Feeling Stone

The study 'Feeling Stone' challenges anthropocentric perspectives by highlighting the profound temporal and existential gap between human existence and geological time. It reveals that stone, enduring for billions of years, serves as a stark reminder of humanity's brief tenure on Earth, contrasting our fleeting history with the Hadean epoch's inhuman span. The research explores how human hands interact with stone, creating art and tools, while also questioning whether stone itself possesses agency or memory beyond its role as a passive material shaped by human intervention. Through philosophical inquiry and archaeological examples like Cueva de las Manos in Argentina, the study examines the universal impulse to engage with lithic substances, suggesting that both humans and stones may share creative and narrative qualities. This approach blends geology, anthropology, and phenomenology to redefine our relationship with stone, moving beyond its symbolic representation of endurance or silence.

Cohen, J. J. (2018). Feeling Stone. SubStance, 47(2), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1353/sub.2018.0016