I just found out that there is a trashcore (?) band called Obscene Gesture.
Don’t they look all tough and mean? (source)
And then that menacing gesture that is just ‘disgusting to the senses’, and/or ‘repulsive by reason of crass disregard of moral or ethical principles’.
These men-boys will have to watch out for the US laws on obscenity.
A final note: should their music be considered one giant musical gesture?
It seems a student in my own backyard has been working on a multi-touch surface computer. His name is Arjen Klinkenberg and he is graduating on this design and the tests he did on it.
Participants in a usability test playing ‘Airhockey’ (source)
Here is the invitation he sent around for his presentation, in case you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Delft University of Technology 🙂
Dear All,
Next week on wednesday I’m graduating on the design of a rich media tool for supporting conceptual design sessions. The result of this project is a gesture-based multi touch interactive table-top called Palette. With Palette multiple people can collect and generate design relevant content during conceptual design sessions by having direct control over the touchable media. I would like to invite you to my presentation which is on wednesday the 27th of june starting at 13:45h in room 4B-65/66 in the faculty [map].
Kind regards, Arjen Klinkenberg
This instructional Coronet film from the 1940’s in the US exemplifies how I think most public speaking consultants still feel about postures and gesturing.
Naturalness, control, and precision. Is that what it is all about? Yes, we have come a long way since Quintillian, or have we? Perhaps a renaisscance of oratory is what we really need?
This instructional Coronet film from the 1940’s in the US exemplifies how I think most public speaking consultants still feel about postures and gesturing. Naturalness, control, and precision. Is that what it is all about? Yes, we have come a long way since Quintillian, or have we? Perhaps a renaissance of oratory is what we really need?
Here is a man called Eliot Fintushel, who neatly exemplifies how people come to talk about the expression of feelings in music. Furthermore, because he is using ‘gestures’ to operate his Theremin he even talks about his feelings being present in his movement and therefore (magically) transferred to the music of the Theremin. So, if you make a ‘nervous’ movement, you get a ‘nervous’ sound.
It all sounds like a big circular argument: If you tell people that a certain movement is ‘nervous’ and then that the sound they hear is also ‘nervous’ then what will they see and hear? That’s right, ‘nervousness’.
But what if you had not told the audience what to hear or see? They would simply rely on the facial expressions (which are overacted and conventional rather than universally understandable in this case) to know the feelings they should be feeling. Projection will do the rest.
But like I said before, this is not necessarily a problem. If you wish to share a fantasy of going through all sorts of feelings, guided by a performer, then let that fantasy be as real as possible. Some of that feeling may actually be genuine, the rest may serve our emo-thirsty souls just as well.
Here is a man called Eliot Fintushel, who neatly exemplifies how people come to talk about the expression of feelings in music. Furthermore, because he is using ‘gestures’ to operate his Theremin he even talks about his feelings being present in his movement and therefore (magically) transferred to the music of the Theremin. So, if you make a ‘nervous’ movement, you get a ‘nervous’ sound.
To my ears, it all sounds like a big circular argument: If you tell people that a certain movement is ‘nervous’ and then that the sound they hear is also ‘nervous’ then what will they see and hear? That’s right, ‘nervousness’. But what if you had not told the audience what to hear or see? They would simply rely on the facial expressions (which are overacted and conventional rather than universally understandable in this case) to know the feelings they should be feeling. Projection will do the rest.
But like I said before, relying on conventions (even if they are shared with only a select few) to achieve some effect is not necessarily a problem. If a concert audience wishes to share a fantasy of going through all sorts of feelings, guided by a performer, then let that fantasy be as real as possible. Some of that feeling may actually be genuine, the rest may serve our emo-thirsty souls just as well.
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