Super Prosthetics Project

Welcome to the Super Prosthetics Project Super Prosthetics...

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the Super Prosthetics Project

Super Prosthetics Project is a about exploring armwear as an object of empowerment, choice and identity. A series of experiments were conducted in collaboration with Holly Franklin, to create wearable objects centred around social interaction and gesture. Scroll down to see the blog!

If you are interested in any of the work or would like to get in touch please contact me at becky.pilditch (at) network.rca.ac.uk, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Come and see our exhibition! The Super Prosthetics Project is...

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:00:00 +0100

Come and see our exhibition!

The Super Prosthetics Project is being exhibited at the Royal College of Art Graduate Show from 25 June - 4 July 2010.

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

Experimental hand #8 Gestural hand series This documents a...

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Experimental hand #8

Gestural hand series

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.

Gestural Hand Series This experiment is a response to the video...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Gestural Hand Series

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.

Static vs Animated There have been various responses to the glass-fingered wooden hand below, as a...

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Static vs Animated

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 artificial? How do different materials affect the...

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0000

How artificial?

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?

Experimental hand #7

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Experimental hand #7

Hand Puppetry At this point in the project I had learned about...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Hand Puppetry

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.

Experimental hand #6 6 Transparent fingertips - this hand is a...

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Experimental hand #6

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…

Experimental hand #6

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Experimental hand #6

Holly goes digital The RCA has a great facility called Rapid...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Holly goes digital

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 :-)

Experimental Hand #5

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Experimental Hand #5

Experimental hands #4-5 4 Leather palm - does a hand need to...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Experimental hands #4-5

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 :-)

You can see Holly’s alter-ego in just for fun

Hand-shapedness How important is it to have a hand that is...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:58:00 +0000

Hand-shapedness

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!)

Wooden emotions - how expressive is a wooden hand? After...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Wooden emotions - how expressive is a wooden hand?

After Thanksgiving on Sunday I got the tube home with Ceci and David, creative, Argentinian-Spanish friends…

“I love it, if you can make it work, every artist will want one” - Ceci

(Flamenco guitar by Vicente Gomez)

“Don’t stare at her arm” Holly and I met up for a coffee in Green Park on Sunday...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

“Don’t stare at her arm”

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.

Hand Talk Here are some ‘conversations’ about hands...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Hand Talk

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.

Experimental hands #1-3 Here are the first three hands in the...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Experimental hands #1-3

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...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

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…

Proportion Mannequins So I’ve been on the look out for...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Proportion Mannequins

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!