Caroline Ektander

Why are you researching or studying at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar?

The Department of Arts and Research at the Bauhaus University in Weimar is one of very few places in Germany where one can pursue a practice-based PhD and was thus a natural choice when I decided to advance my studies in Design. In addition, the valuable work of Prof. Alex Toland on soils and sustainability seen through an artistic research lens, deeply resonated with me and I had the privilege to come under her mentorship. The combination of Prof. Toland’s guidance, the PhD program Art and Design at large, as well as the legacy of the Bauhaus with its approach to interdisciplinarity could not be a better context for my research on toxicity and figuring out ways of living better and more justly in the aftermath of large scale industrialisation. A curious detail is that my partner, a documentary filmmaker, first drew my attention to the Bauhaus as he himself studied there more than 20 years back.