The Super Prosthetics Project is being exhibited at the Royal College of Art Graduate Show from 25 June - 4 July.
Come and see bespoke pieces of armwear we have created and catch up with with Holly and I.
SHOW TWO Kensington 25 June – 4 July, 11am–8pm daily (closed 2 July), free admission. Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU. Website here
Also…. Animation; Architecture; Communication Art & Design; Conservation; Curating Contemporary Art; Design Interactions; Design Products; Fashion ; History of Design; Innovation Design Engineering; Textiles and Vehicle Design
This documents a series of 30 prototypes that led to hand #8 the final hand in the series and a response to the way Holly uses her hands to communicate. Rather than conceal or use electronics to imitate life, the object has been shaped and balanced to create gesture and expression as an extension of her own movement.
Special cuts, weights and damping were slowly introduced as the hand became more animated. More sophisticated behaviour started to appear around the 24th iteration.
This experiment is a response to the video Hand Talk below, and how we use our hands to gesture, express ourselves and communicate. In addition we saw this as an opportunity to capture elegant movement and feminineness, inspired by our meeting with Charlie, a professional dancer.
A process of progressive prototyping began, in which each model was shaped and balanced based on how Holly used the previous and how she felt about it. The aim was to create a hand that would become more and more animated and behave like it belonged to Holly’s other hand, as an extention of her own movement and without using electronics.
All these occasions were captured on film. In total 30 prototypes were made, numbered 1-30. This resulted in experimental hand #8.
There have been various responses to the glass-fingered wooden hand below, as a sculptural piece. It might almost be classed as haute couture, which is quite a nice reference according to the definition.
Such an object would make strong statements about the wearer as to what they considered beautiful. It is certainly not about concealment. One thing that is particularly striking is the juxtaposition of the human and non-human hand as a ‘matched pair’… at least photographically.
I have often been in contact with Wolf about his work and experience and he made an interesting point about this object:
“what I like to see on a silent stable still object is not necessarily what I like to see on my living moving self”
What kind of character would it take on if this hand were to become animated? How might it feel to adopt it both into your peripheral vision and as a tactile pairing for the other? This is something that we really have to try…
How do different materials affect the relationship between the real and artificial hand, visually and tactilely? Holly was a fan of hand #1 - the first wooden hand, because it felt nice in her other hand and she like the appearance. Ceci, another friend, said it appealed because wood is a natural material and warm and expressive. This was in contrast to using plastic which personally, she said, seemed ‘fake’, perhaps meaning cold/ artificial/ cheap.
I went to visit Proportion Mannequins again recently and they kindly lent me a completely transparent hand, specially commissioned for a clothing retailer. The two images above demonstrate different levels of artificiality. On the right is the Proportion hand and on the left is wooden hand #6, which has had some fingers replaced by plastic ones. How do these hand interact/relate differently with their real counterparts? Is it acceptable or desirable to use plastic or even have a completely transparent hand? What other materials might be nice to the touch or pleasant to look at?
Another interesting feature of the articulated hand is that it that the joints are modular, meaning that you can pop out the finger segments. This means you could embed jewellery or have segments cast in gold or silver if you wished to embellish your hand in a particular way. Any thoughts?
At this point in the project I had learned about War Horse, a new play that had come to London. War Horse has been praised for bringing life-size wicker horses to life in a magical way. There are parallels between puppetry and prosthetics wearing. According to Lucy Childs a senior animator and puppeteer at Bournemouth University, puppeteers are very much concerned with how objects move in space and use their skill as puppeteers to bring the most basic elements to life. Emma Fisher, a graduate of the London School of Puppetry. Emma mentioned that in her experience, subtle movements were particularly lovely and the key to bringing a hand to life might be in getting the fingers to move at slightly different rates, capturing the erratic behaviour of living things. This led to the creation of hand #7.
After much discussion we decided on two possible modes of operation. Either Holly could operate the fingers together in a grabbing motion by attaching all the cables to the cable of her shoulder strap. Or alternatively and more experimentally we could create a system by which Holly could operate the fingers individually and in sync with the fingers of her right hand. This would potentially create a new way of using her hands; in one mode in the hands would do things together, such as picking up a tray, and another the position of the left could be set, freeing the other to continue as normal, for example holding a cup of tea whilst pouring milk.
6 Transparent fingertips - this hand is a follow up to Transparent hand #5 (the last wooden hand for a while I hope)
What happens if you can see through your fingers? How does it change/ improve dexterity or delicate work?
