A FORGOTTEN FOUNDATION OF THE BAUHAUS: PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL AESTHETICS AND THE INCEPTION OF MODERN DESIGN THEORY

This dissertation investigates the Bauhaus during its activity in Weimar and Dessau, as a pedagogical paradigm of modern era that drew upon different aesthetic ideas of its past, which were set in motion by a vigorous interaction with human sciences during the era of 1890-1914. As a much-contested account of modernism, the story of the Bauhaus has been rewritten in many ways. While the dominant narrative considered the school as a forceful, autonomous entity that stood triumphant in its supposed denial of history and an innovation in modern pedagogy, studies that challenge this autonomy have been exclusive to social and political precedents of the Wilhelmine era. Yet, there remains a significant need in scholarship to fully grasp the scope of the Bauhaus as an aesthetic paradigm that goes beyond an elusive devotion to modern aesthetic ideals. My inquiry aims to position the Bauhaus as an outcome of a broader epistemological framework of its immediate past. Primarily set to address the aesthetics of everyday objects, scientific endeavors in psychology and psychophysiology during this time initiated a new aesthetics, whose main aim I argue, was to render a more humanistic prospect for modern art and architecture. This different connotation of modernity was decisive to counteract the extreme skepticism and negative mentality towards technological progress that was devoid of emotion and affect. Through discussing four discursive themes, I concoct a trajectory of different artistic attempts during 1890-1914 that act as precedents to those of the Bauhaus in 1920s. By so doing, this study highlights a significant contribution to inception of modern design at the Bauhaus: the interaction of human sciences with aesthetics at the turn of the century. This new aesthetics sought to understand its perceptual borders and created a theory of affect that engaged the Bauhaus more than it has been acknowledged in the scholarship. Although this new theory pervaded artistic realms through its interaction with social aspects of design, theories of craft and industry, and modern abstraction, it still remains a forgotten contribution to the Bauhaus. As such, the era of 1890-1914 shaped modern architectural theory more vigorously than previously realized.Ph.D. in Architecture, December 201