The research project From Process to Aesthetic (2025–26), funded by the Fellowship Research Workshop of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, investigates how modern design – especially Bauhaus-influenced forms – was reinterpreted and culturally located in the postcolonial South Asian media landscape.
Through an interdisciplinary approach that binds architectural history, Media Philosophy and material theory, the project explores how cinema and print media translated modern design principles into new visual languages and how objects, motifs and spatial forms became active stakeholders of postcolonial modernity.
Drawing on theoretical approaches such as New Materialism (Jane Bennett, Rosi Braidotti) and object-orientated ontology (Graham Harman, Timothy Morton), the project aims to overcome anthropocentric readings of Architektur (Architecture) and media and rethink the aesthetic and material life of modernity in South and Southeast Asia.
The current phase of the project involves archival research in India, including visits to important film and print archives. As part of the project, an international online roundtable discussion on Media, Design, and the Making of Postcolonial Modernities is also planned for 30-31 March 2026, bringing together scholars and practitioners from various disciplines.
Sneha Singh and Pappal Suneja
Duration: June 2025 – May 2026
Financial budget: 40,000 €
Learn more about the results of the Forchungswerkstatt and the full project details here.