political prosthetic
In researching the Chinese finger trap, Tsitsi and I noticed that it had many names including Chinese handcuffs and Mexican handcuffs. We thought that by scaling up this gag gift we could turn the derogatory meanings on their head.
The handcuff is a simple weaving of semi-rigid strips into a cylinder. When the cylinder is pulled, it is lengthened and thus the circumference shrinks and grabs your finger.
Instead of trapping two fingers of one individual, we want to prolong an interaction between two people (handshake). The handshake’s purpose is to convey trust, balance, and equality. BUT, there are various peculiarities of the handshake. One common question regarding the greeting is, how long should the handshake last. The handshake cuff is the third party accepting all blame for the extended hand shake. The two participants must work together to end the greeting and if it does go a little long, it was the device’s fault not either participants.
Please see Tsitsi’s blog for more info.