Raoul Hausmann

Dada-Wissenschaft (Dada Science)
Wissenschaftliche und technische Schriften (Scientific and Technical Writings)
Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
VOLUME 193

Writings from the Raoul Hausmann Archive Now Published for the First Time

Raoul Hausmann was a leading figure in the Berlin Dada movement, a jack-of-all-trades with a wide range of interests who also engaged with the science of his time. In fact, Hausmann not only experimented with visual poetry, sound poetry, photography, and collage during the twenties, but also adopted a variety of scientific theories such as the then popular Cosmic Ice Theory and studied new technologies like the photocell. He sought to develop an “optophonetic” world view that would reconcile cosmological processes, modern media technologies, and human life: “We demand the expansion and conquest of all our senses.”

The present volume of previously unpublished writings from the Raoul Hausmann Archive at Berlinische Galerie shows how much Hausmann was interested in expanding human physiology, optimizing media technology, and developing a cosmology. Hausmann’s scientific and technical writings reveal a multitude of buried sources that were central to the avant-garde’s conception of the relationship between physiology and media technology. His early insights remain an important part of the genealogy of contemporary multimedia art.

With an editorial preface by Ralf Burmeister and an extensive introduction by Arndt Niebisch, as well as correspondence between Raoul Hausmann and engineer Daniel Broido about the patent rights to their jointly developed calculating machine.

Raoul Hausmann (1886–1971) was a member of the Dada movement in Berlin. He was a pioneer of photomontage, created paintings and sculptures, experimented with photography and sound poetry, wrote manifestos and the novel Hyle. Ein Traumsein in Spanien. He emigrated in 1933 and lived in Limoges in relative isolation from 1938 until his death. The archive he left behind when he emigrated now resides at the Berlinische Galerie – Museum for Modern Art, Photography and Architecture.