The Thinking Hand: Existential and UOMO MUM anni cla att cy Juhani Pallasmaa pi F| 0 cl EA Z 3 by 3 a Fs pI XG oer eels enn at nee a IM ©Introductio mbodied Existence ho ‘Western consumer culture continues to project a dualistic attitude towards the human body, On the one hand we have an obsessively aestheticived and erotcsed cult of the body, but on the other, intligence and creative ‘capacity are equally celebrated as totally separate, or even exclsive ff individual qualities. In ether case, the body and the mind are understood as ‘nvlated entries that do not constitute an integrated unity. Ths separation is reflected in the strict dvsion of human activities and work into physical ‘and intellectuat categories, The body is regarded asthe medium of identity ‘and sef-presentation, as wel 2s an instrument of social and senual appeal. However, its significance is understood merely its physical and physiological essence, but undervalued and neglected init role a the very ground of ‘embodied existence and knowledge as wel as the full understanding ofthe human condition *‘This dvsion of body and mind has, of course, its sold foundation ia the bistary of Western philosophy. Prevaling educational pedagogies and pracices aso regrettably continue to separate mental, intelectual and ‘emotional capacities from the senses and the multifarious dimensions of humen embodiment, Educational practices usually previde some dees ‘of piysical training for the body, but they do nat acknowledge our ‘fundamentally embodied and holistic essence. The body is addressed in sports and dance, for instance, and the senses are directly acknowledged in connection with art and music education, but our embodied existence i rarely identified as the very basis of our interaction and integration withthe ‘word, oF of our consciousness and sell-understanding. Taining ofthe hand is provided in courses that teach elementary sil inthe handicrafts, but the integra role of the hand in the evolution and diferent manifestations of ‘human intetigence is not acknowledged. To put it simply, today's preveting educational principles fll to graso the indeterminate, dynamic and sensualy integrated essence of human existence, thought and action, Its, i act, reasonable to assume that prior to our curent industria, ‘mechanised and materialist consumer culture, situations in daly fe as well 25 processes of maturation and education provided a more comprehensive experiential ground for human growth and learning de to their divect interection with the natural worid and its complex causalities. In earlier modes, Of lt, the intimate contact with work, production, materials, imate and ‘the evervarying phenomena of nature provided ample sensory interaction with the world of physical causaltes. | would also suggest that closer fay ‘and social ties, as well a the presence of domestic animals, provided mare ‘experiences for the development of a sense of empathy and compassion than todays individualised and molecular ife world {spent my early childhood years at my grandiather's small farm in central Finland, and with age | have become increasingly amare of how indebted | {am te the richness ofthis farmer's Kfe sphere in the late 1930s and 1240s {or providing an understanding of my own embodied existence, and of the essential interdependences of the mental and physical aspects of daily life. I believe now that even one's sense of beauty and ethical judgerrent {are firmly grounded in the early experiences of the integrated nature of the human life world, Beauty is not a detached aesthetic quality; the experience of beauty arses from grasping the unquestionable ceusaliies and interdependences of life In our age of massive industrial production, surreal consumption, euphoric communication and fictitious digital environments, we continue 1 ie in ‘our bodies inthe same way that we inhabit our houses, because we have sadly forgatten that we do nat live in our bodies but are ourselves embodied constitutions. Embodiment is not @ secondary experience; the human existence is fundamen'ally an embodied condition, Today, our senset and bodies ae objects of ceaseless commercial manipulation and exploitation, Physical beauty, strength, youth and vility ae adored in the realms of social values, advertising ane entertainment. In case we fail to possess idel physical qualities, our bodies ae turned against us as causes of deep dsappcintment ‘and gull Wh ever-accelerating frequency, all ow senses are exploited by consumer manipulation, yet atthe same time these very same senses continue to be undervalued as prerequisites of our existential condition oF 25 educational objectives. ntellectually, we may well ave philosophcally ‘ejected the Cartesian dualty of body and mind, but the separation continues torule in cultural, educational and