Manipulations - Hands at Work in European Modernism

To what extent does the production of art require the work of hands? And, reciprocally, to what extent does an artwork enable a tactile understanding of the world? At the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of hands goes beyond the simple gestures they perform: they become an agent, holding at bay technological progress and its implications for artistic creation. On the one side, the hand can itself be conceived of as a machine; often times it figures as a blueprint for technological tools and instruments. On the other side, hands appear to be outdone by the continuous rise of mechanization, challenging the need for the bodily skills and abilities. The ambiguity of the hand as simultaneously a primitive and proto-technological instrument frames the theoretical intervention of this book which investigates the hand in European modernism not as a motif but as medium. It looks at German and French case studies that address literature, sculpture, photography, film, and industrial design. As it turns out the medium "hand" allows to retrace the cultural history of the early twentieth century as an expression of the intricacies and ambiguities that the age of mechanization exhibited in the work of art.

About the author

Regina Karl, Rutgers University; New Jersey, USA.

Product details

• Authors: Regina Karl
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.02.2025
• EAN: 9783111385242
• ISBN: 978-3-11-138524-2
• No. of pages: 219
• Weight: 448 g
• Illustrations: 17 b/w and 5 col. ill.
• Series: Paradigms
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies; Technologie, Deutschland, Hand, Frankreich, Modernismus, europäische Moderne, Technology, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Science: general issues, The arts: general issues, ART015100 ART / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945), History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -, ART015000 ART / History / General, Literary studies: general, Medienarchäologie, General studies, SCI000000 SCIENCE / General, LIT025000 LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / General, SOC052000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, SCI043000 SCIENCE / Research & Methodology, European Modernism, Media archeology