... spoke about Cinematic Gesture and the Invention of Psychiatric Normality. How film enables psychological introspection. How early psychiatrists photographed mental patients to record their gestures. The relationship of power between psychiatrist and patient, the clothed and the unclothed. Normative forms of gesture. Usingthe gaze to interrogate psychiatric pain. The male gaze upon the hysterical patient.
Caroline ... the Politics of the Smile. Studio space as cultural space. Anglo Turkish London (Stoke Newington). Culture, taste and background props. Visual habits. Power. Took the people out of the images (victorian) - what does the background tell you about social and cultural status?
Tina Kendall - Boredom and vines. Did not understand her talk. Vines were taken off the web platform by the owning company a few years ago. Seemed very trivial and strange to study - probably because it is not my subject!
Agata ... Meaning endures. Gesture is performed. Symbolic movement. Cultural and coded. I was losing concentration here and started unseen drawings of her gestures. She used her hands elegantly.
Darren did a storming presentation. No powerpoint slides - talked authoritatively. This forced the audience to watch his gestures. His parents came in to watch him perform, and it was delightful to see their support for him. I felt very wistful for what he has in them. His Dad, Gary, sat slightly in front of me, so I was able to watch the gestures of him and Darren, concurrently.
It was the first time I had participated in a round table discussion. Sara Reed (performance/dance), Tom Gorman (theatre/director), Agata, and me. Darren said the discussion showed a breadth of perspective on gesture. Tom spoke about planning and observing gestures in performance, and identifying the revealing gesture that he wanted the actor to repeat and deliver in the actual event. Sara spoke about the intention of the gesture. Yet for me, I'm interested in the difference between the intention and what is read from the gesture. The dictionary definition talks about gesture being mostly movements of the head and hand, and what is intended by it. Whereas for me, gesture is often not consciously intended (quite possibly subconsciously intended). So my contribution was different to the others, as they were academics, planning the gesture. My experience comes from the travelling public where I am watching and interpreting (who's about to be ill/assault someone/jump under a train/fall down an escalator). And my gestures when stitching (head down, small stitching gestures, no eye contact) get read as passive/submissive - which I'm not!
Great event. I was spent afterwards.
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