Performance is usually understood as an activity carried out by humans. Hands & Machines asks what happens when performance is distributed between humans, machines, and the materials they act upon. What if the machine is not simply a tool controlled by the human body, but becomes a performer, an extension of the body, or an autonomous participant? Who is controlling whom?
Hands & Machines is an ongoing performative project exploring the relationship between the human body and technological objects. Through simple actions involving hands, machines, tools and materials, the work investigates touch, movement, repetition, resistance and feedback. Machines are activated, manipulated, touched, or left to operate, while the body responds to their movements, rhythms and limitations.
The project approaches technology not only as an instrument for producing an intended result, but as something that enters into a relationship with the body. A gesture can trigger a machine; a machine can constrain or redirect a gesture; a material can resist both. Through these reciprocal interactions, the boundary between operator and operated, user and tool, body and machine becomes increasingly unstable.
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