hands — A Living Atlas of Makers and Users

Arnold’s hands

Arnold need his hands for making his books and his articles. He types them. And he needs them to use his (paper) lexicons, and and to search for things in other books.

Astrid’s hands

Astrid uses her hands to think. They are part of her brain. Sketching, writing, tinkering, making things, for everything she does, she needs her hands.

Dave’s hands

Everything he does, he does with his hands. They are probably part of his brain.

His hands are most important. Diek uses them for sketching, for drawing, for making his sculptures, for testing their texture. For the complete process after coming up with a concept. He wished his fingers were longer.

Harold’s hands

Before we took this picture Harold cleaned his finger nails. He uses his hands to control his guitar and his other tools, like old fashioned audio recorders. He doesn’t use computers to make music. When I asked him why he didn’t know. Maybe he should? He could see some advantages.

Irene’s hands

Irene’s hands are a mediator between her quick brain and the tools she uses. Absolutely necessary. No drawing, no typing, no sketching, no note taking, no mixing of paints without them.

Joke’s hands

Like almost all people who make things Joke uses her hands all the time.

Joost’s hands

These are Joost’s hands. He uses them to control his computer.

Kiki’s hands

Kiki uses her hands for all the things she makes. For her little statues, for her lego, for her drawings of monsters on her car.

Maarten’s hands

Maarten uses his hands all the time. He types with them. He holds his phone with them. He sketches with them. He uses them for building the things he builds. He needs them for using his tools. As you can see, he once cut off the tips of his fingers.

Marie’s hands

Marie absolutely needs her hands. Sure she uses them for making her designs. But she really needs them to talk Dutch Sign Language, which is her first language. They are essential for all of her communication.

Marrije’s hands

Of course Marrije uses her hands for all kinds of activities. Like writing in her notebook, typing on her computer and using the scissors during design workshops. But she also uses them to talk sign language with Marie, one of her employees.

Robert Jan’s hands

Robert Jan’s hands move all the time when he speaks. They go everywhere. He’s learning to take a bit more control over these enthusiastic gestures, since he’s learning sign language to speak to his colleague Marie.

Stefanos’ hands

Apart from cooking Stefanos does a bit of programming as well. He’s the one who, years ago, explained the whole idea behind open source software to me by sharing his receipes with me. The idea was that I would try them out, change them, maybe even improve them, and then share my findings back to him. That never really happened though. I’m a bit of a lazy cook.

An Atlas of hands