socal practices tis tragic, indeed, that at the time in which our technologies offer a multi- dimensional perception of the world and ourselves, we should throw out consciousness and capacities back to 2 Euliian world. | do not wish to dwell ‘on nostalgic images of an Arcadian past oF to represent a conservative view ‘of cultural development. just want to remind myself as well as my readers of the very evident blind spots in our established understanding of aur own historicity 2 biological and cultural beinas. ‘Human consclousnessis an embodied consciousness, the worlds stuctured ‘around a sensory and corporeal centre. ‘lam my body’ Gabriel Marcel aims: ‘Lam what is zround me,’ Wallace Stevens argues‘ am the space, where | 2mm, Nod! Amaud establishes, and finaly “| am my world, Ludwig wittgenstein concludes * We ate connected with the world through our senses, The senses are not ‘merely passive receptors of stimull, and the bod isnot only 2 point of viewing the world from a central perspective. Neither the head the sole locus of cognitive thinking, as our senses and entire bodily being dicectly structure, produce ane store silent existential knowledge. The human body is 2 knowing entity. Ourentire being in the world s a sensuous and enibodted ‘mode of being, and this very sense of being isthe ground of existemial Knowledge. [Understanding is not a quality coming to human realty from the outside; itis ts characteristic way of existing,’ as Jean-Paul Sartre claims”Enxistentialy essential Knowledge is not pearly 2 krowledge moulded into words, concepts and theoves. In human interacion alone, 80 per cent of communication is estimated to take place outside the verbal and conceptual channel. Communication takes place even on a chemical levels ands have been thought of as a dosed system sealed in the body and only indirectly linked to the outside world, However, the experiments of AS Parker and HM Bruce show that chemical regulators, such as odoriferous substances, work directly on the body chemistry of er organisms, conditioning behaviour ‘The knowledge and skis of traditional societies reside drecty in the senses and mus erabedded and encoded in the settings and situations of fe In accordance with Sertre’s argument we are born into the world which in selfs the most important source of knowledge for us a their thought provoking book Philosophy inthe Fesh, George Lakal{ and Mark Johnson point cut thet even ordinary dally acts and choices call fr a plslosophical understanding; we ‘our own ives in all the countless situations ve constantly face in fe, The philosophers argue in the knowing and inteligent hands, and are ciectly ‘must be able to make sense 0 Living 2 human ile philosophical endeavour Every thought we hav, ery decion we mate, sd every act we perform is based upon philosophical sumptions 20 numerous we cult posibly at them al |. Though we nly acastonaly aware ot, we ae all metaphyscans~ not some xpenenc. Iti though our sence bul 2 prt of aux everyday capacity ta make sense of our cepa! ystems that we ae able to make we of every fe, and our every metaphysics is embodied i thoso conceptual systems. Leeming a skil is not primarily foundas on verbal teaching but rather on of the skil rom the musces ofthe teacher directly to muscles of the apprentice through the act of sensory perception and bodily mimesis, This capacity af mimetic learning is curently attributed to human mitror neurons." The same principle of embodying ~ or inojecting {0 use @ notion of psychoanalytic theory ~ knowiedge and skill continues to_be the core of artistic learning, The foremost sil ofthe architect is, likewise, to turn the mult-dmensional essence of the design task into ‘embodied and lived sensations and images, eventualy the entre personality of the desianer becomes the site of the design task, and the task is lived rather than understood. Architect from unconceptualised and lved existential knowledge rather than from mere analyses and intellect, Architectural problems are, indeed, far too complex and deeply existential to be dealt with in 2 soley conceptualised and rational manne, Profound ideas or responses in architecture are not individual inventions ex nfo ether: they are embedded in the wed realty Of the task itself and the age-old traditions of the craft. The role of this fundamental, unconscious, situational and tacit understanding of the body inthe making of architecture s grossly undervalued in today's culture of ‘quasi rationality and arrogant sell-consciousnes. ral ideas arise “biologicallyEven masterful architects do nat invent architectural realities; they rather reveal what exsts and what ae the natutel potentials ofthe given dition, or what the given situation calls for. Alvaro Sia, one ofthe finest architects of our time in combining a sense of tradition with a unique Personal expression, pus it sharply: ‘Architects don't invent anything, they anstorm realty Jean Renoir expresses the same ides of artistic humility in filmmaking somewhat differently: “The director is nota creator, but a midwife. His task is to help the actor give bth to child, that she has not realised having carved inside her,’ he confesses in his humane memoirs Achitecture is aso 3 product ofthe knowing hand. The hand grasps the physicality and materiality of thought and turns it into a concrete image Thehand has In the arduous pro probing fora vision, a vague inkling imateralisation of an ides. ses of designing, the hand often takes the lead in watt eventually tums into a sketch, 2 The pencil in the architect's hand isa bridge between the imagining mind and the image that appears an the sheet of paper in the ecstasy of work, the raughtsman forgets both his hand and the pencl,and the image emerges as ifit tion ofthe imagining mind, Or, pethags, is hand that realy imagines a t exists in the flesh ofthe world, the reality of space, matter and time, the very physical concition ofthe imagined objec. Martin Heidegger connects the hand directly withthe human thinking capacity: the hand's estence can never be determined, or explained, by ts ibeing an organ which can grasp ..] Every motion of the hand in every one of its works caries itself through the element af thinking, every bearing of the hand bears itself in that element [Gaston Bachelard writes about the imagination ofthe hand: ‘Even the hand has its dreams and assumptions. helps us understand the innermost essence of matter. That is why it also helps as imagine (forms of] matier® The capacity ta imagine, to iberate oneself ‘rom the limits of matter, place and time, must be regarded 2s the most human ofall our qualities. Creative capacity as well as ethical judgement for imagination. It is evident, however, thet the capacity of imagination rot hide in our brains alone, as our entite bodily constitution has its fantas sites and dreams, All our senses ‘think’ and structure our relationship withthe world although we ate not usualy conscious of this perpetual activity, Krow/ledge is normally supposed to reside in verbalsed concepts, but any grasp of aif situation {and a meaningful reaction to it can, and indeed should, be regarded as knowledge. in my view, the sensory and embodied mode of thinking is particularly essential i all artistic phenomena and creative work. Albert insten’s well-known description, ina letter to the French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, of the role of vsual and muscular images in his thinking processes in the fields of mathematics and physics provides an autharitai example of embodied thinking The words oF the language, a they are written oF Spoken, do nt seem to play any role in my mechan of thought. The psychical ete which sn thovght ae certain sgns ad mor o ss ear bine |.) The above images whieh can be wolumarly reproduced end‘mentioned elements ae, n my ease, of visual and some of muscular type Conventional words or other sigs heve tobe sought fe aboriously only sa secondary stage, when the mentioned arson pl esabshed and canbe reproduced at wi* fssutticenty tis ao evident that an emotional and aesthetic factor, as well as an ‘embodied personal identification, is equally central in scientific creativity as in the making and experiencing of art. Henry Moore, one ofthe greatest sculptors of the modesn ea, emphasises the bodily identification ang simultaneous arasp of several points of view in the sculptor's work {Te sculptor] must strive continually to think of, and use form ints fa spa completeness. He gets te slid shape, a were insite fs head he think ‘oft, whatever is Ste, it he were holding it completely enclosed nthe hollow of his hand. He mentally visuals a comp'ex frm from al round ise be knows aie he loks a one side what the other se tke; heen es mse wit scene of gravy its mar, weght ne reales ts vole, and the space that he shape space inthe 34” The yf Alb ttn Tahonasof aaa Bll ant forms ~ such as sculpture, painting, music, nema and architecture = are specific modes of thinking, They represent ways af sensory and ‘embodied thought characteristic tothe particular artstic medium. These ‘modes of thinking are images ofthe hand and the body, and they exemplfy essential existential knowledge. Instead of being mereviual aestheticsation, architecture, for instance, isa mode of existential and metaphysical philosophising through the means of space, structure matter, gravity and light. Profound architecture does net meray beautify the settings of dwelling ‘great buildings articulate the experiences of our very exstence Salman Rushdie points out that a distinct softening ofthe boundary between the world and the self takes place in