Five Book Recommendations

In this post I would like to share five books that inspired me a lot before and during the conception of Bauhaus Coding Workshop.

Nea Machina

by Thomas and Martin Poschauko

I have owned this book since 2011. The two designers Martin and Thomas Poschauko took a photo of a friend and the lettering “NEA MACHINA” to explore in a process lasting several months how to deal with these two elements creatively. In this book, they have documented their experiences and the results of this diploma-project and substantiated them theoretically.

My teaching is very much based on their theories, especially The Magic Triangle is strongly inspired by NEA MACHINA.

For me, the great power of the book lies in the answers around intrinsically motivated, explorative projects. It provides valuable theoretical tools as well as a comprehensive proof of concept. This book has changed me a lot.

Unfortunately it is not available in English language (yet?).

Buy the book at the publisher
Visit the authors website

Square Circle Triangle

by Bruno Munari

This compendium of three books about the square (1960), the circle (1964) and the triangle (1976) is dedicated to basic geometric shapes in their effect and function. It shows in a charming way with many visual examples that they are omnipresent in our world. Depictions from ancient cultures, architecture, art, nature or mathematics are commented on in an exemplary manner.

The three basic geometric shapes were an elementary component of the design theory of the early Bauhaus. This book displays how far we can go with “just” the basic geometric shapes.

Get the book

original bauhaus übungsbuch

by bauhaus-archiv museum für gestaltung

My course Bauhaus Coding Workshop is a collection of design tasks that Johannes Itten, László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers worked with their students in the preliminary course at the historical Bauhaus. This book served me as a guideline for the conception of the course.

It was published by the Bauhaus Archive on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus and catalogs 50 exercises from the preliminary courses of the three artists.

Get it here

2d Visuale Wahrnehmung / Visual Perception

by Moritz Zwimpfer

With this bilingual book Moritz Zwimpfer has catalogued and illustrated 200 phenomena of visual perception. The illustrations are explained by means of short texts. The nice thing about the book is that the examples are kept graphically very abstract and can therefore be adapted relatively easily to your own design.

Get the book

How to speak Machine

by John Maeda

With this book, the forerunner of Processing, John Maeda, provides an easy to understand introduction to the principles of computational thinking. Maeda shows how to look at the world through the eyes of a technologist. He succeeds in doing so in an amazingly light-footed, captivating and sympathetic way.

This book was highly inspiring for me while developing my course Creative Coding Essentials, because it explains complicated issues around thinking in code quite well and at the same time very understandable.

Get the book
the authors website

Which books come to your mind when you think about the Bauhaus? Do you have any recommendations for me? I always love to hear from you!