Epistemic Hands & Mindful Hands

Knowing Hands project conference.
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) .‎

Whilst the first Knowing Hands workshop in Erlangen (September 2025) focused primarily on “epistemic hands”—exploring hand memory techniques and hand diagrams as tools for memorising, producing and transmitting complex knowledge—this conference in Paris will broaden the discussion to include “mindful hands”. Here, “mindful hands” refers to embodied know-how, encompassing ritual gestures, the training of hand-centred artisanal or artistic skills, medical techniques, and the socialisation of hand gestures. With a particular emphasis on practices and representations of hands in Chinese and 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 memorisation), similar to those found in hand-memory techniques? Conversely, do hand-memory techniques incorporate elements of symbolic or material efficacy?

Organiser: Stéphanie Homola View e-mail