah, what happened there?
38:35I had this cellophane, which I thought was clear, but it turned out it was orange, but you can't see
38:41it in the darkroom, and it completely blocked the light.
38:43Is this supposed to look like a face?
38:45Yeah, yeah.
38:48It's very playful, isn't it?
38:49I just want to have fun with it.
38:51You've been really, really experimental in your approach and really creative, I think, in your choice of objects and your
38:57compositions.
38:58It's really made me look at the materials, like, the beauty that is kind of found in this, like, cellophane
39:05or cling film.
39:06These everyday materials, like, we just never think about.
39:09You know, this is when we realise how powerful light can be to create something so beautiful, something so inspired
39:14in just a short amount of time.
39:16So that's been, like, the most eye-opening thing, I think, for me.
39:18Well, Moholy-Nage manipulated his distinctive photograms to create strikingly modern images in the emerging field of graphic design.
39:28To experiment in this new medium, a printing and advertising workshop was set up at the school.
39:34At its helm was Austrian designer Herbert Bayer, a former student who designed the famous geometric lettering on the Bauhaus
39:42building.
39:43His work has had a huge impact on graphic designer Neville Brody, best known for his bold designs for The
39:50Face magazine.
39:51Neville Brody!
39:54Thank you, Jim.
39:56Tomorrow evening, you're going to have a costume party, and the theme is going to be metal.
40:00The challenge today is to create a poster to promote this.
40:04The poster has to be communicating the subject really clearly, and it has to be attention-seeking.
40:10So I'm sure you guys are going to be well up for all of that.
40:14There's only two rules. You can't mix uppercase and lowercase.
40:21And you have to include an element which is part of a new language which you're going to invent.
40:26This, out of all of the days, is the most sort of on-home turf for me.
40:30Is your brain worrying?
40:31No, it's really, really blank.
40:33You've got no ideas.
40:34This is so unusual to me.
40:36Don't worry and just be crazily imaginative.
40:38I've got an example here of Herbert Bayer typography.
40:41I mean, it's quite amazing, really, how modern this looks.
40:45I really don't like that. It just makes it...
40:47You don't like it?
40:47It makes it hard to read.
40:48But it communicates the theme accurately, which is a kind of crazy costume party.
40:54So you've got about an hour and a half for this, for this sketch.
41:01I'm looking at weapons.
41:05So I've stabbed the word.
41:07That's quite aggressive.
41:09I quite like the idea of having the scientific element of metal.
41:14That reads through the periodic table.
41:16Oh, my God!
41:18The periodic table totally goes against our rule of uppercase and lowercase.
41:22Because it's all one capital and one lower.
41:24Damn!
41:26I can work on a Bauhaus symbol.
41:27The symbol can be something that all represents our entire project.
41:34What's that?
41:36Clad.
41:36The clad is just all our initials put together.
41:40At the Bauhaus, fonts and symbols were continually reinvented and experimented with, breaking the established rules of typography.
41:51Anything jump out?
41:52Yep.
41:53This jumps out.
41:54Yeah, I think that's too much.
41:56Maybe that's me and then...
41:57Yeah, but you have this readability obsession.
41:59But sometimes it needs to be literal.
42:02But for a crazy costume party?
42:05What I liked about this was that there's a new language element here.
42:08It's like a rewind button.
42:10Yeah.
42:11But it's turning it into a letter form as well, which Bauhaus would have loved.
42:16There's one thing missing for me, which is a kind of human element.
42:19This does feel a little bit like it's going to be a car repair party.
42:23Yeah.
42:25The Bauhaus created designs for journals, posters and invites promoting the artistic activity of the school.
42:32And they were often experimental in nature.
42:35It was all about attention seeking, attention grabbing, being direct, being appealing.
42:41And they built a lot of the principles that we now know as advertising.
42:45I think they really helped us step out of the decorative, illustrative style of the Victorians and step into a
42:52modern era.
42:53The Bauhaus used a printing process known as letterpress.
42:58And guiding our students through the technique is Helen Ingham, their master of craft for the day.
43:05That would work out. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
43:08Yeah, you could cut that.
43:10Shall we get on and do it?
43:11Yeah, let's start laying it out.
43:13Herbert Baer said, I'm only going to use sans serif type.
43:17The serif is a little dangling point, isn't it?
43:19The serif is the bit that sticks out.
43:21A bit of fancy.
43:22Baer said, you know, this is just decoration.
43:24Don't need it. Get rid of it.
43:25And I don't need uppercase and lowercase.
