From Process to Aesthetic: Research Project Examines Postcolonial Modernities Between Cinema, Print, and Design
How did modernist design ideal spread beyond Europe? And what did they come to mean in South Asian media cultures? This question forms the foundation of the »From Process to Aesthetic: Recontextualizing Modernism in South Asia through Cinema, Print, and Object-Oriented Ontology« (2025–26) research project. Funded by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s research workshop initiative, the project focusses on architecture, media, and material aesthetics and consistently examines modernism from a postcolonial perspective.
Sneha Singh and Pappal Suneja, doctoral candidates in the Professorship of Media Philosophy and the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism respectively, are leading the project. In their interdisciplinary research, the two have combined media analysis, architectural history, and speculative materialist theory. The central question is how built forms, objects, and visual motifs not only expressed but functioned as active agents in the development of postcolonial ideas of modernity, in particular outside of a European context.
Building upon theoretical approaches such as object-oriented philosophy (Harman, 2018) and new materialism (Bennett, 2009), the project deliberately goes beyond anthropocentric interpretations of architecture. It focusses on the interplay between matter, aesthetics, and representation to reveal how the experience of modern spaces in South Asia was redefined. Through ongoing archival and image research in India – including in national film and print archives – the team is investigating a phenomenon it describes as »vernacular modernism«: a locally anchored reinterpretation of global modernist aesthetics.
Digital Discussion Sessions: »From Process to Aesthetic: Mediating Modernity across Cinema and Print«
A central component of the project is an international online expert panel, which will take place from 23 to 24 April 2026, from 11 am to 1 pm each day. Scientists, researchers, and practitioners working at the intersection of architecture, media, aesthetics, and postcolonial modernities are invited to participate. If you would like to participate, please register in advance at: sneha.singh[at]uni-weimar.de. After registering, participants will receive the access data.
Participation as an expert in the round table discussion is subject to separate conditions: Interested scholars should register directly by email and are asked to submit a title for their contribution and a short biography. In addition, an extended abstract (1,200–1,500 words) is required, which will be included in the planned workshop proceedings.
The goal is to strengthen interdisciplinary dialogue and discuss how cinematic and print media both depicted and actively influenced the experience of modernity in the postcolonial world. Participants will present their current research findings in short contributions. This will be followed by open discussions on methodology, archives, and conceptual approaches for rethinking the transnational heritage of modernity.
About the Project
The »From Process to Aesthetic« project is funded as part of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Research Workshop Fellowship. This format allows the University to support particularly innovative and, in the best sense of the word, high-risk research projects. The goal is to promote encounters, exchange, and collaboration and to establish spaces for interdisciplinary dialogue and scientific and artistic networking.
Pappal Suneja and Sneha Singh already presented their project during several research stays and engagements, including at the IAAW South Asia Research Colloquium at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 5 December 2025. In a seminar titled »Mediating Modernism: Cinema and Print as Agents of Design Transformation in Postcolonial South Asia«, they presented their theoretical foundation and primary research results.
Further information on the project can be found here: https://www.uni-weimar.de/en/media/chairs/media-studies/medienphilosophie/forschung/from-process-to-aesthetic/
Information on the funding line »Förderwerkstatt« can be found here: https://www.uni-weimar.de/en/university/research-and-art/foerdermoeglichkeiten/forschungsfoerderung/uni-interne-foerdermoeglichkeiten/fellowship-forschungswerkstatt/