Luke Johnson

The Hands project plays on the the awkwardness inherent in weddings - it is a formal event with an anxiety or unease about what is appropriate behavior. Ths intervention plays on this awkawardness asking participants "What the hell am I suppose tot do with theses things. The creative interpretations revealed the ways in which people have always wanted to use their own hands but were afraid to in public.

1. Making as a Strategy or Making as a way of Knowing

As a designer, one of the major takeaway lesson from this project was the practice of sketching and seeing what happens. The hands were never intended to be any thing a quick act to get me started on my thesis (and out of the funk that marked the transition from year one to year two). Low tech, small projects and a gestation period for one's ideas can go a long way if you are a patient. Moreover, a failed designed can often teach you as much, if not more, about the process of design than a successful study.

What emerged was a very powerful lesson(s) about my craft.

2. The Right Project (for me)

In retrospect, what I believe was most interesting about a project in group dynamics was that it in many ways parallels my interest in political science. During my college years, I was a not only a pre-med concentration but a political science major and that interest came from my careers as a student council president and my wanting to understand how people worked and lived together.

This project was a natural fit and is far removed from my initial ideas of what I thought I should be doing for the rest of my life (cell phones) or projects that I knew I could do easily (stair master).

3. The Crafty Bastard

The crafting of the hands, as I would find out, was a very difficult process. Making anything anatomical, let alone movement, is next to impossible. Yet the frustration of making, and in turn the internal personalization and customization of the work, is more of a reflection of my need to work with others. The collaborative environment of the shop and its craftsmen allow me to confront a larger fear of inertia and what is possible.

4. Adapt + Adjust

What became apparent very early in the documentation process was that the hands were being used in far more creative ways than my initial instinct to use them sole for the formation of a conga line. This knowledge allowed me to adjust my design on the fly to complement their more natural use. The ability to be flexible and improvisation guided me towards a more retrospective, interviewing process- a step that essential made the film.

5. Humor

As a general philosophy, I espouse a whimsical sense of humor in my work as opposed to one of cynicism and irony- which provide no answers. Used correctly, humor can access difficult subject matter to create a more profound and sincere portrait. However, I believe that in many of projects a correct balance between humor and tone needs to be struck (which, when misused, takes away from the greater picture of the work).

6. The Worrier

Moving forward, my concern is that I get pigeon-hold into the methodology that I outlined for myself during my gateway exam (although I believe that its ideas do need to be flushed out).

Secondly, I have always wanted to do a larger project with peer pressure and teens. Perhaps this project shines a light on larger questions regarding decision making and the influence of groups.

7. Interactive Interventions or What Probes Do

Devices or props, these are essentially data collection devices hacked from existing technologies.

- making the invisible, visible (information set that could be arbitrarily approached)

- data set as a probe

- selecting probes as potential narratives

- what are your wider goals > to tell interesting stories

- its an easy trap to follow into (i.e you are not a sociologist)

- however, as designer probes can allow you to:

- tell more interesting stories

- take a more interesting position or point of view

- design more interesting things

- understand systems of communications that are more interesting

- illuminate behavior (vs. change behavior)

- cause self-reflection

- probes reveal potential narratives

- important, for me, not to pre-judge them, but to allow them to reveal their potential

- define not the outcomes but the constraints

- learning process (true documentarian)

Inhibition, creativity, role playing, social experimentation- all are issues that came into play with the hands. What emerged are a few takeaway lessons about design.

1. The hands were used in ways in which people have always wanted to use their own hands but were afraid to in public. Based on the video documentation, It is easy to infer that the hands promoted only homoerotic behavior or served as a conduit for repressed action, but I found myself tickled with creative intelligence by the user (see The Excuse Me Sir and The Make Out) which leads to. . .

2. Ambiguity creates inspiration.The hands served as an impetus for creative expression as exemplified by the myriad of ways in which they were used.

3. The Hands changed the way people communicate with one another.Of course, weddings and alcohol serve as a dangerous elixir. Upon receiving the hands people used them to violate the space of others and create boundaries. The hands also revealed certain relationships between people (i.e comfortability, non-comfortability), served as a conversation starter, curiosity builder, and generally creeped people out.

4. Attention to Detail Always Counts.Part of the success of the hands were that they were creepy in their realism. Appropriately dressed for a wedding in white shirt and watch, the formal appearance covered what was the bloody severed limbs of a foam Halloween prop.

Adding to the sense of authenticity was its ability move. Perhaps the most difficult part of the project, movement was achieved through the hacking of an object picker. Because the "strings" were exposed, I felt the its authenticity was in some ways compromised. However, the hands (and their ability to move) played an essential role in its believability (and in turn its creative use.)

Again, the general reaction was one of creepiness- which was only heightened by an awareness of its ability to move.

5. Group Dynamics: Ampers + CaretakersIn his book The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell classifies three personality types at play in social epidemics (Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen). In much the same way, two personality types emerged with the unveiling of the hands: the ampers and caretakers.

The ampers were those who immediately sought out the hands and put them to use. Ampers could be those that usually drive conversations, seek attention, or amp the social scene in a room.

There were also those that took care of the hands and made sure that they were turned to safety after use. This loyalty could be credited to a loyalty to the project, the projects creator or a sense of fairness.

Of course, the classification could be as simple that the hands called to two types of people: the drunk and the curious. I would like to consider myself a champion of the curious.

1. Did I ruin the wedding?A fair question, and one usually asked by women. The short answer, I hope, is no. Instead, I like to think of The Hands (and the subsequent video) as an alternative wedding gift. Traditional wedding videos reveal nothing about the persons or personalities of the guests. I believe The Hands provides a larger context of how much people actually enjoyed the wedding.

2. What are the larger implications for The Hands? What are the new opportunities?

As a designer, The Hands experiment has raised even more questions about the use of a third object and group dynamics. For example, what interventions allow different personality types (ampers, caretakers) to emerge? How can design facilitate uninhibited and latent creativity? How do objects help define personal space as well as our relationship to others?

Finally, and perhaps completely unrelated, I have developed a genuine curiosity in how groups move through space. A practical application would be shortening the time its takes to load/unload from a plane.

The Hands experiment, while seemingly trivial, raises larger questions, serve as inspiration or simply entertain.

3. What do you consider yourself to be- a designer, sociologist, provocateur, other?Perhaps having studied "traditional" science as a pre-med undergrad, I have always struggled internally with the authenticity and statistical significance of human centered design. Having read a few books or done two case studies obviously does not make me an expert on group dynamics or sociology for that matter. But I believe this cross-disciplinary approach makes for a stronger design.

Moreover, I believe that as media designers we need to embrace this role both within our own field: the cross-discipline of media (websites, poster design, film, et al.) and those messages we are trying to communicate.

4. What is a media designers vision of documentary? Where does interaction fit into this landscape?As a media designer, I believe that the final outcome of my documentary work is not limited to film but rather a rather to a variety of design objects (websites, books, et al.) This view complements also how I gather data.

Traditional documentary filmmakers use the probe of the lens or the interview. My work elicit information from my subjects can be a variety of sources, both active and passive, through designed intervention.

Finally, I believe a media designer pulls form a larger frame of reference, such as typography, graphic design and illustration, and that the final product has the potential to draw on these larger themes.

5. What are the common threads in my work?Working with people, the subconscious and spoken, making the invisible, visible, humor (whimsical vs. ironic/cynical), empowerment, storytelling, co-creativity, iteration, documentation

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