Fritz Kahn
In the 1920′a Fritz Kahn released a series of books depicting the human body using industrial metaphors: switchboards, assembly lines, conveyor belts, projectors, machinery, workers, etc.
His modernist style made use of the growing popular fervor over industrial development, and his exploration of the anatomical relationship to man-made structures is intriguing.
Here we have the nervous system visually compared to an electronic signaling system with the brain as an office where messages are sorted.
I feel very lucky to know a few people who will attend (or would be willing to attend, if distance permitted) the Iconography of the Industrial Body lecture tonight, which will cover some of Kahn’s work.
Body as Machines gallery.
June 19, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Wow, great finds. I love the little pictures of the German scientists inside the mind. That is hilarious to me, very stereotypical. The non-accurate stuff is the best, I think. It’s really a glimpse into how people misunderstood biology in the past and reveals a lot.
November 9, 2009 at 12:35 am
Find more Kahn images in the first monograph on his fascinating life and inspiring work: “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” (English/German, 208 pages, 260 images, publisher SpringerWienNewYork).
April 19, 2010 at 1:00 pm
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