Category Archives: Performance

Working with One’s Hands

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I define “hands on” as creating a three dimensional work of art rather than “hands on” referring to typing in a computer workshop.  The other day we ended class with professor Phillips discussing how manual labor has shifted from an art to an underpaid tedious job.  I personally love working with my hands and one of the tremendous downsides to the recent technological innovations is the increasing under appreciation for occupations that deal with working with ones hands.  Contractors and carpenters are prime examples of jobs that were once an enjoyable art form that have turned to a single leader paying impoverished employees (normally immigrants) under minimum wage to execute simple tedious instructions.  Ive always enjoyed hands on work and wish I could find a respectable and profitable job that deals with the creation of some type of art through my hands.  A literary influence to this mindset came from this book about why working with one’s hands leads to happiness.  It describes the happiness one can acquire through creativity and self accomplishment through fixing things.  The author then explains how skilled manual labor may be one of the only options remaining to a good living.  Im sure there are numerous jobs that result with a happy living that do not require manual labor but i do wish to explore these types of options in the future.

The Correlation between Handwriting and Intelligence

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Last class we discussed how bad handwriting can make one seem unintelligent.  Aesthetics were essential to the credibility and social status of books and authors hundreds of years ago.  According to Howard, The monks in the fourteenth century as well as the ancient and medieval scribes were required to be flawless without a single defect.   Before the invention of computers and typewriters, I wonder how many gifted and intelligent authors weren’t recognized because of their mediocre handwriting.

To further investigate this possible correlation, I found a study conducted in 1971 on 103 college students to search for a correlation between handwriting, intelligence, and personality.  They studied 47 different types “handwriting variables” and how they could predict behavior and answers to questions based on knowledge.  The study found that “clues about personality could be educed from handwriting.”  Specifically, 6 of 16 handwriting factors could be predicted by 5 of 10 personality and intelligence factors.  I could understand a few personality factors correlating.  For example i find myself to be pretty impatient with a “just go for it” attitude.  I could see this being a result of my bad handwriting because I like to write as fast as possible, getting as many of my thoughts on the paper as I can while i think of them.  I dont believe their found correlation between handwriting and intelligence is strong enough to make an official statement concluding that they are actually correlated.