Visible Hand

Internet-connected installation, 2016, after All Over (2009)
Samuel Bianchini

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

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Visible Hand, Samuel Bianchini, 2016
Medialab-Prado, Madrid, Oct. 2016.
Photos: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

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.

Visible Hand, Medialab-Prado, Madrid, October 2016
Video - 1mn 26s - High band request
Images and editing : Samuel Bianchini

Visible Hand (v.2)

Internet-connected installation, 2016-2020, after All Over (2009)
Samuel Bianchini

Software Engineering: Oussama Mubarak
Version produced in the framework of the exhibition "Le Supermarché des images", Jeu de Paume, Paris, February - June 2020. Curators : Emmanuel Alloa, Marta Ponsa et Peter Szendy.

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Visible Hand (v.2), Samuel Bianchini, 2016-2020
"Melting Point" Exhibition, Access Festival, Pau, oct. - dec. 2020
Curator: Jean-Jacques Gay
Photos: © Ivan Blehaut

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To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

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Visible Hand (v.2), Samuel Bianchini, 2016-2020
Exhibition "Le Supermarché des images", Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, May - August 2021. Curators : Peter Szendy with the collaboration of Emmanuel Alloa and Marta Ponsa.
Photos : © Red Brick Art Museum

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Visible Hand (v.2), Samuel Bianchini, 2016-2020
Exhibition "Morocco Numerica", Place des Nations-Unies, Casablanca, May 25 - 27, 2022
Curators: Mohamed Rachdi and Majid Seddati
Photo: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP