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Dr. Karin James is Associate Professor at the  Cognition and Action Neuroimaging Lab at Indiana Bloomington University in the United States.  Dr. James' overall research centres around the idea that learning about objects in the world is shaped and changed by the way humans interact with the world through their bodies. At present, she is especially interested in whether the use or non-use of handwriting in pre-reading children might affect their later reading development.

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani author best known for his novels Moth Smoke (2000) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007). Mohsin is interested in how connective technology, whilst liberating in many ways, can also lead us to become machine like and place our thoughts in a space that is far from private.  He believes that writing by hand is not only useful in terms of privacy and solitude, but may actually help him write, if not better books, in a very different way.

Paul Antonio is a professional calligrapher originally from Trinidad who lives and works in London. Paul thinks that writing by hand can be a profoundly meditative experience that can also help us with essential hand, wrist and arm motor skills. He is interesting in both the history and practice of calligraphy which stretches back many thousands of years.  You can see some of Paul's handwriting in the gallery on the right of the page.

Magic Paper.  Mohsin Hamid wants to write, with pen or pencil, on paper that feels looks and sounds like the real thing, but can store words in such a way as to allow him to edit and amend his work.

Photo by Shan Pillay