Handy Ears prototype

Ciaran wearing Handy Ears prototype

Handy Ears is a prototype for a piece of apparatus to enhance the wearer’s hearing. Casts of my hands, rendered in silicon rubber by special effects and prosthetics fabricator Tristan Versluis, cup the wearer’s ears to amplify and direct sound. Based on the experience of this familiar action’s effect on one’s engagement with the environment, this tool leaves the hands free, and invites associations between the whorls of the ear and the folds of fingers and palms, cupped hands and parabolic reflectors. Echoing headphones in form, the piece suggests a gentler enhancement of listener experience.

– Ralph Borland, 2014