43:27So he just kept reducing and reducing.
43:31I don't know what Neville's going to think of it.
43:32And frankly, I feel quite pressured.
43:34He was very much looked up to in the type and graphic design world.
43:38Having him here is no joke.
43:42It's quite nerve-wracking.
43:43We want to see a kind of collage of human and the metal tools.
43:48We can go to Ricky and ask him for just like a load of fun stuff.
43:55Ricky, are we going to have a rifle through your bits and bobs?
43:58Absolutely.
43:59I've got a hat.
44:01Love it.
44:13Bauhaus students made use of cutting edge advertising techniques designed to catch the viewer's eye.
44:18They frequently cut together images from multiple sources in a process known as photomontage.
44:25Put your arms at funny angles, I think.
44:27Or do I look like I've just jumped off a building? I don't know.
44:30Cool.
44:31Do you want to put some chains on your hand?
44:36The chains just make it look sexual.
44:38Yeah, I think it got a bit weird.
44:43Sometimes the letters will push outside of the boundaries, even if it's only by a fraction or a hairline.
44:48That could really throw off the whole composition.
44:50I thought the four would fit perfectly in this space, but it's ever so slightly too wide.
44:56It's sort of maths meets Tetris in a lot of ways.
45:01One of Baer's students wrote,
45:03A joy in experimentation developed, heedless of every extreme.
45:08All right, moment of truth.
45:10Ah, nice.
45:14Ooh, can you put your hand in there?
45:18Yeah.
45:19Ooh!
45:19That's interesting.
45:20Yeah, I like that, and I also like those bits together.
45:23Get your face on there.
45:30That's worked quite well, hasn't it?
45:34I want the beginning and the end letters to be sort of symbols,
45:38because that's like a rewind button, that's like a play button,
45:40so it kind of works in that sense.
45:43I know, right?
45:44Trace it off, flip the tracing paper over,
45:48put some chalk on the back of the tracing paper,
45:50and then we can transfer it.
45:52Great, fabulous.
45:54Thank you very much.
45:56What I like about this sort of process is that it goes back to that very analogue way of working,
46:00and in my own practice I'm very, very digital.
46:03If I was set this brief, I would just go straight to the computer.
46:07There's no way I'd bother even letter pressing,
46:10because that just takes time.
46:12I'd like to keep it as analogue as possible.
46:16Just going to put the last few bits of lead on,
46:19and then we should be done.
46:22Hello!
46:23We have the central image.
46:26A bit more of a minimal one.
46:28It's going to be difficult to print, I'll tell you that.
46:31The Bauhaus were one of the first institutions to pull together typography and photography into one place,
46:38and set basically the pattern for commercial design for the next 100 years.
46:46That's really nice.
46:47That's really nice.
46:50I think that's the best one, yeah.
46:55Yes!
46:56That's lovely.
46:57That's good, isn't it?
46:58Yeah, that's really nice.
47:00Is everyone pleased with it?
47:01Yeah, I'm happy with that.
47:03Have you changed your mind since this morning?
47:04No, but...
47:07But I do like that.
47:09That's all right, then.
47:09You're just more than me, will you?
47:12That's it.
47:13There we are, look, that's me.
47:14You've got a cloud on your face.
47:17That's really punk.
47:19Right, I'm going to go and get Neville now.
47:21Choose your favourite three and lay them out.
47:27Which do you think?
47:28That's pretty stunning.
47:30You've got your kind of new invented forms going on, which is brilliant.
47:35It's definitely attention-seeking.
47:38This one feels a bit more metallic, but this is the sort of one I'd want as a poster.
47:43So, for me, that's the winner.
47:46So, well done, guys. I think that's brilliant.
47:48And very much in the kind of Bauhaus style of creating through making.
47:53Thank you very much.
47:54See you later.
47:55See you later.
47:56And enjoy the party.
47:57Today, I think it's been quite difficult because this way of working is very, like, technical and slow-paced.
48:03I work fast and produce a lot of kind of bad work.
48:09I always enjoy any time that I spend in letterpress, but I still learned a lot today.
48:13I realise you guys did the photocollage, but that's something completely alien to me.
48:17I'm normally very rigid grids working in quite a structured way.
48:22Would you take this further in your practice in terms of collaborating with, like, fine artists and then just seeing
48:27what they produce and trying to work together?
48:28I'd love to, yeah, because I think your two brains work in a completely different way to me, but they
48:33still produce work that I really like.
48:35Yeah.
48:37The Bauhaus taught students that creativity didn't stem from the individual alone.
