The Dutch musician and sound artist Michel Waiswisz is an underrated electronic music pioneer, experimenting with absurdist instruments from the 1970s when he invented the Kraakdoos (Cracklebox) alongside his collaborator Geert Hamelberg. Devised around the concept of the human body becoming an integral part of a musical instrument, the Kraakdoos is a small electronic device that generates noise only when it comes into contact with human body part, connects the circuitry and flow of power.
This became the starting point for The Hands, a device first showcased June 1984 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw that gave Waiswisz gave himself two extra, interactive limbs. The hands were a remote control for three Yamaha DX7 synthesisers, allowing the wearer to “touch sound” as Waiswisz wrote in 2006.