Throwing Gestures. An Introduction

The chapters in this book present several different perspectives on the phenomenon of gesture in its entanglement with media and politics, including the precarious plight of gig workers, new media and their specific uses in different cultures, protest movements, and the perpetuation of socio-economic crises over many decades; they highlight the quantification of work and leisure and ask which story gesture and art are telling about society and politics in the context of transformation driven by technology and media.

Gesture is currently a hot topic across a variety of academic disciplines—politics, art, the media, technology—in spite of the fact that there is no clear-cut definition of the term “gesture.” The focus shifts according to context and interests, as does the concept of what a gesture actually is. This book evolved from an intense interdisciplinary examination of gesture’s topicality at the intersection of media and the political. Eight individuals with either art or research backgrounds formed the core of our artistic-academic research project, The Entanglement between Gesture, Media and Politics (EGMP). The formation of this heterogeneous group was precipitated by the following thesis: the significance of gesture beyond disciplinary boundaries can only be explored from a basis that has a breadth equal to that of the multiple voices of those who study and work with gesture. 

EGMP’s two-year-long research process was nourished by influences from the arts, culture, technology, and academia. The core group worked in close collaboration—at times with international guests—to develop an exhibition and symposium that combined artistic practice, academic study, extensive materials and, above all, new approaches in dealing with the subject of gesture. There are several basic assumptions in the papers and theories presented in this book. Firstly, gesture is a clearly defined physical movement. Secondly, it is a movement that is easily copied, and acquires the status of a sign that is accorded cultural significance through the manner of its use and the context in which that use occurs. What remains paramount is that gesture is also a form of conditioning, it shapes bodies and experiences. Gestures affect individuals, their experiences and their representations, but also the way they are perceived and interpreted. Issues of perception and forms of representation are also always linked to (technical) media. It is precisely through technical media that gestures are made perceptible. They are measured and become operative, and thus attain a certain agency.

The research in this book is presented with an interdisciplinary approach which demonstrates that gestures can acquire significance when they are performed with a group of people; they can become a sign of the collective in themselves and contribute to forming and stabilizing communities. A community may be freed from being bound to a single location if a particular gesture is then registered and communicated via media. Such gestures, media-communicated signs that have significance for collectives, move in a variety of contexts, so a gesture that developed in one context may be reflected in one that looks very different. Colin Kaepernick’s “take a knee” protest during the US national anthem is a good example. It developed in a political context but was later used in a commercial context as part of a sporting equipment manufacturer’s advertising campaign.

Gestures discussed in this book move from body to body and place to place through their representation in media. As elements of youth culture, signifiers for protest movements, and emulsifiers for political movements, gestures write transnational stories but are, at the same time, always distinctly individual. Gestures are always performed by individuals. The chapters in this book examine how gesture is embedded into technological media, its forms of representation, and the ways it enters economic relationships and politics (of gaze). The articles highlight the ways art, culture, and theory negotiate such relationships in three aspects.

First, the chapters situate gesture and its im/perceptibility in media technology, examine decisive moments in technological development, and discuss new forms of visibility and the ensuing shifts of meaning in art, politics, and academia. Second, gesture and the political become an object of study with the focus on stakeholders, forms of the physical and media presence of gestures, and discourses on the subjects of work, economy, and protest. Third, aesthetic and aesthetic-medial practice aspects of gesture are addressed. The different operating systems in which the stakeholders are situated have just as much of a role to play as questions of media representation and political discourse. Forms of interdisciplinarity and collaboration are also highlighted. 

The different approaches and interdisciplinary collaborations of Throwing Gestures bring together conversations, artistic and essayistic contributions, and scientific articles. Image and text are juxtaposed and readers are invited to leaf through the collection, using it like a flip book. The research project’s associative, artistic, performative, and scientific examinations of the entanglement between gesture, media and politics thus find their continuation in contributions to the book as well as through the book as an artefact.