Valuating Handwriting in East Asia in the Digital Age
A Case Study in Japanese Calligraphy
2022–2025
RFC02
We are investigating how different characteristics of handwritten artefacts influence their valuation, and to what extent these influences are modulated by the respective cultural background. We approach these questions from two angles: as a topic of Cultural Studies and from the perspective of Experimental Psychology. The combination of these two perspectives allows for the reassessment of conventional notions both within the culture itself and in the academic field. The psychological approach involves an experiment in which the participants aesthetically evaluate calligraphies. To investigate the influence of the two characteristics script type and paper type on these evaluations, we asked a contemporary calligrapher to pen down each of six carefully selected 20th century Haiku poems both in two different types of script and on three different kinds of paper. To investigate the (modulating) influence of culture, we have been asking individuals with varying cultural backgrounds to evaluate these calligraphies.
People
Project lead: Thomas Jacobsen, Jörg B. Quenzer
Research Associates: Uta Lauer, Valentin Wagner, Michael Sprengel, Jimpei Hitsuwari