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.
Here are some ‘conversations’ about hands #1 and #3. Notice how much we communicate and gesture with our hands, both consciously and subconsciously. Sound not included.
Here are the first three hands in the series. The intent behind #1-3 is to create a talking point around the idea of beauty and body image and public perception. I have adapted three objects with a wrist fitting for an arm socket. I met up with Holly to talk about and try out all three. Here’s what we discovered:
1 Wooden articulated hand - what does it feel like to have a hand made of wood, visually/ tactilely? Wooden hands are great to fiddle with (and occupy your other hand!) and the ball and socket wrist has a certain floppiness to it which adds elegance when you gesture and is simply just nice when you place your hand on the table or your knee and it nicely conforms rather than sticking out parallel to your arm… you could use a nicer piece of wood like mahogany too and even extend it to the socket.
2 Plaster cast hand - concealment vs celebration. To what extent should armwear attempt to recreate humanness? How could you do this in a pleasing way? This hand both possess the exact form and skin detail of the other hand as belonging to the body, and expresses it’s artificiality in the choice of material as a crafted and sculptural object. Sadly the three middle fingers broke off in transit (ouch) so Holly never got to try this one but I’m casting a pinky in stronger ceramic which I’ll post up soon.
3 Diamante hook - how can you transform the connotations of surgical steel? How will people react to a bejewelled hook? This was certainly the most eye-catching of the three. Someone commented that it created an immediate positive impression with a certain ‘wow’ factor. However I was surprised learn that others didn’t get it so perhaps it needs to communicate what it is or it’s relation to the body more.
A study of hand movement and gesture in dance and everyday activities
I met up with my friend Charlie this evening, to film her hands. She is a professional dancer and I want to understand how she creates elegance and gestures with her hands and how you could capture this. Gender is a key issue - men and women’s hands look different, they are different sizes, nail lengths, (women tend to have longer index fingers whereas men tend to have longer ring fingers, something to do with testosterone), they gesticulate and manipulate things differently. My friend Peter who designed the Michaelangelo arm mentioned that it is intended to look androgynous, suitable for men and women. However I’m wondering whether there is value in distinguishing for masculinity and femininity, for example to enhance your identity or affection toward your hand. Holly has mentioned her dislike for her ‘man-hand’ which is bigger and heavier than her normal hand. Perhaps the key to creating femininity is in movement as well as appearance…
So I’ve been on the look out for beautiful hands and interested to find out who else makes them.
I’ve been walking past the window of my local Jigsaw for a few weeks and admiring the mannequins’ lovely vintage hands with articulated joints, which might make for an interesting experiment. The company who make them are called Proportion London and kindly donated me an arm to take home. They have a huge warehouse full where they make a vast array of different mannequins, which is used regularly as a set in the film industry. Must be pretty creepy when they turn out the lights!
I’m grateful to the people at Roehampton for letting me come and visit their prosthetics workshop last week. Friendly team and great craftsmenship. I left with a bag of arms and lots of ideas. (Which didn’t help the lady sitting next to me on the bus home, may have been poked a few times - *sorry*).
I’ve just been to visit the Science Museum archives at Blythe House where they store over 170,000 objects that the general public never get to see. Amazing place. The curator was kind enough to show me around the labyrinth of store rooms to see artificial hands from antiquity, and the stories that went with them. Here are some that were particularly interesting. Clearly a lot of craftsmanship has gone into making them and I wonder to what extent they were custom made for the wearer (rather than pre-made for the majority). Some materials used are rather unusual in artificial hands today and have different connotations. However it is one thing to look at and another to wear - so I ponder the question, what do people think about these hands compared to those of today?
1 Fully articulated wooden hands with palm fitment for pencil/ eating utensils by C.A. Hoefftoke, c1900
2 Wood and leather arm with ratchet lever to open and close steel spring fingers by P & K Artificial Limb co, Belfast c1920
3 Carved wooden hand with blank, for injured railway personnel by British Rail Engineering Ltd
4 Woven wicker hand verses carbon dioxide powered hand with wrist rotator using spacecraft technology at RAE Farnborough
We’ve been casting our arms! A fun process which involves covering your arm with skin-safe silicone to capture the detail and then mod-rock to keep it in shape when you mould from it. However if you do both arms at the same time the there is a point when you become completely incapacitated. Holly reckoned wearing the plaster bandage was pretty close to the experience of wearing a passive arm. I then poured plaster into the moulds to create detailed models of her arms which will be useful when I am making objects when she is not around. Also if it is desirable we can mirror the detail of her right hand onto her left using a 3D scanner later on. What had not occurred to me during the process was just how sculptural and pleasing an object a material such as plaster would create, in it’s own right. I am considering whether ornamental ceramics might add an interesting twist. The silicone and mod-rock materials were supplied by a helpful company called Mouldlife.
I recently met Holly who is interested in the project and fun to work with. She will be making regular appearances to demonstrate the objects we create… so watch this space. Whilst I will be making (left) hands to fit her and taking consideration of her identity as a girl etc, it would be fantastic to have insight and ideas from others and continue having dialogue about what you would create for yourself! You can read more about Holly under the ‘about’ tab.
I’ve been investigating the idea of superpowers in fiction and real life, and why we desire to experience heightened abilities as something special and unique. The ‘super’ part of this project is about exploring the question how can we transcend the ordinary?
What happens if you apply ‘super’ in the context of armwear? What could it mean? Aimee Mullins pointed out that “a prosthetic limb… can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create in that space.” [TED talk] If disability is an opportunity for transcending the ordinary and for empowerment, what might you choose to create in that space? Here are some opportunities for different kinds of super:
1 Super POWER
Here is an example of the classic super power - a tool that gives you a special ability in a specific context. This climbing arm belongs to Aron Ralston and allows him to get purchase on rock in places where others can’t. The paralympics demonstrates numerous devices that give you specific heightened sporting abilities.
2 Super COMMUNICATION
By contrast there are those who wish to explore self/public perception and body image. Sculpter Jacques Monestier has created a prosthetic hand that is a work of art - a “provocative alternative to both hands and hooks”. Monestier explains that he wanted to “transmute what might be considered a disfigurement into something marvellous and exotic” [Design For Disability, Graham Pullin]. He has transformed a prosthetic hand into an object of desire and healthy curiosity. In contrast to a resorting what is lost with a life-like cosmesis, it makes a statement about it’s artificiality and identity that gets the moment of realisation out the way at the beginning, when meeting people.
3 Super BEAUTY
This leads into the idea of super fashion/ beauty/ femininity. The BBC recently produced a show called Britain’s Missing Top Model where eight young disabled women competed for a modelling contract. The show attempted to redefine beauty as something to be found in uniqueness, distinctness and imperfection, in contrast to an industry that demands physical perfection and symmetry. In his book Design For Disability, Graham Pullins explains how eyewear has been transformed from a medical aid provided by the NHS in the 50s, to a facial prosthetic that people with 20x20 vision now chose to wear to enhance their appearance. It is interesting that the girls have been photographed in such a way that their ‘medical aids’ become objects of beauty that enhance their appearance and identity, as extensions of their body which can have any aesthetic they choose. So too Aimee Mullins asks why can’t disability be both whimsical and fashion-able.
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.
