User:TimReuser

Tim Reuser

0891980

Product Design

timreuser.nl

Project 1: On the body

Draw a body part and design an artifact for this specific part.

The body part I’ve chosen to draw was a hand. For me hands are such important body parts because the serve so many purposes; You can use them to pick something up, feel the shape of something, sense the properties of object, use them to give shape to something, etc.

After being put together in a group with Jeroen and Iikay we’ve discussed what the correlation was between each other’s drawings. As Jeroen had drawn finger and Iikay an arm, there was already an obvious connection their physical form. After some brainstorming and research, we decided that the most interesting reference for these body parts are that historically they have been used as tools for measuring and counting. Going back all the way to the antiquity where they used the measurement of their elbow to their fingertip known as a cubit. The cubit was employed as a tool for measuring in many parts of the world however, the size of a cubit was never the same among the course of history, as standardized cubits that have been found ranged up to centimeter from one another. In modern times, there is still a very obvious link between measurements and body parts. Within the imperial system of units (inch, foot, etc.) the use of body parts is still very evident, though the dimensions linked to these body parts have been generalized.

Cubit rod in the Museo Egizio of Turin, showing digit, palm, hand and fist lengths Source: internet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubit

Cubit rod of Maya, 1336-1327 BC (Eighteenth Dynasty) Source: internet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubit

Imperial standards of length 1876 in Trafalgar Square, London. Source: internet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units#/media/File:Imperial_standards_of_length_1876_Trafalgar_Square.jpg

Self-made cubit. Representing the finger in orange, the hand in green and the elbow in red.