(CNN) -- Andrew Dawson has nice hands, and he knows it. He's fussy about moisturizing them and takes extra caution around the oven, although he uses power tools without hesitation. These hands are the stars of "The Articulate Hand," a piece of performance theater about how various people's hands have become impaired and what effect that's had on them, both practically and psychologically. It's a collaboration between Dawson and neuroscientist Dr. Jonathan Cole, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. "I mix up performance and lecture and basically talk about human stories," Dawson says. "It just happens that I'm using my hand as a vehicle, but really I'm talking about what it is to be human."
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'The Articulate Hand' is a piece of performance theater about living with impaired hands
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Artist Andrew Dawson and neuroscientist Jonathan Cole collaborated on it
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More than half the bones in the body are in the hands and feet
"Human hand function really reflects the evolution of the movement and creative [areas of the] brain, and one way to reflect on how we are defined by our hands is to look at the consequences of loss of function," @placeholder told CNN.