International Workshop
Strained Bodies. Physical Tension in Art and Science

In the course of a two-day workshop, aspects of the reappraisal of strain, weight and pressure in art and science will be illuminated. Accordingly, the question in how far physical strain of bodies has been reflected artistically since the late 19th century is essentially relevant to this format. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, the term “force” was increasingly understood in a physiological manner. The rise of physiology as a leading discipline led to a radical revaluation of the human body and its conditions. In art, new scientific methods of quantification and visualization challenged previously established concepts of preservation, regulation, over-exertion, balancing, formation and application of forces in general.

In recent years, research has started focussing on specific connections between physiology informed by thermodynamics and art in Western Europe and the US. According to this, the renewed push of empiricism by no means followed a consequent exclusion of human intuitive access from experimental processes – as advised by the ideal of a “mechanical objectivity” (Daston/Galiston). Following the fin-de-siècle aesthetics of empathy, this ‘intuition of comprehension’ itself finally turns into a physiological achievement within the observer. Consequently, neither a clear distinction between man and machine nor a distinct science-art-divide are sustainable any longer. The alliance between an anthropological renewal of man as a thermodynamic machine and the laboratory-based measurement of his physique also become manifest in art through an enhanced examination of (physical) weight, strain or exhaustion.

Though sweating workers, the athlete and the muscleman remain outsiders in this discourse, utopian ideas of persistent creativity in relation to physical strength are conceived. Friedrich Nietzsche’s definition of the ideal artist as an excessive power animal (“Kraftthier”) indicates an intensification of the economy of physical and artistic energy. Art history also began to conceptualize artist heroes bursting with strength: Michelangelo’s ‘non-finito-aesthetics’, previously acclaimed as an expression of innovation and ‘sprezzatura’, were increasingly re-interpreted as a manifestation of an ostentatiously physical performance of the ingenious sculptor.

Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:
• endurance / exhaustion
• weight
• degeneration of the human body
• aspects of balancing and evening out
• physical pain
• the depiction of / working with sweat and blood

Confirmed keynote speaker: Michael F. Zimmermann (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)

We welcome proposals for 20-minute talks in English. Please send a single-paged abstract accompanied by a brief CV to thomas.mosercampus.lmu.de and w.scheschonkzikg.eu by March 31. Submissions from young scholars are encouraged.

Organizing committee:
Thomas Moser (Ludwig-Maximilan’s-University of Munich)
Wilma Scheschonk (University of Hamburg/Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte)