Epistemic Hands & Mindful Hands

Conférence du projet Knowing Hands.
Estampe chinoise de La Dame aux poings fermés
« La Dame aux poings fermés拳夫人 ». La conscience de l’univers dans la main. © An 18th-century portrayal of Lady Gouyi from the Qing Dynasty book Hundred Poems of Beautiful Women (Bai Mei Xin Yong Tu Zhuan 百美新詠圖傳) .‎

While the first Knowing Hands workshop in Erlangen (September 2025) focused primarily on “epistemic hands”—exploring hand memory techniques and hand diagrams as tools for memorizing, producing, and transmitting complex knowledge—this conference in Paris will expand the discussion to include “mindful hands.” Here, “mindful hands” refers to embodied know-how, encompassing ritual gestures, the training of hand-centered artisanal or artistic skills, medical techniques, to the socialization of hand gestures. With a particular emphasis on practices and representations of hands in Chinese/East Asian societies—and in comparison with the European tradition—the workshop will investigate how forms of extended cognition observed in epistemic hands inform embodied know-how in mindful hands, and vice versa. Key questions include: do mindful hands practices involve forms of extended cognition (such as memorization), similar to those found in hand-memory techniques? Conversely, do hand-memory techniques incorporate elements of symbolic or material efficacy?

Organisatrice : Stéphanie Homola Voir l'e-mail