All Hands

Rewa Wright and Simon Howden / Australia

University of New South Wales

When we wave at machines, do they also wave back? «All Hands» is a software assemblage that explores this question, arranging a human hand so that it co- emerges on screen with a machinic conspirator it must trace to activate a shifting topology of ambient sound and light. The participant sits in front of a screen showing a minimal real time environment: a fractionally shimmering curtain of light. As they raise their hands above the Leap Motion controller, a multitude of virtual hands appear on the screen, and the participant needs to use a meshwork of sensory skills ( embodied reflexes, micromovements, vision, and proprioception) to track and disentangle.