Circulate

(2019) Acrylic tube, yarn, metal hardware, wood, epoxy resin

We operate in the external world, using our bodies, performing tasks, moving from place to place, etc. Our minds get so wrapped up in what is in front of us, that we forget to take a moment to appreciate what intricate world is functioning underneath our skin. A hand can clench, hold, grab, touch, squeeze, slap, scratch, wave, or fiddle. It is truly a feat of its own, yet we rarely take a moment to recognize the plethora of nerves, muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, arteries, veins, and capillaries that make these motions possible.

Original Sketch of Design

Circulate was originally supposed to be an interaction of a handshake between two people. The participants were meant to alternate between pulling back and forth, and the strings of yarn would rise and fall through holes in the clear acrylic tube.

Cast of Hand

I used alginate powder to make a 30 min mold of my hands. I then poured casting resin in the mold, and that took 36 hours to cure. An unexpected chemical reaction occurred and didn't fully cure one of the hands. It frosted the tips of the fingers too. I also had to abandon the hooks because they were sinking in the resin.

Additional Curing of Resin Hands

After the hands were pulled out of the molds, they needed to cure for another 12 hours to harden the fingers. Only one hand fully hardened, so I had to pivot my concept and design.

Planning the Structure

A hollow acrylic tube was used as the foundation of the arm, and then I used plywood to create a fitted wall mount. Originally I wanted to hang the arm from the ceiling but it did not work. The wooden dowel was fit tightly into a drilled hole I made in the hand. This is the crank part that will allow the hand to rotate.

Assembling the Arm

Different types of red string where stuffed into the tube. Some of the string is freely floating but some of it is tied to the dowel with rubber bands so that the yarn can catch as the dowel rotates. The ends were sealed with round plywood and hammered into both ends of the acrylic tube. Finally I made a hand crank out of a large screw.

Circulate the Arm

This was me spinning the arm to test the kinetic quality of the apparatus. I also spun it as hard as I could to see the structural integrity of the piece since the viewer is invited to interact with it.