48:43Collaboration between courses was actively encouraged.
48:47And what better way to do this than a party?
48:50From a kite festival to a Chinese lantern party and even a beard, nose and heart party.
48:57The Bauhaus went big on fun.
49:00And leading them all was Oskar Schlemmer, the German artist, costume designer and choreographer who ran the Bauhaus theatre group.
49:09Schlemmer has had a big influence on acclaimed fashion designer Holly Fulton, known for her Bauhaus inspired prints.
49:18Welcome to the final day of the Bauhaus experiment.
49:22The metal party is going to be held in here today.
49:27And to explain more about that, please welcome Holly Fulton.
49:32APPLAUSE
49:35Good morning.
49:36Your task today is to stage a costume ball based on the theme of metal.
49:41And you must also dress as gallery space at St Martin's for the occasion.
49:45I would encourage you to think big.
49:47This is about creating dynamic, interesting shapes.
49:50Masters and students will also take part in the Bauhaus dance.
49:54In pairs but without touching.
49:56And leaping and wild stamping of feet are absolutely essential.
50:00This is a real opportunity to let your imagination run riot.
50:03I can't wait.
50:04It's a time to go crazy. I like this.
50:07So, your guests are going to be arriving at 4 o'clock, but I'd get a move on if I
50:12was you.
50:12A metal party was held at the Bauhaus in February 1929, with costumes and room decoration fashioned out of everyday
50:21objects.
50:22This is some of the delights that we've assembled for you to work with today.
50:25A lot of foil. You're going to need that.
50:28We've got thermal blankets.
50:30I'm excited about this.
50:31Mmm.
50:32It's a star piece.
50:34I feel like we need a concept.
50:36I was thinking about, like, magnetic fields.
50:39Ooh.
50:39And linking that.
50:40Oh, my God, yeah, yeah.
50:41Yeah, because, like, some of us will repel and some of us will attract.
50:44Yeah.
50:44I think of it as a very sensory experience.
50:47Yeah.
50:49Sensory or sensual?
50:50Well, he'd be boss.
50:53We need more stuff.
50:54Follow me.
51:00That struck.
51:01Oh, my God, those streamers.
51:03Oh, my God.
51:05That was really lovely.
51:06Oh, my God, this is perfect.
51:07I think we should get at least one shower head.
51:11Oh, my God.
51:13I'm making a little accessory that I might utilise myself at the party.
51:18It's a whole body change.
51:21Oh, my God.
51:22Yeah.
51:23Oh, my God, mirror.
51:25Oh, and it's only three quid.
51:26Let's get loads.
51:27Let's just get more.
51:30Thank you very much.
51:31You too.
51:32Bye.
51:35Hey.
51:36Welcome back.
51:39These are amazing.
51:41I'm loving this mirror.
51:43People conceive the Black House as quite a kind of serious, almost quite a steer in its aesthetic.
51:48The parties in particular showed there was this real playful side.
51:51And I think it was really just an opportunity for the students and the Masters across all the different disciplines
51:56to come together and use it as a sort of playground for creativity.
52:00I actually really enjoy working with Amar because I think what he brings and what I have just compliments each
52:05other really well.
52:05I'm quite a literal thinker, quite rational.
52:08And, like, darn what brings a flavour to it.
52:10There's probably a healthy competition to come up with something that was totally their own each time.
52:15I've got a little crown.
52:17Oh, my God.
52:18That's so good.
52:20They need to pick up the pace.
52:21Might have to get a metal whip out.
52:25That sounds like a buy-the-house party.
52:29OK, people, come on, you've got less than two hours.
52:32I think this really needs to start looking like it's a party area.
52:35What do you think?
52:36I think that's definitely a winning look.
52:38Oscar Schlemmer's abstract costume designs were groundbreaking in their originality.
52:43And at the parties, his outlandish ideas were turned into reality by the students.
52:49It's fucking good.
52:50Go on, try it.
52:51What, put it on?
52:53That's pretty good.
52:54Hey, what about for you? That goes on the top of it.
52:57Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
52:59That goes, that's brilliant.
53:01You've got, like, a hugely long head.
53:03At the Bauhaus metal party, Oscar Schlemmer recalls,
53:07a child's slide covered in white sheet metal led one past immeasurable gleaming silver balls,
53:15lined up and sparkling under spotlights right into the heart of the party.
53:20Oh, it's moving on at quite a pace, isn't it?
53:23Oh, oh, oh!
53:28Yes, who needs a band?
53:30This is great, isn't it?
