My Favorite answer to a question about hands— Yes, technology can be seen as a medium of communication, of connecting and acting at a distance, but it is perhaps first and foremost a way of keeping our hands busy. The history of technology can be seen as a history of ways of keeping the hands occupied and away from the body. As we scroll and swipe, tap and click, our hands are dealing with a surplus bodily tension, which is why we have to keep them busy all the time. When the pandemic started, we were told by public authorities not to touch our faces while being reminded simultaneously that we do this unknowingly around 2,000 times a day! What’s that about? Hands also allow us to disconnect from our surroundings, which is one of the reasons babies keep their hands busy while feeding and throughout their early life. They allow us to be somewhere else, not entirely consumed by the proximity to those close to us. Phones, television, cinema, and computers are ways to be somewhere else while also being with others. Now, how do we deal with the problem of over-proximity in the one human activity that is supposed to be actively seeking this? Contrary to popular opinions, sex is not a way of communicating. Research from Kinsey till today shows time and time again how each sexual partner may avoid disclosing their pain or discomfort to the other, be it genital pain or being crushed against a headboard –hardly a successful communicative act! In sex, we abstract and connect in a careful rhythm, where the key is selective attention and selective perception, as we zone in on certain features and block out others. Here, the hands allow us both to connect and to disconnect, but we have to ask what exactly they are doing. Why would one human being press, constrict, squeeze, extend, stretch, pummel, slap, stroke, or caress the body of another? Amazing Art by @petertmcg for @spike_art_magazine