an artistic experience’ ‘Literature s made atthe boundary between self and the world, and during the creative at this borderline softens, tus penetrable and allows the world to flow into the ‘artist and the artist to flow into the world. This softeriny of the exitentit ‘boundary, the fusion of the world and the self, object and subject, takes place in every meaningful artistic work and experience. Creative work calls for @ double perspective: one needs 1 focus simuitaneously on the world and on oneself, the extemal space and one’s ‘mer mental space. AB artworks articulate the boundary between theself and the world, bth inthe experience ofthe artist and in that of the viewer/istener/occupant. in this sense, the art form of architecture dos ‘ot only provide a shelter for the body, it abo redefines the contour of our consciousness, and itisa true externaisation of our mind. Architecture, 2s ‘well asthe entire would constructed by man wrth its cites, houses, tools, and objects, has is mental ground and counterpart. As we construct our self-made world, we construct projections end metaphors of our own rindseapes. We dwel in the landscape and the landscape dwells in us. A landscape wounded by acts of man, the fragmentation of the cityscape, as Well 2s insensitive buisings, are al external and materialised evidence of an alienation and shattering ofthe human inner space oF Weltianenraum, to use a beautiful notion of Fainer Maia Rike.® even in the technologcal culture of today, the most important existential knowledge in our everyday life does nat resde i detached theories and explanations, butts 2 silent knowledge, beyond the threshold of consciousness, fused with daly environments and behavioural stuations. ‘The poet. 100, speaks of encounters atthe ‘threshold of being, as Gaston Bachelard points out.” Art guides us to this ‘threshol’, and surveys the biological and unconscious realms of the body and mind. In 0 doing, it ‘maintains vital connections with our biological and cultural past, the sol ‘of genetic and mythical knowledge. Consequently, the essental tine dimension of art points to the past rather than the future; gnifcant art and architecture mainlains roots and tradtions nstead of uprooting and inventing. However, today’s obsession with uniqueness and novelty has misguided cur judgement of artistic phenomena, Radical works of art andl bbulsing surely appear as ruptures or ciscontinuities of convention but, atthe same time on a deeper level all profound artworks reinferce the perception {and understanding of 1uman bio-cuitural histor city and continuity. Artistic revolutions always imply a reconnection with the invisible undercucents of the universe of the human mind, The duty of education's to cultivate and support the human abilties of imagination and empatiy, but the prevaling values of culture today tend to iscourage fantasy, suppress the senses, and petty the boundary between {the world and the self Consequentiy, education in any creative field in our time has to begin vith the questioning of the absoluteness of the lived world and with the re-sensitsation ofthe boundaries of set. The main abjectve of ntsc education may not directly reside in the principles of atistc making, but in the emancipation and opening up ofthe personality ofthe student _and hisrher self-awareness and sellamage in relation to the immensely rich traditions of art, and to the lived world at large tis evident that an educational change conceming the significance of the sensory realm is urgently needed in order to enable us to rediscover ‘outsehes as complete physical end mental beings, to fuly utise our ‘cepacites, and to make us less vulnerable to manipulaton and exploitation. Inthe words of the philosopher Michel Sertes, 2 ewit is to come, it will have to come from the five senses’ The inteligene, thinking and Skils of the hand ako need to be rediscovered. Even more mportantly, the unbiased and full understanding of human embodied existence is the prerequisite for @ dignified ie In 1995 | wrote the book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses Academy Editors, London, 1996), which was republished in 2 ‘ew ilustreted format vath a pretace by Steven Holl by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2005, The book i @ critique of the dorrinance ofthe sense of vision in today’s technological culture and contemporary architecture, and @ genera cal for a multisensory approach inthe arts and architecture ‘A year ago, Helen Castle, Executive Commissioning Editor at John Wiley & Sons, asked me to write @ Book in their new book series AD Primers 35 a continuation ofthe ideas on human embodiment suggested in The Eyes of the Skin. | submitted Nall a doze of my recent essays and lectures. and the publisher suggested a book that would be developed around