Floating Hands was performed in 1976 as part of an Electron Movers live video concert at the What Cheer Arts gallery in Providence, Rhode Island. Powell hand-built the theremins used in the performance, as well as processing the video component through the George Brown Multi-Keyer and the Templeton Quantizer/Colorizer. The theremins, controlled by Dennis Hlynsky and Philip Palombo, are electronic instruments distinct for their capacitive sense—they play without actually being touched. The theremin itself is unfamiliar to most people, but the sound it produces—like electronic groans and wailing, mechanized whines—is far more identifiable. A common fixture in soundtracks of horror movies from the 1930s and 40s, the theremin’s mechanized wails, its electronic groans and whines is closely associated with the eerie and paranormal, those unsettling situations that would transpire in classic horror films. Floating Hands pairs that sound with vivid color and distorted visuals. The voltages and sounds from the theremins were processed through an envelope follower on an Arp2400 synthesizer. The concert, called the Electron Movers Video Magic Show, was a night of live video pieces using video in a magical way.