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In the documentary film, Derrida, French philosopher Jacques Derrida expands on his theorization of the role of hands. Commenting on his previous works on touch and sight, Derrida maintains that hands—gestures and motions—work as a point of recognition and signifies the evolution of “man.”  Following Derrida’s theorization,” The Story Hands Tell” documents through digital video, the role of hands in student activism and democratic participation. Specifically, this in-progress experimental documentary connects to the HASTAC Conference’s theme of global innovation and questions the ways the next generation of digital technologies alter personal, institutional, and geographic boundaries. In particular, “The Story Hands Tell” offers a digital visual depiction of narrativity as told through hands, unfolding in the 2009 student strikes at the University of California, Berkeley.  Focusing on hands, “The Story Hands Tell” attempts to depict the changing role of the body through technologies in democratic participation.  On one level, the protests could resemble footage from the 1960’s Free Speech Movement where students raised banners and signs, held one another, and formed fists raised in the air.  On the other hand, the story of the 2009 student strikes take another turn through digital technologies: students held their cell phones, texted via Twitter, and recorded footage with digital cameras.  This short presentation of in-progress student work attempts to engage with issues highlighted by scholars and artists, such as Henry Jenkins, Wendy Hui Kyung Chun, and Mark Tribe on new media art and digital political participation. Moreover, this in-progress experimental documentary depicts an altering of personal, physical, and institutional boundaries, as footage of the strikes travels past nation-state borders and as citizen-subjects participate through digital means. By provoking questions around the role of technology, new media, and democratic participation, “The Story Hands Tell” experiments with and questions notions of “documentary,” “technology,” and “humanity,” through footage of the 2009 University of California, Berkeley Student Strikes.

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