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Visible Hand is an online artwork based on the simple image of a hand, a sort of hand icon, composed of typographic characters in the manner of ASCII art, using the display techniques of the first computers. In this case, however, the figures and letters composing the images are dynamic and keep changing: they are generated in real-time following the rise and fall of stock market indexes around the world. The originally still image changes according to the volume of financial transactions, which simultaneously feed and disrupt this image. Caught between the digital and the financial, and between two forms of representation, the picture of the hand seems to be constantly struggling for its visibility and its uncertain reality. Whose hand is this? Does that hand mean something? Does it call for help? Is it the hand of a protester? Or of a trader? Just calling or showing the number 5 on his fingers, reminding us that counting on our fingers (“digits”) is the base of the “digital”. In any case, this hand is not that of Adam Smith, the “Invisible Hand” supposed to regulate the global markets.

Credit:

Software Engineering: Oussama Mubarak
Acknowledgments: Mit Borras, Mario Gutiérrez Cru, Queralt Lencinas