Bauhaus to Blockchain : "Gesamtkunstwerk"

Bauhaus literally translates to "Construction House" or "the school of building." The school was founded in 1919 with Walter Gropius (a pioneer of modernist architecture) as it's first director. The school moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, and Berlin in 1930. It eventually closed in 1933 at the helm of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

"Gesamtkunstwerk" is a favorite term of mine when it comes to the Bauhaus School of thought. Meaning, "total work of art." This is a good summation of the Bauhaus training and why it was such an important movement for not only architecture but in education and culture. Through the creation of a building, the Bauhaus students must be fluent in understanding the design of all the parts as they come together. An architect must also be the engineer, the engineer must also be the artist that paints the walls, the artist must also lay the electrical wire, and the electrician must be a graphic designer.

Today, this term remains incredibly important and relevant. It's a comprehensive and connective philosophy about the built environment and culture. In many ways, you could compare the early teachings of the Bauhaus to Blockchain. Both are about a "total work." In both, the community-process is just as sacred as the final product. The engineer is encouraged to lay the concrete foundation while also "painting the walls" so to speak. Steemit is building an unprecedented library of interdisciplinary knowledge, just as the first students of the Bauhaus movement were taught to do.

Perhaps Blockchain is the digital Bauhaus? It might be to early to tell... but here, knowledge of craft is valuable, and that's exciting to watch!

Finally, here are a few images that I hope give you a sense of this term, Gesamtkunstwerk...I took this series while traveling through the birthplace of the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany...

(Above) a mural by Oskar Schlemmer in 1923.