the concept of The Thinking Hand, the ttle of a chapter in one of these essays. ‘The cuent book analyses the essence ofthe hand and its seminal role inthe evolution of human ski, inteligence ané conceptual capachies. As | argue = with the support of many other writers - the hand snot only a faithf, passive executor ofthe intentions ofthe bra; rather, the hand has its own intentionality, knowledge and skis, The study of the significance ofthe hand is expanded more generally tothe sign fcance of embodiment in human existerce and creative work “This book emphasises the relatwely autonomous and unconscious processes of thinking and working in writing, craftsmanship and making art or acchitecture. The book tuined aut to be quite different from my initial idea as2 consequence of both the wating process itself and my subsequent literary ‘esearch, which brought out chapters, concerns and ideas that | didnot have any notion of before immersing myself in te project. In 2 way. the act of ‘wating this little book directly proved the thess that | present inthe text. Most of the examples and quotes in this book are drawn from painting, sculpture and inerature, but due to my own professional backeround my focus is on issues of architecture. In my role as a teacher of architecture, Ihave always found t easier for myself anc more efficient to explan ‘phenomena of the art of architecture through other art forms. ‘Al painters {and poets are born phenomenologists,’ as JH van den Berg suggests ** This ‘observation implies that all artist look at the essence of things. Besides all arts arise from a common sal they areal expressions of the human existential condition. The ttle of the book, The Thinking Hand, & a metaphor forthe characteristic independent and active roles ofall our senses as they constantly scan our life world. The subtitle ~ Eustential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture = refers tothe other knowledge, the silent understanding that les hidden the human existential condition and our specific embodied made of being and experiencing. Many of our existential most crucial skis are internalsed as automatic reactions beyond conscious awareness and intentionality. We _are hardly aware of the fantasticaly complex and automated metabolic processes, for stance, without which we could not survive @ split second. Even inthe case of learning sils, the complex sequence of movements {and spatial and temporal relationships in tte execution of the task ‘unconsciously internaised and embodied rather than understood and remembered intellectually The prevaling educational philosophies rerettably continue to emphasse {and value conceptual, intellectual and verbal knowledge over the tacit and. non-conceptual wisdom of our embodied processes. This attitude continues against all the overwhelming evidence of this catastrophic bias provided today through philosophical arguments and recent developments and ‘scovaries in neurology and cognitive science. The objective ofthis book isto ‘ep to shake the foundations of this hegemonic but erroneous and harmful paradigm inthe realm of architecture, Saher prone te es Pao ingen References Fike Seen, nat 26th WDnovenner 2007 “BAe quoted dahlThe , ysterious expression and continuation of a thought which mus iindow on to the mind had been easier to unde Jught that we had a mind fica for The Multiple Essences of the Hand "We regard our own hand as a commonplace and sell-evident member of the ‘boul, but in fact its a prodigious precision instrument that seems to have its Lown understanding, wil and desis. Often it even appears tobe both the origin and the expression of pleasure and emotion. The hand, its mations andgestures, are expressions of the person's character tothe same degree as and body physique. Hands aso have and their unique appeara they have thee distinct personalities, They even reveal one's occupation and aft; just think ofthe cobust hands of 2 steelworker or blacksmith, the of tutiated hands ofa cabinet-maker, the hands of a shoemaker hardened and cracked by handling of the substances ofthe trade, the eloquently speaking hands of @ pantomime artist, or the alicate, utery precise and quick hands of 2 surgeon, pianist or magician. Hands are generic organs characteristic to Homo sapiens, but atthe same time they ae unique individuals. magine the hand of a chi fll of clumsy and nnocent curosty and excitement, and the nearly useless hand of an ok persor deformed by hard work and articular contours of Hen Matisse’ colourful paper cut-outs acquire a special meaning after having s2en 3 photograph of the ‘29ing atst warring his aching finge pigeons, 0” om hi charcoal attached to the end of along bamboo stick. Andté Wogenscky, Le Corbusiers cose assistant for 20 years, describes is master’s hands poetically and suggestivey im, The vivid movement of the ted joins in the feathers of domestic bed drawing on a sheet of paper on the wall wth @ Then t would tet my eyes go fom his face down to his hands. | would then cbsconee Le Corbusier was his hand that ravealed him. Mt was ai hands bewayed han, They spoke al his fesings, all the vbrations of hi as le that his fce trie to conceal (..