Tactical Iraqi Teaches Gestures

In the news recently by the BBC, a new computer game called Tactical Iraqi teaches US soldiers Iraqi gestures and spoken sentences. It's a pragmatic approach to a pragmatic problem: How to get around in Iraq without causing unnecessary tension or ending up shooting each other. It is based on a 1st-person shooter game. How to say 'bend over' politely?

Technorati Tags: Gesture synthesis, Gesture, Iraq, US army

Gesturing Justice Scalia Explains

A judge in America, mr Scalia, recently earned major media attention because he made a gesture. The form: cupping the hand under the chin and flicking the fingers like a backward wave. It was interpreted as 'Va fan' culo' by the gathered journalists and photograpers. He explained it himself (in a letter) as meaning "I couldn’t care less, no business of mine. Count me out." Sources: Boston Herald 1, 2, Photographer fired, NBC, CNN, 3, moodza? Updates: There's a Wikipedia entry now, calling it Sicilian. I checked with a guy from Ravenna (north) and he said it's common in all of Italy. The wiki entry further states that two gestures were mixed up. I think it was only a matter of different interpretations of the same gesture. Elsewhere, the Nation published The Nino Scalia Guide to Sicilian Hand Gestures in mockery.

Tags: gesture, Scalia, news

The Int. Soc. on Gesture Studies

Sinds 2002 bestaat er een International Society on Gesture Studies Ze organiseren conferenties (Austin 2002, Lyon 2005, Chicago2007) en ondersteunen het internationale journal Gesture. Het Nijmegen Gesture Center is een van de steunpilaren (qua mensen en faciliteiten), alsmede de labs van Janet Bavelas, Susan Goldin-Meadow, David McNeill, en het Berlin Gesture Center (zie hun links).

Tags: gesture, science, conference, journal, society

Rembrandt

I am not a connoisseur of Rembrandt nor of any other painter for that matter. I am but a student of the way people gesture. Rembrandt's portrayal of scenes stocked with people in action struck me as a nice object of study. His capture of a moment and the life within his pictures is widely praised and partly ascribed to his daring portrayal of gestures. His subjects are seldom in rest, and even then not in a neutral rest. Their postures and their hand movements are chosen to tell a story, or to make them extras which add to the story being told. In his famous 'honderguldenprent' the gospel comes alive. It portrays parts of the thirty verses of Matthew 19. We are able to read the picture by the portrayal of the people and by reading the verses in support. We see the great multitudes that he healed flooding through the gate on the right. They plead, and Jesus blesses them. We see the Pharisees discussing, with various co-speech gestures and contemplative postures, the exchange of words they had with Jesus about divorce with Jesus not paying them any more attention. His attention appears mostly focussed on the approaching mothers with children. One child points him out, dragging his mother along. Jesus restrains Peter who is keeping back a mother with infant, welcoming her instead. This 'Hundred Guilder Print' contains a good part of any of the gestures used by Rembrandt. On the one hand there are emblems such 'plea' or 'bless' which occur often. On the other hand there are many outstretched hands with either palms up or palms down. These remind me of Kendon's (2004) treatment of such gestures. One typical example in the picture here is the vertical palm of one of the men trying to make Jesus attend to a particular sick person. At the Rembrandthuis a collection of graphical work is kept of which the 'genre' and 'religious' material are nice to study. The biblical work by Rembrandt appears to be the most interesting for studying his portrayal of gestures. Simply because they often occur, but also because they are used to aid the rendering of the story, and therefore show a greater variety. More on Rembrandt: http://rembrandt.startpagina.nl/

Tags: gesture, art, Rembrandt

What a nice gesture

This evening I will come home and give my wife some flowers. What will she make of this? Why do I give her flowers? Is it a nice gesture? Why call it a gesture at all? Why do we call certain actions by people in certain conditions 'a gesture' (a 'nice gesture', or 'only a gesture')? Actions which under different circumstances would be mere practical actions, with some goal in mind? I read the following this morning: ''Other non-visual gestures include ideas that manifest themselves or become known. The thought of giving a gift to someone could be regarded as a 'nice gesture'.'' From: University of Chicago: Gesture Is the gesture the idea that becomes manifest or known? If so, then which idea is this? My idea that my wife deserves a gift? Or is rather my idea that I should make it known that I'm aware that she deserves a gift? I would prefer the latter choice of ideas. Yet, still the idea itself does not count as the gesture for me. It is only when I act, and by acting display my awareness that my wife deserves a gift, that there is the seed of a gesture. Personally, before calling it a gesture, I would first like to see my wife acknowledge the act and the idea behind it. That means she must first understand that a present is given. Then, my awareness of the deservedness should be acknowledged. If this happens, I'll be happy to call it a gesture. I will have intentionally communicated an idea, which was even succesfully picked up. Without the acknowledgement by the receiver the entire act is a gesture only from my point of view, and not to anyone else (unless my mind is otherwise read by a third party). Chances are that the act will be perceived as a regular practical action ("He brought some flowers because he thinks the table is so empty without"). So, assuming the gesture is confirmed by the receiver's acknowledgement, will it be 'a nice gesture' or 'only a gesture'? This rests entirely upon the interpretation of the message within the relation I have with my wife. And that's between her and me.

Tags: gesture, semiotics, intention, gesture-complex, gesture-simple