Over the past two weeks I tried to work simultaneously in two directions keeping open the option for both the network brief and the platform one. I believe the connections I intertwined with professional designers are the most interesting and potentially insightful aspect of my third unit so far, but at the same time I am aware that the possibility for a collaboration to flourish is complicated and it does not only depend on me, therefore I tried to think also about a platform as a plan B.
Just when all hope was lost, I got emailed back by Ted Yoon. He showed genuine interest in my research and he shared with me few interesting insights about his practice and the designing process he followed for his project Designing Dictatorial Statues. It was stimulating to hear from a professional the kind of critical choices he had to take to make the most out of his project. Because of the similarities between mine and DDS’s researches (in terms of general topic, but more in depth of methodology), some of the obstacles Ted Yoon encountered were similar to the ones I had. Hearing from him how he circumvented those blocks helped me to shed lights on my process.
Ted also shared with me the contact of Mark Henning, another designer whose practice has a similar subject matter of mine. Particularly he worked on a project titled Normaal: “a performative design research that explores how the handshake – a simple social gesture – has become coded with immense nationalistic meaning and examines how our definition of normal influences our suspicions of others” [Mark Henning’s website].
The starting point of Henning’s research was declaration letter by the Dutch Prime Minister at that time, which referred to normal behaviours people have to follow if they want to stay in the Netherlands and particularly to the idea that in the Netherlands is normal to shake hands. What Henning asked to himself was what is a normal handshake. The research developed following a series of iterations and experiments which eventually took the form of an interactive performance. He designed a platform/stage which forms a testing station for handshakes. On the stage he interacted with the audience playing with the absurdity of normal.
The more I was digging into Henning’s practice the more it helped me to inform my own research. I read several articles and I listened to a podcast where he was explaining Normaal, and I was fascinated and astonished to notice strong affinity my project shares with his research. So I decided to email him to grasp further insights on his practice. In particular, I am very interested in the sort of diagrams he designed and drew on the desk he used as the handshake station. The dissection of the motion through a methodical system is something I have also tried during my iterations. So I asked him if he could share with me some details about those diagrams. I am still waiting for a response but studying his practice already helped me a lot to organise the material I gathered and make sense out of it.
Henning’s diagram reminded me to DelSarte’s imaginary cube I encountered previously in my investigation. They both are tools used to conduct an analytical research and interpret the gestures.
Following a suggestion I received during the last tutorial discussion I decided to experiment with the software lens studio in order to create a filter which can be used while interacting on digital platform, for instance Microsoft Teams, the platform we are using for our communication. So, I created a filter which replicates a sort of DelSarte’s cube and stays attached to the person chest. According to how the person places their hands in the cube to approach a handshake different meaning are conveyed.
I am aware that at this point this experiment is not taking a lot of advantage on the digital platform. I find difficult to recreate a sort of interaction through this channel, and at the end the relationship between the two people shaking hands is what interest me the most about the topic.