Fifteen Pairs of Mouths investigates the relationship between human body and technological devices and explores the new role of the hand as a vehicle for communication in the post-Internet age.

 

Fifteen Pairs of Mouths is an ongoing project started early 2016 that aims at building an extensive visual library of gestures of people texting on their phone thru space and time.  The hands are always displayed buy group of fifteen pairs to reference the work of Bruce Nauman’s Fifteen Pairs of Hands.  In his installation, Nauman conveyed the various ways one could express themselves through their hands without audible language. Kosmatopoulos in contrast, questions the loss of physical emotion when the vocal motions of our lips and gestures have been replaced by the movement of our thumbs. 

 

With the increase of computer-mediated interactions, the cellphones has becomes an extension of the human body that extends its abilities. The hand is transformed along the way into a virtual mouth that verbalizes messages from one screen to the other in a virtual space where audible language and even physical presence are no longer needed. The project comes to challenge the traditional definition of the word “speak” itself at a time where we are increasingly speaking with our  fingers.