What is definitely apparent is that you can do a great ET impression… Holly certainly liked having transparent fingers (“looks quite cool!). But is there a functional advantage in being able to see through them when manipulating small/ delicate things? Is there a situation where you would want a finger to cast light or glow? In the next couple of weeks we’re hoping to make this hand body powered to test this out…
The RCA has a great facility called Rapid Form where you can scan and 3D print almost anything… including arms. People can’t stand still long enough to create an accurate scan which is why I made plaster models (see Casting Holly’s Arms). Amusingly, they had to be sprayed grey and covered in reflective polka dots to allow the scanner to see them. Now that we have computer models of the shape of Holly’s arms we can easily manipulate them and print out objects to fit or even mirror the file if we wanted to transfer some of the detail from her right arm onto her left. Apparently the RP staff were intrigued to find out why there were so many arms in the booth. Holly wants to make it clear that those are not her wrinkles I’m smoothing out, they are a result of the cast moving as it set :-)
4 Leather palm - does a hand need to contain a part of your identity in order to experience an affinity towards it as belonging to you… secret details, such as your finger prints, for example? The stitching on the leather palm is a mirror image of the lines on Holly’s right palm. Padded leather was chosen to create softness and skin-likeness. The verdict?
Holly - “I don’t think this is necessary, it will become ‘mine’ anyway as I use it. I am never going to get my original hand back so I’d rather have something that is not trying to be like what I have lost.”
Also the leather felt a bit like plastic, perhaps nubuck or suede would feel nicer or avoid skins altogether. Holly kept turning it over in preference for the wooden side. Perhaps this hand is a little too creepy-looking as well… there were a few confused glances from others in the coffee shop which suggested that the appearance is too bizarre.
5 Transparent hand - what happens if you can see through your fingers? How does it change/ improve dexterity or delicate work? This first iteration is not yet articulated and has been cast from a real arm (see Casting Holly’s Arms). The top is hollow so you can slide your arm inside. During the casting process some of the resin started to burn and produced discolouration near the top.
Holly - “I love this arm, this is like a take on my phantom hand. It looks amazing and I like the way I can see my own arm through it. Also I like the discolouration - it looks like internal jewellery - you could cast any kind of jewellery you wanted into this arm or change the colour. I need an alter ego now to go with my Phantom Hand!”
The overwhelming discovery was not so much about the fingers but in the way the object presented the arm inside and internal workings in a stunning way. Although it is a very detailed copy of a human hand, the frosted appearance from the skin detail dissipated the light like an ice sculpture. One of the baristas was so amazed that he came over to touch it. Perhaps a hand like this doesn’t have to function in a practical way, it can exist to do one thing really well like hold a champagne flute in an amazing way :-)
How important is it to have a hand that is hand-shaped? Can you change the number of fingers, or the shape or create something completely different and still feel a sense of belonging and affection to it?
This is something we’d like to find out and was touched upon with the diamante hook. Holly previously said she was up for trying anything (including two right hands) However the first thing she did when she tried on hand #1 was to stretch out her arms and say “ooo they’re the same size!” …something that was an accident but apparently pleasing. I offered to make a smaller more feminine hand but nope, she likes this one :-) (although this one has a ‘kinky pinky’ that sticks out at a funny angle!)
Holly and I met up for a coffee in Green Park on Sunday to try out and talk about hands #1-3. Holly brought along her hook and ‘man-hand’ and together we managed to cover the table with lots of prosthetic bits and bobs as well as a couple of creme brulee lattes. It was a useful session but in more ways than one. Afterwards Holly told me that a couple had sat down next to us and promptly moved to another spot, whereas a group of three nearby had observed with interest but not been overly distracted from their conversation. Interesting how people react differently to things they are not familiar with or find strange. On the tube later Holly wore the wooden articulated hand as a little social experiment to see if anyone would notice or react. It’s funny, even in a foreign language you can tell when a mother is telling off her child saying “don’t stare at her arm”, which was a shame because it was meant to be admired.
Holly and I met up for a coffee in Green Park on Sunday to try out and talk about hands #1-3. Holly brought along her hook and ‘man-hand’ and together we managed to cover the table with lots of prosthetic bits and bobs as well as a couple of creme brulee lattes. It was a useful session but in more ways than one. Afterwards Holly told me that a couple had sat down next to us and promptly moved to another spot, whereas a group of three nearby had observed with interest but not been overly distracted from their conversation. Interesting how people react differently to things they are not familiar with or find strange. On the tube later Holly wore the wooden articulated hand as a little social experiment to see if anyone would notice or react. It’s funny, even in a foreign language you can tell when a mother is telling off her child saying “don’t stare at her arm”, which was a shame because it was meant to be admired.