| Hands that one ght has end rat outined the shape succes 13 th seemed to lok for ane another but that formed a precise and exact ine, that unique contour and dened 1 in space. Hands that seemed to hesitate bat ker whieh precon come, Hands that always thought, ut tke he didn his thinking, and on his hands one could 1636 his ana) his dsappoitments hs ematins and hs he Hands that hac deawn, andere today al Ns work * Le Corbusier appears as a somewhat enigmatic and distant person in literature written about him, his Hfe and work, but his hands as obsen his asistant seein to reveal his inner character and intentions. Hands can tel epic stories of entire ves: in fac, every epoch and cul has its characteristic hands; just look atthe varying hands ofthe countless portraits through the history of painting, Mareover, every pair of hands is ‘equipped with singuler patterns of fingezprints which do nat change at al after five months prior to the person's birth; these engravings onthe human skin are the secret prenatal hieroglyphs of indhidualty. ur hands are our reliable and diligent servants, Bt ow and then they seem to take command, lead their independent lives and demand theie own iberties But then, the integral completeness of the human figure is ‘0 powerful that we accept an armless statue 2s a valid and aesthetically pleasing representation of the human constitution, not asa deliberate depiction of mutation. INlothing essential fs missing. Standing be cone has the sense of a profound wholeness, a comp eteness that allows for ro addition. Rainer Maria ike, the poet, writes of Auguste Rod's vivid them,‘tors05~ Or are we here rather seduced by the magic integrity of an artistic masterpiece? ‘The poet also describes the muhiple oles and determinedly independent lives cf the human hands: ‘There ave hands that walk, hands that sleep and hands that wake; rina hands weighted withthe past, and hands tha are ted and wan nthing help them. But then hands are a compcated organism, 2 dain which Iie from the most stant sources Pows together, surging into the great current ‘of action. Hands ave tories they even have ther own cute and thei OW particular beauty. We grant them the-ight o have her Onn development thei own wise, feelings, moods, and occupations J * Te hand has its socal roles and behaviours, its amorous as well as hostile and aggressive acts, its gestures of welcome and rejection, friendship and ‘animosity. The hands of God and Christ, as well as of the Pope, are hands Of benevolence and blessing, The hand of Mucius Scaevola isthe hand of bravery and heroic sef-contre, whereas the hands of Cain and Pontius Pilate are oxgans of crime and guilt Regardless ofits selt-suficiency, the hand may momentarily lose its independence and identity, and fuse with the body of the other, As Rilke observes: A hand Wing on the shoulder or thigh of another body ne longer belongs completely 10 the one it came from: 3 new thing ares out of it and the object touches or grasps, a thing that has ro name and belongs to no one, and its this new thing, which has is own definite boundaries, that mattess from that point on.” The hands of a mother and chid or of two lovers turn into an umbilical cord that unites the two individual. ‘Works of art and architecture extend the human hand through bath space and time, When looking at the Rondanini Pita (15S5~-64) in Castello Sforzesco in Milan, | can feel the passionate but already feeble hands fof Michelangelo approaching the end of his ile, The works of a reat architect likewise invite the imagined presence of his figure and hand, as the architectural space, scale and detaiing are unavoidably products and projections of the maker's body and hand. The greater the work, the more present the hand of the maker. | cannot look at a Vermeer painting ata close sistance without thinking of the painter stooped over his painting witha thin, sharply shaped brush in hs hand. No, do not imagine the painter, I become him, My entire physique changes and my hand guides the brush to the stil _wet little patch of yellow wal in his View of Deft (1660-1) that Marcel Proust admired and weote about |s | am looking at 2 Suprematist painting by Kasim Malevich, | do not see its a ggometric gestalt but as an icon meticulously painted by the artists hand. The surace of cracked paint conveys a sense of materiality, work and time, and | find mysel thinking ofthe inspired hand of the painter holding a brush,