Samuel Wildman and Alan Barr, Hug Studies, 2023, video 10:37

Description: Research created as an Artist-in-Residence of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Lab (part of the UC Center for Occupational and Environmental Health) with Alan Barr, a Senior Engineer at the lab. We conceived of two studies: a study of nap positions and a study of hugs. For the hug study, we sampled four hug styles and measured the exposure of each to determine what style of hug could be performed most frequently over the longest period of time. The hug study was prompted by an observation: Industrial ergonomics is often funded by industry, it is tautological in nature. What happens when you apply an ergonomics methodology and technology to physical labor that exists outside the workplace? Can these technologies be used to extend one’s ability to properly perform the soft labor needed to care for self, family, and community? The study shows an avatar of my body performing different hugs over and over again. In the footage, the object being hugged is invisible, and the avatar appears to be embracing, and momentarily resting on, air. The visual effect is that the avatar appears to be making something (as generally ergonomic technologies monitor laboring bodies in the process of making), or giving form to something by hugging. An ergonomics engineer would be looking at the physical risks associated with this movement. However, as an artist, I find myself asking what kind of unseen, ephemeral forms and environments might a hug produce? And, further, what technologies do we have for envisioning these world shaping gestures?