r-:OVE,\1BER
94
meaning"
-and
thissignworld,likethesignworld
of
language.
is
ashared,interactive,one.1
The
gestural
is
asignworld
is
one
of
intense,unremittingintervisibliry.
We
aJl
sitfacingeach
other
atthe
table-we
:lre
all
ineach
other's
view,directly
or
peripherally.But
the
visual
is
onJya
son
of
gatewayfor
all
theliminalandsub-liminalprocesses
of
what
Howard
Gardner
hascharacter
iz.edas
anintelligenceunto
itself-the
bodilykinaesthetic.
J
On
thislevel,everything
is
happening
simuJtaneously,andeverythinghasaneffect:shift
of
posture,lifting
of
ann,
tension
of
backandneck,movement
of
headandeyeswhentalking,whenlistening,etc.
This
constantpostural,kinesicdiaJogueisimmediate,simultaneous,and
com
pletelyunavoidable.
The
moment
youareinmyphysicalspace,
whether
weareembracing,have
our
backstoeachother,
or
anywhereinbetween.
I
feel
and
perceive
my
physicalpresencedifferentlythanwhenalone,andweareinvoluntarilyinasimation
of
attUnement
or
non-attunement,aninterplay
of
mutualarousalregulation,inwhich,it
is
true,we
can
bemore
or
lesssensitive,more
or
lessresponsive,
but
never
neutnI.
In
all
ofour
gestural
interaction-proxemic,
kinesic,facialexpression,
gne,
voicemodulation,andtiming
of
verbalresponseand
delivery-we
arecontinually
bothmonitoring
andactingtoaltereachother'svitalityaffects,which,especiallyin
the
Cal,
maintains
and
enhances
our
linguisticandnoeticinteraction.
This
dance
is
alsogendered;eachmemberbrings
both
thebodylanguagecharacteristic
of
his
or
her
sex,
as
well
as
the
subtlegesturaldifferences
of
in-
ter-
and
intn-gender
interaction
to
thediscussion.
4
Not
onJy
is
theremutualreguJation
~ f
arousalgoing
on
inthegesturalconununity,but)there
is
aco-construction
of
bodyimages.
When
you,withwhomIhavespenthourssittingaroundatable
to
gethertalking,agreeinganddisagreeing,strugglingtoexpressideas--when,
as
youtalk.youraiseyourhead,youmeetmyeyesinjustsuchaway,awaywhichatthebeginning
was
strange
to
me,butnowIhavecometoexpectandtounderstand
as
meaningfulinjusttheway
in
whichyou,physicallyandgestunlly,i.e.
more
orlessunconsciously,
mean-then
1,
inmyowngesturalacconunodationto
i.t,
amaffordingyouanew
un
derstanding
of
yourowngesture.
Thus,
in
our
gesturaldance
we
arerevealed
to
ourselvesanew.Ithinkthis
is
whatPaulSchiJdermeanswhenhesaysthat"everybodybuilds
his
ownbody-imageincontactwithothers,"andhisreference
to
it
as
a"concinualconstructiveeffon."
He
saysthatthere
is
"aconstant'unconscious'wandering
of
other
personalitiesintoourselves
....
acontinuousmovement
of
personalities,and
of
body-imagestowards
our
ownbody-image
....
"Inanother
4
placeherefers
to
thisprocess
as
a"dialogue"
of
bodyimages.)
We
arelocatedinthis
constam
co-
constructionbecause
our
ownbodyimage
is
incompleteapartfromanother;onagescurallevel,the
other
knowsmoreaboutusthatwe
do
aboutourselves.Soweareinvolvedinan
unending
process
of
self-understandingonasomaticlevelthroughidentification,projection,and
other
processesbywhichparts
of
us
and
parts
of
othersinterplay,communicate,anddanceourbothconstructiveanddestructive,dominant,submissive.andegalitarian,inclusiveandexclusiveenergies.
What
is
alwaysmissing,however,fromtheencounter,whatmakesitforeverincomplete,whatmakes
of
itadrama
of
thehiddenandrevealed,
is
theuneliminableresidue
of
hiddenness,
of
opacitybefore
you-my
radical
isolation-for
thereareaspects
of
who
I
am
whicharepresentinthenaturalsignworld
of
mygestures,
but
areunknownei
ther
to
youormyself.
It
is
theinterplay
of
the
hiddenandtherevealedwhichcreatesthedrama
ofour
gesturaldialogue.
What
alsomakes
of
it
an
incessantconstructive
effon
is
itsinchoatecharacter.
The
dancewhichexpressesthismurualentrainement,althoughitbothgroundsandcomments
on
speechdiscourse,
is
in
itselfaspeechlessspeech.
It
is
naCUre
speaking,whatDewey
(170)
caUed
"natural"
as
opposedto"intentional"signs.So,
as
acloud
sunds
forrain
but
does
not
intendtostandforrain,ablush,atightening
of
the
mouth,
sunds
for
something
inspite
of
our
intentions.
In
it
we
areliable
to
alltheinvolunurisms
of
our
socialanimalnature:
syn
chronization
of
gesture,
postur:1l1
impregnation,gaze
panems,
a n ~
variousforms
of
affectiveat
nmement
andcontagion,through
"motor
mimic-
ry"-rnirroring,'echoing
and
the
like.
It
is
experiencedbyus,
35
Merleau-Pontydescribedit,
as
magic,or"actionatadistance."
We
experienceacollectiveparticipationinwhatherefers
to
as
"current
of
undifferentiatedpsychicexperience
...
astate
of
permanent'hysteria"(in
the
sense
of
indistincmessbetween
that
which
is
livedand
that
which
is
onlyimaginedbetweenselfandothers)."6
To
deny
our
location
in
thisspace
of
contagion,involuntarytransgression,"building,""melting,"and"spreading"(Schilder'sterms),
of
incalculableeffects,
is
to
denyafonn
of
knowledgewhosesource
we
cannotidentify
or
control,
but
whichisnolessa
fonn
of
knowledgefor
all
that.
Nor
canthelinguisticdiscoursestructure
of
the
cal
existseparatelyfromit,forit
is
its
ground
anditsvehi
de.
"Speechemergesfromthe
'toul
language'
as
constituted
by
gestures,mimicries,etc."says
Mer
leau-Ponty.'
Not
justspeechingeneral,
but
thefunctionalelements
of
dialogue--elaboration,repair,timing,and
anunement-are
groundedhere,inthebody.
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