Book

Hands have no tears to flow

The book “Hands have no tears to flow” provides insight into a subjective search of texts and images that look upon the human body in a variety of ways. A heterogeneous collection of documents from medicine, science, art and architecture has been assembled on 148 pages, ranging from early recordings of brain waves, to the first artificial hearts, up to current research findings on nano implants in the brain. Works by Charles and Ray Eames, Andy Warhol or Tony Conrad are cited in parallel. What emerges is an associative montage of text and image documents from the field of architecture, historical medical inventions, artistic and cinematic positions, as well as current scientific applications concerning the body. In addition to the 92 illustrations, various text excerpts, interviews and inputs from selected authors are published, enabling a non-linear reading.

“Hands have no tears to flow” appears as an independent thought and show book accompanying the exhibition in the Austrian Pavilion at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice.

“Identities glide like heat in a heat exchanger from one subject onto another. Can the same apply to architecture? Can the rulebook of the architecture of buildings be “swapped” for residents? Can these absorb the functions of buildings? And is the construction site no longer the building, but the resident himself/herself? And how will our building component warehouse then develop? (Wolfgang Tschapeller)

Editor: Arno Ritter
Title: “Hands have no tears to flow” *
Subtitle: reports from / without architecture
Authors: Wolfgang Tschapeller, Christina Jauernik
Copy Editing: Christina Jauernik
Consulting: Gisela Steinlechner
Research: Christina Jauernik with Mechthild Weber, Simon Oberhammer, Jesper Bork, Franz Kropatschek
Commentary Texts: Christina Jauernik, Gisela Steinlechner, Wolfgang Tschapeller
Translation: Martina Griller
Proofreading: Brian Dorsey
Graphics: grafisches Büro
Image Processing: Markus Wörgötter
Printer: Gugler
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Price: € 34.90

* “Hands have no tears to flow,” taken from COUNTERBLAST (1954) by Marshall McLuhan, adapted from the Dylan Thomas poem “The Hand That Signed the Paper.”