A THING IS DETERMINED BY ITS NATURE

A Thing is Determined by Its Nature is a collaborative project, blending dance for camera and art installation, which draws upon the interdisciplinary artistic theories and practices of the Bauhaus. Labeled “one of the most daring experiments in arts education,” the Bauhaus (1919-1933) was founded with the idea of creating a “total” work of art in which all arts – architecture, dance, music, theatre, visual – would eventually be brought together, the very definition of interdisciplinary as we now call it. This project was done in part to honor the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus.

The minimalism and design functionality of the Bauhaus researched for this new work include examinations of architect Walter Gropius, choreographer Oskar Schlemmer, photographer László Moholy-Nagy, painter Wassily Kandinski and printmaker Anni Albers. In the spirit of the Bauhaus, three responses were programmed by the originating artists and provided by artist William DiBello, <fidget> dance, and Staruch and O'Maley.