The word Gesamtkunstwerk is often used to describe the Aalto House and other buildings they designed. It’s a work that uses multiple disciplines—like architecture, furniture design, textile design—to produce a coherent, total work of art.

The word Gesamtkunstwerk is often used to describe the Aalto House and other buildings they designed. It’s a work that uses multiple disciplines—like architecture, furniture design, textile design—to produce a coherent, total work of art.

“Total work of art” has associations of dominance, control, spectacle, finality that we don’t feel entirely describes our practices. What control is even possible, we ask, in a gig economy, where we are required to switch modes, pass between contexts, and move between mediums constantly?