Touch Grass @leastuedahl

I cloned a human hand 🪩

This week, the atelier went through a brief introduction of Arduino and attended a talk by Feelers Feelers about their practice in the intersection of art and technology. I also began experimenting more with p5js and worked on a making a prosthetic hand.

① Arduino Introduction

During the first workshop, the atelier was introduced to the different components of an Arduino kit and the resources available online to get started in arduino.

We were then introduced to the different components such as motion sensor, light sensor, etc, and the one that I found partcularly simple and straightforwatd was the servo motor.

  • Introduction to Arduino workshop by Andreas Schlegel 9 Oct 2024

  • Accelerometer (as input) Device 9 Oct 2024

  • Servo Motor 9 Oct 2024

  • Servo Motor Demo 9 Oct 2024

  • ② Let's make a hand!

    During week 8 as i was writing my RPO, I became curious about how a prosthetic can allow users to be in touch with nature intimately at the comfort of my desk. Also in relation to my previous taks and interactions with nature, I realise I do like to touch nature and begin to wonder if a simple prosthetic can help be “in touch” with nature.

    • Following a youtube tutorial, I made my first ever artificial hand with the materials I had - Paper, Wall-plug and Strings. The process was not as easy as the wall plugs had very tiny holes to thread the string through. As soon as I was done, I did some user-testing from touching my hands to face, a paper ball to the nearest nature I could find.

  • Rubber Hand Experiment illustration by Reddit account 'LeastGenericUsername'

  • DIY Robotic Hand tutorial by The Amaze Lab

  • Wall Plug, Tape and Paper

  • DIY thread needle

  • 80% Done

  • Final DIY Robotic Hand

  • First user-testing with myself – Wallplug, Tape, Paper, Cupboard and Threads

      • Then I got a bit creative and see how I can interact with this prosthetic. I put it at the back of my head, let it touch my face (ticklish) and held a paper ball.

    • Holding paper ball

    • Touching human face

    • Hand at the back of my head

      I touched the nearest tree I could find and Junliang accidentally recorded that in slow-mo which I thought it was kinda sexy.

    • Touching the nearest tree

      So then I gathered more users to try. First, Junliang. He tried locking hands with prosthetic.

    • Locking Hands – User: Junliang, 25

    • “Not to sound morbid, but It felt like my late grandfather’s hand” – User: Anna, 24

    • Holding herself repeatedly – User: Vionetta, 20

    • Pure Bliss – User: Alda, 23

      I didn’t know how to feel about this user-testing experience. My initial thought was ‘oh let’s make an artificial hand to touch nature for humans” - well since my entire paper was about human and nature relationship. So then I brought it to Instagram to ask more people.

    • Surveying on social media – ig story

    • "What shoul it touch next?" – data collection 1

    • "What shoul it touch next?" – data collection 2

    • Responses 'Humans' vs 'Non-humans' – 10 Oct 2024

      Reflection:
      I don’t know.. are people just lonely…? and have the desire to be touched?? HAHAH? It seems like humans’ these days crave for physical interactions with another body even if its’ artificial.

    ③ Seeing Creatures 🔎

    Based on last week exercise, apart from the tactile experience, I was also inspired by this picture. A prosthetic touching nature kinda reminded me of my first sketch that I did in Week 2.

    In this picture, the hand is touching a poster pasted on the wall. It’s a bit of a stretch but visually they look like they belong together. Like friends with exposed inner workings of their body part!

    • Week 1 Sketch – Trees Hand

    • Hand-tree interaction

      So then, I just indulged in this aesethtic and wanted to created my own version. First, I looked through my Week 7 of my ‘personal archive’ to look for some pictures. I recall photographing one particular picture, which I named “car-beautiful-tree-sky-humans-buildings.jpeg” , that took me three shots. First without zooom, second with zoom and third with more zoom and waiting for humans to walk away. Each time cropping away more things for my satisfaction.

    • Tree outside Rochor, Singapore saved on Week 7 "Interspecies Encounters" Are.na Boaard

    • First Shot – no zoom

    • Second Shot – zoomed

    • Third Shot – more zoom + waited for humans to walk away

    • But did I liked it? Probably. But the fact is I only remember the existence of this file becaue I intently searched for nature picture in my phone gallery. Recalling the three shots it took, I printed the picture out and erased things that I wanted to crop out further.

    • Using white posca marker, like a correction tool, I removed things like cars, humans, buildings and well, just urban stuff. The result is a form derivative of my perception of what I saw in the tree outside Rochor.

    • White Posca Marker

    • White Posca on image

    • Scanned Artwork

    • Tree at punggol park saved on Week 7

    • Cropped tree at punggol park White posca on printed image

    • Bonsai Roots at Ban Nee Chen, Kovan saved on Week 7

    • Cropped roots at Ban Nee Chen, Kovan White posca on printed image

    • Feeling happy with my outcome, I shared it with my fellow designer/friend and her immediate response were “wow what is this?”, “I can imagine a drawing over it”. I wasn’t surprised because she’s an illustrator…

    • But what surprised me was how quick she responded with a drawing of species. Suddenly, the project in week 7 when I was trying to imagine a new form of “hybrid entities” revived into a new idea.

    • Tele-communication with a friend Jia Ling, 25, Illustrator

    • Tele-communication with a friend Jia Ling, 25, Illustrator

    • Tracing Roots Artwork on iPhone by Jia Ling, 25, Illustrator

    • Tracing Roots Artwork on iPhone by Myself, 25, Designer

    • Tracing Roots Artwork on iPhone by Junliang, 25, Designer

    ④ Feelers Feelers 🔎

    The atelier had the honour of having Ashley Hi from 'Feelers Feelers' to give an introduction about their practice in the intersection of art and technology.

    During this week, the atelier also had the honour of havinh Ashley Hi from

    Feelers Feelers Research group that design, teach and facilitate programmes around art and technology

    • Greener Screens Kit by Feelers Feelers

    • Sharing on tracking and measuring carbon usage by Feelers Feelers

        Reflection:

      • The reflection is that they have very strong moral compass, high standatds of ethics and professional. I appreciate the honesty and also it was very heartwarming to see what I am attempting here being reflected in Feelers Feelers practice. Plus, the fact that an art and technology company exists in Singapore blows my mind.

    Reflection 😮‍💨

    Reflecting on weeks zero to seven, I realised the problem was that I had to update my CPJ regularly. Updating weeks five to seven made me realise I missed out on opportunities for meaningful feedback and reflection. It was only when I put everything aside and start updating my CPJ that the ideation process began to be clearer. Althought most of them were just sort of eliminating bad ideas, they still contribute to the project in some ways.