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| Tortoise-shell oracle bone, ancient China |
Here are some words for the theme in French and German--the images that come up using them search terms are quite different. Let's discuss. Also, a search in Chinese would be fascinating.
Landschaft des Berührens
paysage de contact
landscape of touch
to touch: toucher
to touch: berührens
rühren= stir
Touch--physical, psychological, emotional. How this plays out in painting, for example--the painterly tradition--where the brush stroke itself is evidence of touch. A trace. Or sculpture--the mark of the hand... Or in drawing--the touch of the medium on paper...
The image above, an oracle bone from the 3rd millenium BC (Shang Dynasty) comes by this quality naturally. In part because of the materials (which are organic), and in part because of the effects of time. (What Walter Benjamin referred to as aura.) And because of the very way it's represented. These are the themes I touched on (!) in the class last night--and which we'll develop together over the semester--and beyond.
The physicality of image always central (not simply representation).
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