Introduction
Hands have been regarded in awe and with profound respect by observers of the human genre. They are seen as a peculiar organ key to the transformation of the environment and decisive for both physical and expressive balance as well as for communication and craftsmanship. Hands have a major role in visual and plastic arts, dance and music or in oral discourses as an enhancement and reinforcement of the voice. They participate actively in the development of creativity during early childhood and when involved in occupational therapies. Serving as guides and even as a language when under certain disabilities, hands become the main interface when dealing with tools, machinery and materials of different artistic procedures.
Driven by the desire of generating some sort of interdisciplinary community of texts, this issue of HipoTesis involves hands under its different facets; as heuristic agents that shape, conform, express and question the rest of the body as a place for action, interaction, perception and communication. This interdisciplinary approach strives to involve individuals from distinctive fields such as pedagogy, arts, architecture, music, dance and theatre hoping to land them onto common grounds.
Relationship between Hipo I and Hipo 1
The alphabetical series issue “Hipo I” entitled “About Hands” has been created as a special issue of this series. This instalment is the first made under a theme previously known by authors before the collection of texts, acting as an introduction and an exchange between future participants of the extended issue “Hipo 1”.
Participation in issues “Hipo I” and “Hipo 1” responds in both cases to an open call for the collection of texts. To ensure the level of quality of the pieces collected, experts belonging to different fields have been invited (including doctors, postdoctoral researchers and others with enough potential of becoming one of the previous). Such researchers have been contacted thanks to a research process carried out by the Board of Directors at HipoTesis inside different University repositories.
The common theme in both issues was suggested by external researchers and agreed to by the Board of Directors of the magazine. Originally, both Hipo I and Hipo 1 intend to be printed out. The first one being a limited non-profit printed edition focused on spreading the word and presenting a new series of extended articles as well as anticipating Hipo 1. The latter being a commercial printout with larger circulation numbers, aspiring to be the first amongst others to emerge from the new series.
Process
1. The board of directors of the magazine together with external researchers propose the theme to be developed upon.
2. Once the theme has been defined, HipoTesis dwells into the repositories of different universities in order to look for eligible “experts” (such as PhDs and/or postdoctoral researchers) as well as other potential candidates (including PhD students or Master graduates) that will ensure through their contributions the highest standards for texts and for communication taking place between participants.
3. An open call is launched for the collection of long essays (between 2500 and 4000 words).
4. Deadline for the collection of texts to begin peer review process.
5. Once the peer review is completed the editing process starts.
6. The new Number of HipoTesis Numbered Series is published on line at www.hipo-tesis.eu.
You can download the full issue here.