BC It seems possible that someone might plausibly claim that a gesture is any or all of those things. For me a gesture is an act or an action, a minor temporary event, whereas a ‘gestural mark’ is the record rather than the action itself. The trace is what’s left of a gesture, ie the document. I’m not sure I can easily answer the question about gesture-as-language? For some gesture might stand in place of a word, sentence or a language but I’d rather think of gesture as something which is either pre- or beyond language since it’s connection to meaning is tenuous or at least loose. I prefer the idea of gesture as an attempt to formulate something in the present moment of acting or moving, in which case it’s not a representation of a pre-thought idea or plan to ‘express’ something particular. I’m not even sure that gesture is about formulating, but maybe better to say it’s a mode of grasping at something, a type of search or research? Although that might be contradictory. For some people a gesture might well be a clear translation of concise meaning into movement, and perhaps it is exactly this in some cases, but I’m happier to think of gesture as something at the outset or at the middle of a process of formulation rather than at the end of that process - ie a live ‘becoming’ thought instead of an endpoint. Language is maybe a set of commonly understood signs and symbols, but gesture opens up a broader field of interpretation? What sort of finger, arm or hand movement might be defined as gesture or not-gesture? Maybe this is a question to answer through research which employs the body as material or tool?

CR Is gesture something we think, learn, unlearn, or remember?

BC Yes, all those things, but it’s also something we invent or create, and that’s when it’s much more interesting. Relying on socially conditioned or ‘learnt’ gestures might allow the gesture to slip into sign, symbol or metaphor, at which point it’s no longer at the forefront of finding-out, discovering, inventing. Is the gesture something that’s bound to spontaneity and intuition? Maybe. However, doing something intuitively doesn’t meant that that intuitive behavior isn’t based on something generic, formulaic or learnt. Like art, a gesture doesn’t intend to ‘mean something’ clear and specific but is rather a space of making and learning.

CR What does it mean today to listen to a body?

BC Listen to your body when it tells you it’s thirsty and you will want to have a drink, put clothes on/off when your body tells you it is cold or hot, etc etc. I suppose listening to your body is about paying attention to physicality and materiality, recognizing that’s one’s own body is a set of physical properties, hard soft cold etc alongside many other physical objects, things, and beings in the world. There’s a practical and pragmatic aspect to ‘listening to your body’, but of course bodies aren’t just about simple cause and effect transactions. Listening to your body is about paying attention to how one feels, practical needs, but is it also about responding to desires and ambitions? Perhaps, but maybe now is not the place to get into ideas about transgression, oppression and societal controls over the body’s drives, libido etc. A friend records parts of her internal body (joints, organs etc,) and incorporates the sounds into audio work and music. This recording is also a type of listening to the body. Listening to your own body is very different to listening to ‘a’ body, any body, or the body of a friend or lover. I think body-listening is very much about paying attention, not judging, but just paying attention and letting that ‘attention’ guide your actions. To listen to one’s body ‘today’, in the present context, might mean to prioritize health above material gain, to recognize and mitigate against stress, to establish a non-anthropocentric world view, but also to develop an empathetic and egalitarian understanding of the pressures, pains and struggles that other bodies are experiencing, ie a very physical encounter with the human condition. It seems important to think about how listening to one’s body is not only about a focus on the self (individualistic), but also a foundation for socially-minded action (outward rather than inward-facing).

CR What survives of a gesture over time? Would you say a gesture has a kind of memory?

BC Gestures are very much bound to their time, context and place, and so over time their meaning and relevance wane. Like oral history, every time a gesture is repeated it changes. Like an event in one’s life, every time the event is retold the narrative alters slightly. The memory of the event is based on the original event as well as on the last time you spoke about the event. The same goes -potentially- for a repeated gesture, it’s part memory and part invention. Gesture also triggers memory, or cements memory.

CR In what way can gesture become a metalanguage? Can it “speak of itself” while acting?

BC I’m sure this is possible, but I’d like to see this question explored practically via physical research in a workshop scenario! Perhaps some hand gestures -I can think of many that are common in Italy- express something subjective whilst inevitably also referring to a notion of Italian culture or identity and in this way the gesture ‘speaks about’ certain associations that it may have which aren’t connected to the intended meaning of the gesture itself?

CR Do you feel that your body carries a memory of gestures?

BC Yes, every time we witness a gesture it becomes part of our arsenal or internal archive of gestures, but I’d also like to think that it (my body!) can develop new gestures all the time rather than rely on what’s already known or performed. But since nothing is truly original, any gesture is presumably founded in some way on previously experiences of gesturing or watching the gestures of others?

CR Have you ever felt the need to “record” a gesture? If so, in what form?

BC Perhaps not entirely consciously? Is watching a mode of recording? The performance of a gesture might be the evidence that the gesture has been recorded (watched) and stored in one’s memory. The performance of a gesture learnt from someone else might be a way of understanding or processing it? We perform micro gestures all the time and so I suppose I’ve recorded gestures many times without being aware.

