OUT OF HAND — Embodied Knowledge in the Digital Age is my master’s thesis in New Media Design at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences, Berlin. It asks how digital tools might engage the hand’s capacity for exploration, creativity and embodied knowledge beyond the repetitive gestures of clicking and typing.

The practical project, Handscape, is a tactile playground concealed inside a box. Participants explore textures and movable elements with their non-dominant hand, without looking inside. Touch, bending, rotation and movement become MIDI inputs that shape generative visuals in real time, connecting physical exploration with digital expression.

I developed the project end to end: the concept and enclosure, Arduino-based hardware, sensor-to-MIDI programming and the TouchDesigner visual system. The interface combines capacitive touch sensors, resistive flex sensors, rotary encoders and accelerometer/gyroscope sensors.

The accompanying research draws on histories of tools and making, embodied cognition and bimanual interaction. Rather than proposing another efficiency-driven controller, Handscape explores a more playful relationship between the hand, materials and the screen. Testing highlighted the challenge of translating unpredictable exploratory touch into stable, intuitive visual responses.

Thesis supervisors: Prof. Emily Smith and Riccardo Torresi.