Energetic Bodies: Sciences and Aesthetics of Strength and Strain (Imaginarien der Kraft, 3)

Throughout the __fin de siècle__, "energy" was a buzzword that was used far beyond the boundaries of the sciences to negotiate the formative scope as well as limits of Western modernity. The human body was positioned at the center of the visualization of this enigmatic drive of all movement in discourses on labor and economics, physical culture, sport, art, and literature. It was through the body that this all-pervading and conditioning physical principle as well as its perceptual qualities were to be made tangible. This volume is dedicated to these "energetic bodies." The transdisciplinary individual contributions trace body scenarios of force and energy over the course of history from 1800 to the peak phase around 1900 and up to the present. * Manifestations of “energy” in bodily processes of perception and transmission * A key concept of modernity - examined over a period from 1800 to the present day Content 5 Acknowledgements 7 Sex, Drugs and Bicycles. Alfred Jarry’s “Le surmâle” and the Aesthetics of Energy-Enhancing Strength 9 Force of Gravity/Power of Labour—or: Heaving Stones 23 Bodies, Suspended. Eadweard Muybridge and the Allure of “Unsupported Transit” 43 Embodied Experiences of Force. Carabin’s Anthropomorphic Fauteuils and the “Muscular Sense” in late 19 th Century Medicine 57 Visualising the Muscular Force. Charcot’s and Féré’s Approaches to Exploring the Neurophysiology of Movement in Hysteria Patients 81 The Feeling of Forces. Robert Mayer’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s Physics and Metaphysics of the Body 103 Movement, Muscle, Matter. Jef Lambeaux’s Wrestling Groups of the 1880s and 1890s 123 A Fix of Energy. Joseph Beuys Boxing 143 Body Sculpting. Paradessent Strategies in Contemporary Art 157 Sweat, Strain and Surplus in Mika Rottenberg’s “Tropical Breeze” 173 Authors 189 Credits 193 Im Fin de Siècle war "Energie" bis weit über die Grenzen der Wissenschaften hinaus das Schlagwort, über das die Gestaltungssouveränität der westlichen Moderne ebenso wie deren Grenzen ausgehandelt wurden. Der menschliche Körper stand im Zentrum der Sichtbarmachung dieses rätselhaften Antriebs aller Bewegung in arbeitsökonomischen Diskursen, Körperkultur, Sport, Kunst und Literatur. Durch ihn galt es dieses alles durchdringende und bedingende physikalische Erhaltungsprinzips ebenso wie dessen Wahrnehmungsqualitäten erfahrbar zu machen. Diesen "Energetic Bodies" widmet sich der vorliegende Band. Den transdisziplinären Beiträgen gelingt es, Körperszenarien der Kraft und Energie in einem geschichtlichen Verlauf von 1800 über die Hochphase um 1900 bis heute nachzuvollziehen

Throughout the fin de siècle, "energy" was a buzzword that was used far beyond the boundaries of the sciences to negotiate the formative scope as well as limits of Western modernity. The human body was positioned at the center of the visualization of this enigmatic drive of all movement in discourses on labor and economics, physical culture, sport, art, and literature. It was through the body that this all-pervading and conditioning physical principle as well as its perceptual qualities were to be made tangible. This volume is dedicated to these "energetic bodies." The transdisciplinary individual contributions trace body scenarios of force and energy over the course of history from 1800 to the peak phase around 1900 and up to the present.