Hand of love 2023 | latex gloves, hand phantom, liquid
During the first wave of COVID-19, two nurses Semei Araújo Cunha and Vanessa Formenton Sao Carlos at the Santa Felicia emergency center in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo improvised a supportive technique for patients lying in the ward. In the hospital shower, they filled latex medical gloves with warm water, tying them like balloons and placing one glove on each side of the patients' hands. Warming the hands has several benefits besides emotional support, this includes increasing blood flow. Cold hands can cause inaccurate readings of blood oxygen levels, falsely indicating underestimation. „Hands of love” has become a symbol of support for often lonely departed patients, as well as a projection of a special kind of touch, a substitute for a physical relationship with a companionable entity. In the age of developing AI (machine learning) environments, and advanced mechatronics (Boston Dynamics), support for such basic senses as touch goes unnoticed. The object initiates a discussion about the relationship between the extension of physicality and the nature of the consciousness given to digital entities. Reconfigurations, Mazovian Museum in Plock | curator: Włodzimierz Szymański, documentation support: Karol Jaworowski