Hands exhibition moving image loop.

Date:
2010
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Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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Credit

Hands exhibition moving image loop. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

Moving image loop showing in the Light Box exhibition space, Wellcome Collection, November 2010-January 2011 with a variety of clips on the theme of hands.

Publication/Creation

2010.

Physical description

1 encoded moving image (33:04 min.) : sound, silent, black and white & colour

Duration

00:33:04

Terms of use

CC-BY-NC
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales

Contents

Clip 1 X-ray studies of the joint movements,1948, silent, black and white. Excerpt from Russell John Reynolds' cineradiography studies showing the hand and digits. Reynolds was a pioneer in this technique and foresaw the importance of cineradiography as a diagnostic tool, which he explains in the intertitles. The x-rays show how complex the structure of the hand is. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:05:01:00 Length: 00:05:01:00
Clip 2 Sir Herbert Barker's manipulative technique (Part 1/2), 1936, silent, black and white. Barker was a skilled bone-setter and developed a non-invasive osteopathic manipulation technique. He came from a non-traditional medical background and gained an influential client-base, which eventually leveraged some recognition for him. This film was made to demonstrate his skill before the British Orthopaedic Association at St Thomas's Hospital. In this excerpt, Barker is seen manipulating the foot. In the opening intertitles, he underlines that there is no hidden or mystic rites involved in his methods. In fact, Barker was considered to have widely attributed as having a sixth sense with regards to the prognosis of a patient's condition. Time start: 00:05:01:00 Time end: 00:08:33:00 Length: 00:03:32:00
Clip 3 Electrodiagnostics on the healthy body Part 3, Hand [and lower extremity], silent, black and white. A demonstration of various types (Faradic and Galvanic) of electric currents on individual muscles to the hand. Possibly a novel and oboslete medical treatment (but 'don't try this at home') and it is not clear exactly what this technique would have diagnosed, although it is interesting to observe involuntary muscle spasms caused by electricity. Bizarrely, after the hand, a penis is subjected to an electronic current (not shown). Time start: 00:08:33:00 Time end: 00:12:30:00 Length: 00:03:57:00
Clip 4 Modern aseptic operating technique, 1938, silent, black and white. A potted history of asepsis, a means to exclude bacteria from operating theatres starting with Joseph Lister and showing an unpleasantly infected hand, a surgeon putting on gloves, handling surgical instruments with forceps and then instruments being sterilised. Time start: 00:12:30:00 Time end: 00:14:28:00 Length: 00:01:58:00
Clip 5 Hygiene: Kate's party, 1990, sound, colour. An animated cartoon aimed at children. A 'hy-genie' visits Kate's birthday party and explains to the children what germs are and how they are spread. The genie tells the children the 5 rules of hygiene: wash hands before meals, wash hands after using the toilet, never eat food that's been on the floor, keep pets away from food and keep food cool and covered. Time start: 00:14:28:00 Time end: 00:19:55:00 Length: 00:05:27:00
Clip 6 Conditioned reflexes and behavior, 1930, silent, black and white. Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 and this film co-incides around the time when his work became widely available in translation. Pavlov was in his 80s when the film was made and appears briefly at the beginning (not shown) looking highly animated. This sequence expands his thesis and shows how the grabbing reflex differs in the new born and an older baby. A baby is stabbed with a pin and then cries in pain. Time start: 00:19:55:00 Time end: 00:21:54:00 Length: 00:01:59:00
Clip 7 Look my mummy has no hands, c.1960, silent, colour. An extraordinary and uplifting case study of a young mother who was involved in an accident and lost both her arms. A patient at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, the heroine of this film demonstrates her extraordinary dexterity with her prosthetic arms in dressing and undressing her infant daughter. In a time before velcro and stretchy fabrics, she womanfully negotiates fiddly buttons and ties. Queen Mary's, Roehampton, is very much associated with the physical rehabilitation of limb amputees, especially of war veterans. This film illustrates how the hospital tackled the psychological impact of losing a limb. Later in the film our heroine is seen smoking a cigarette, driving a car and resuming work as a typist. Time start: 00:21:54:00 Time end: 00:26.37:00 Length: 00:04:43:00.
Clip 8 Claire, c.1970, silent, colour. This film also originates from Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. It features a young girl of around 11-years-old, who has no left hand. Through the post, she has been sent a prosthetic hand and forearm by Dr. D. May of Roehampton Hospital and proceeds to show the camera all the different things she can do with it. These include riding her bike, skipping, swinging, eating with a knife and fork and even threading a needle. Shot on 8mm film with no sound and with saturated colours, very much in a home movie style, it may have been commissioned to demystify the experience of receiving a disembodied hand or sent as a homage to the hospital. Time start: 00:26.37:00 Time end: 00:26.37:00 Length: 00:33.04:00

Creator/production credits

Various.

Language note

In English.

Type/Technique

Languages

Subjects

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