21st Century Gesture Studies I
Interactive Intermedia (Freeform Circuit Sculpture)10.875 x 4.11 x 2.53 in. / 27.62 x 10.49 x 6.42 cm
2023
21st Century Gesture Studies II
Interactive Intermedia (Freeform Circuit Sculpture)7.5 x 4.16 x 2.75 in. / 19.05 x 10.56 x 6.98 cm
2023
21st Century Gesture Studies (I & II) is presented as a freeform circuit that connects several thin-film-transistor (TFT) screens and an analog distance sensor to a microcontroller. The work uses an IR distance sensor to read the distance between the viewer and the artwork. Once the sensor is activated at a specific range, the screens will display various Bitmap and ASCII animations of hand gestures; The closer the viewer is in front of the work the more abstract the animation gets. Its process is borrowed from computer vision. Where, in order for a computer to “see” an image, it needs to transmute that given image into numerical pixel values in order to translate it into binary data.
The gestures presented in the work are the ones that we make when we engage with our handheld devices, sans the device. The work reflects on how digital platforms influence human behavior and selfhood. Nowadays, our sense of selfhood is no longer developed in relation to others “but also in relation to algorithms that generate value for shareholders or enforce state dictates.”1 Actions most common to being online such as scrolling, tapping, swiping, etc. are tactile responses to these networked connections.2 According to Hodge, some gestures, like mindless scrolling or compulsive tapping are key to “divesting from the burden of selfhood.”3
[1] Hu, Tung-Hui (2022). Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an Age of Disconnection. MIT Press.
[2, 3] Hodge, James (2015). Sociable Media: Phatic Connection in Digital Art. Postmodern Culture, Volume 26, No. 1.
Other References:
Cheney-Lippold, John (2011). A New Algorithmic Identity: Soft Biopolitics and the Modulation of Control. Theory, Culture & Society, 28(6), 164–181.