BC It seems possible that someone might plausibly claim that a gesture is any or all of those things. For me a gesture is an act or an action, a minor temporary event, whereas a ‘gestural mark’ is the record rather than the action itself. The trace is what’s left of a gesture, ie the document. I’m not sure I can easily answer the question about gesture-as-language? For some gesture might stand in place of a word, sentence or a language but I’d rather think of gesture as something which is either pre- or beyond language since it’s connection to meaning is tenuous or at least loose. I prefer the idea of gesture as an attempt to formulate something in the present moment of acting or moving, in which case it’s not a representation of a pre-thought idea or plan to ‘express’ something particular. I’m not even sure that gesture is about formulating, but maybe better to say it’s a mode of grasping at something, a type of search or research? Although that might be contradictory. For some people a gesture might well be a clear translation of concise meaning into movement, and perhaps it is exactly this in some cases, but I’m happier to think of gesture as something at the outset or at the middle of a process of formulation rather than at the end of that process - ie a live ‘becoming’ thought instead of an endpoint. Language is maybe a set of commonly understood signs and symbols, but gesture opens up a broader field of interpretation? What sort of finger, arm or hand movement might be defined as gesture or not-gesture? Maybe this is a question to answer through research which employs the body as material or tool?

CR Is gesture something we think, learn, unlearn, or remember?

BC Yes, all those things, but it’s also something we invent or create, and that’s when it’s much more interesting. Relying on socially conditioned or ‘learnt’ gestures might allow the gesture to slip into sign, symbol or metaphor, at which point it’s no longer at the forefront of finding-out, discovering, inventing. Is the gesture something that’s bound to spontaneity and intuition? Maybe. However, doing something intuitively doesn’t meant that that intuitive behavior isn’t based on something generic, formulaic or learnt. Like art, a gesture doesn’t intend to ‘mean something’ clear and specific but is rather a space of making and learning.

CR What does it mean today to listen to a body?

BC Listen to your body when it tells you it’s thirsty and you will want to have a drink, put clothes on/off when your body tells you it is cold or hot, etc etc. I suppose listening to your body is about paying attention to physicality and materiality, recognizing that’s one’s own body is a set of physical properties, hard soft cold etc alongside many other physical objects, things, and beings in the world. There’s a practical and pragmatic aspect to ‘listening to your body’, but of course bodies aren’t just about simple cause and effect transactions. Listening to your body is about paying attention to how one feels, practical needs, but is it also about responding to desires and ambitions? Perhaps, but maybe now is not the place to get into ideas about transgression, oppression and societal controls over the body’s drives, libido etc. A friend records parts of her internal body (joints, organs etc,) and incorporates the sounds into audio work and music. This recording is also a type of listening to the body. Listening to your own body is very different to listening to ‘a’ body, any body, or the body of a friend or lover. I think body-listening is very much about paying attention, not judging, but just paying attention and letting that ‘attention’ guide your actions. To listen to one’s body ‘today’, in the present context, might mean to prioritize health above material gain, to recognize and mitigate against stress, to establish a non-anthropocentric world view, but also to develop an empathetic and egalitarian understanding of the pressures, pains and struggles that other bodies are experiencing, ie a very physical encounter with the human condition. It seems important to think about how listening to one’s body is not only about a focus on the self (individualistic), but also a foundation for socially-minded action (outward rather than inward-facing).

CR What survives of a gesture over time? Would you say a gesture has a kind of memory?

BC Gestures are very much bound to their time, context and place, and so over time their meaning and relevance wane. Like oral history, every time a gesture is repeated it changes. Like an event in one’s life, every time the event is retold the narrative alters slightly. The memory of the event is based on the original event as well as on the last time you spoke about the event. The same goes -potentially- for a repeated gesture, it’s part memory and part invention. Gesture also triggers memory, or cements memory.

CR In what way can gesture become a metalanguage? Can it “speak of itself” while acting?

BC I’m sure this is possible, but I’d like to see this question explored practically via physical research in a workshop scenario! Perhaps some hand gestures -I can think of many that are common in Italy- express something subjective whilst inevitably also referring to a notion of Italian culture or identity and in this way the gesture ‘speaks about’ certain associations that it may have which aren’t connected to the intended meaning of the gesture itself?

CR Do you feel that your body carries a memory of gestures?

BC Yes, every time we witness a gesture it becomes part of our arsenal or internal archive of gestures, but I’d also like to think that it (my body!) can develop new gestures all the time rather than rely on what’s already known or performed. But since nothing is truly original, any gesture is presumably founded in some way on previously experiences of gesturing or watching the gestures of others?

CR Have you ever felt the need to “record” a gesture? If so, in what form?

BC Perhaps not entirely consciously? Is watching a mode of recording? The performance of a gesture might be the evidence that the gesture has been recorded (watched) and stored in one’s memory. The performance of a gesture learnt from someone else might be a way of understanding or processing it? We perform micro gestures all the time and so I suppose I’ve recorded gestures many times without being aware.