A Taken Hand

Ritual Technology | Material Kinship | Speculative

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A Taken Hand is a speculative divination machine inspired by the ancient ritual of molybdomancy, where molten metal is poured into water and its shapes are read as signs of insight. Built from discarded objects and improvised components, the device revives a practice once performed by gifted healers, who passed their knowledge through the intimate gesture of “giving the hand.”

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Reimagining this act, A Taken Hand proposes a new kind of kinship between humans, machines, and materials. The machine refuses clear utility or efficiency, instead creating a ritual space where uncertainty becomes a shared experience. It transforms leftover technologies into a relational, almost spiritual medium, one that blurs distinctions between maker and matter.

Through this encounter, the project asks how technological objects might participate in healing traditions, cultural memory, and new forms of connection beyond the logic of productivity.

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An ongoing research based design project

in collabotation with Ceren Sozer

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