53:33It's like, erm, what's that game? Bowls, that old man game.
53:37Oh!
53:39Jim!
53:40Let's put that back.
53:43Have you thought about the dance at all yet?
53:45Yeah.
53:46We're doing, like, opposites attract.
53:48Whatever A does, B does the opposite.
53:51And then they swap.
53:51Do you think this is a good signal, then, for the next person to take the lead?
53:55I think that's a really good signal.
53:57Everybody's been going through these sets of rules this week, and, like,
54:01we've not broken them that much.
54:03We've kind of dunced around the perimeters of rules, and I guess that's what we'll be doing here.
54:06When do guests come?
54:08In, like, 25 minutes.
54:09How?
54:0925 minutes.
54:11Oh, my God.
54:12Shall we get change?
54:13Yeah, let's get dressed.
54:17I'm going to attempt to make a metallic cyclops horse that may wander into the party at some point.
54:24So what I need to do is cut a hole in it about there.
54:30Head through there.
54:32These are the legs.
54:38How's it look?
54:39Oh, my God.
54:40Does it work?
54:41You're like a deformed Dalek.
54:43Is it?
54:44It's quite disturbing.
54:46It's quite difficult to control.
54:51Me eye's gone.
54:54Have you got me eye?
54:56Anyone?
55:01Okay, people, are you ready?
55:03Yes!
55:04Yes, you're ready.
55:06Is that a baby in there?
55:07A womb-like feature.
55:09Yes, it is.
55:10Now, look, wearing the helmet that I designed, that is quite Bauhaus, that, actually.
55:15Yeah.
55:17Lizzie, that's just frightening.
55:20It's like a very disturbed relative of Neptune.
55:25Honestly, I've never been more excited.
55:28You pulled it out of the bag again.
55:30Come on, party people.
55:32Party time!
55:36Schlemmer remembers the Bauhaus band had dressed festively in coquettish silver top hats,
55:43and it launched into the music with great elan, rhythm and verve.
55:50Guests were served lovely cakes with a bit of glitter.
55:55Nut-free and vegan.
55:57Oh, it's amazing.
55:58I love the decoration.
56:00What do you think she looks like?
56:02Um, cleaning apparatus.
56:04Oh!
56:05I was thinking, like, goddess.
56:07OK.
56:08If you look into here, you can see your future.
56:11Oh, my God, no.
56:14It's all falling apart.
56:16OK, everybody, prepare for the Bauhaus dance.
56:25OK, opposites.
56:26But how am I going to mirror Holly's moves if I can't see through me helmet?
56:35The Bauhaus may have brought in strict principles of art and design,
56:40but crucially, it gave students the freedom to experiment with new ideas.
56:46Bringing together young people across every creative field,
56:50it invented the art school as we know it.
56:53And this collaborative spirit came together most of all in the parties,
56:58where the legacy of the Bauhaus is very much alive here today.
57:06Is everyone gone?
57:08Had them all gone?
57:13We left you all by yourself.
57:15I'm, like, actually so on breath.
57:17Oh, absolutely.
57:17You wouldn't believe how much hate that generates inside this.
57:21I think every dance ever should be like this.
57:23It's so freeing.
57:25I thought that was a strong performance.
57:28It encapsulated the spirit of what they've done today
57:30and the spirit of the Bauhaus.
57:31We didn't do any leaping, though.
57:33We'll let it slide since it's the last day.
57:35I thought that was a superb end to an excellent week.
57:41I hold my ball up to you all.
57:44That dance could not be more different
57:46than the meditative breathing on the first day.
57:49Imagine on Monday if we knew we'd have all looked like this together at the end.
57:53I feel like I could do the whole week again.
57:55Right now.
57:56I've never done so many projects collaboratively across so many different...
58:01It's been intense.
58:01Yeah, it's been intense.
58:02Imagine if you did this for three years.
58:05I'd love it.
58:06It'd completely change you as a person, I think, doing this for longer than a week.
58:10Well, well done, everyone.
58:12What a fabulous week.
58:14Do you know what it is?
58:14As well, I think everyone's kind of bonded and we've all got on and we've enjoyed helping each other out
58:20and working on things,
58:21which is what the bounce was all about.
58:23Let's finish off with a little dance.
58:25Finally but with a unity of mental health, we live in the finals and you may find that not everything.
58:43Goodbye.
58:46Goodbye.
58:46Goodbye.
58:47Goodbye, my friends.
58:48Goodbye.
58:50Goodbye above you.
58:53Goodbye.
58:56I think that should be the final frame of the film.
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