The following extract from an article written in 1881(http://www.telephonecollecting.org/feeling.htm) about electricity examines the question of the outside and inside of the body to the boundary between body and mind itself:
Ritter discovered that a feeble current transmitted through the eyeball produces a sensation as of a bright flash of light by its sudden stimulation of the optic nerve. Dr. Hunter3 saw flashes of light when a piece of metal placed under the tongue was touched against another which touched the moist tissues of the eye. Volta and Ritter heard musical sounds when a current was passed through the ears. Humboldt4 found a sensation to be produced in the organs of smell when a current was passed from the nostril to the soft palate.
These early experiments give rise to the idea of the part human part electrical cyborg. If the electrical currents from everyday appliances of the contemporary world were to interface with the boundary between inside and outside, body and mind, what effect will it have on the relationship between an artisan and her/his tool?
The pictures below show this idea applied to a paper cutter and an aluminium cutting surface that produces a sensation of taste when the blade passes through the object being cut:
This is an attempt to bring more of the body – both the inside and the outside – into contact with the tool and therefore bring the tool also closer to the mind.
