From one fingertip to a centre that belongs to nobody
Circulation takes the cupping cup, a tool of East Asian body care, and turns it into an instrument for sensing together. It works with the cultural map of the Five Elements as a way of seeing. It is not medical advice.
Five fingers, five elements
Each cup is 7 cm across, small enough to cradle. It has five pressure pads, one under each finger. Press, and that finger's colour lights at once, close to your hand.
A shared centre
The three cups sit in a round table. Light steps inward from each cup along a vessel of acrylic rods. At the centre, the three streams orbit, tighten as the hands agree, and fuse into one colour.
Distance becomes time
Your own light is instant. The centre is slow: it takes all three of you, held together for a while, to reach it. What you see in the middle is something no one made alone.
Thumb to little finger follows the generating cycle (상생 · tương sinh · 相生): Wood feeds Fire, Fire feeds Earth, Earth feeds Metal, Metal feeds Water. Closing your hand around the cup closes the cycle.
Why the centre is called the Hap
Classical East Asian medicine describes each channel of the body as water: it rises at a fingertip well and flows on until it enters and joins at 合. In Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese the character means to join, to unite, to work in harmony. The installation follows the same five stages.
Where it emerges: your fingertip on its pad.
Where it trickles: light runs down the cup.
Where it pours together: five fingers merge into one stream.
Where it travels: light steps inward along the vessel.
Where it enters and joins: three people's light meets at the centre.
The five transport points, 五輸穴 (오수혈 · ngũ du huyệt · wǔshūxué), from the Huangdi Neijing Lingshu, chapter 1. Readings are given in Korean, Vietnamese and Mandarin.
Feeling the others through the cup
The table is built so that you notice the other two people, not only your own light.
Make your own glowing cup
A two-hour hands-on workshop for students and staff of the School of Communication and Design. Try the Hap with two other people. Then build a cup of your own: a pressure sensor and a strip of light on a small board, with a clay grip shaped to your hand.
No experience with electronics is needed. Everything is provided, and you'll work in groups of three.
- When
- Thu 26 or Fri 27 November 2026 · date to be confirmed
- Length
- 2 hours
- Where
- Digital Design Lab 1.2.5, SGS campus, RMIT University Vietnam
- Who
- SCD students and staff, RMIT Vietnam
- Bring
- Just your hands
Open notes from the studio
The design, the toolkit and the process are shared as they develop.