Can’t seem to reach you
Angel Wong
Advisor: Sarah Ibrahim
When people have had absent parents, how do they construct a model of parenthood — for both their prospective child and their inner child?
Project Description
Some nights, now and then, mom would gently scratch me to sleep, as if to soothe something neither of us could name.
Can’t Seem to Reach You explores the quiet dissonance between gesture and connection. Framed through the replication of a nurturing touch, the work embodies a lingering emotional distance and an absent warmth — a love rehearsed but never fully inhabited. By mimicking an intimate, maternal ritual through mechanical motion, the piece interrogates the authenticity of inherited affection, asking whether a plagiarized gesture can ever truly hold the weight of care.
Technical Details
[Hand] A silicone-casted hand, molded from my own hand, with carved and sealed air channels on each individual finger. The joints are constricted with a 3D printed ring.
[Motion] Pneumatic actuation with an air pump and air valves, with sequential activation of valves to control air flow into each finger.
[Interaction] A foam pillow embedded with a capacitive sensor, battery and a microcontroller, which communicates via bluetooth to a secondary microcontroller situated within the main sculpture.
