The Entanglement between Gesture, Media, and Politics is a research project investigating the interdependencies that exist between bodily movements or gestures, and ubiquitous, globally networked technologies. To display and displaying oneself gains greater significance within the context of the unrestricted and instantaneous global exchange of video material as well as in an everyday world increasingly defined by sensors and computers. Thus the meaning of presence and publicness changes, evolves and new forms appear. These processes will be theorized and become tangible through an emphasis on the following two research questions:

1. Im/Perceptible Gesture. What is the transition point, the moment, when a movement is recognized as a gesture within a respective entanglement of sensory input and media technology? We explore the measurement of movements while handling technology, asking how it eventually is a mediated representation in itself.

2. Political Gesture. How do inter-subjectively comprehensible gestures become powerful conveyors of political concerns? Political gestures relate to a certain context or situation. They are not political by themselves; these gestures have to be mediated to gain meaning and significance.

Scientists and artists are working together over the course of two years, participating in three international workshops where they bring together various fields of research and diverse artistic media such as: Sound, performance art, and visual art, as well as media studies, dance science, history of technology, and social sciences.

Besides fundamental research, working with exemplary gestures and movements will also take place as part of the workshops. To enable and support the interdisciplinary approach, a special framework was designed: Through so called transformation chains, individual research work and the participants’ respective methodologies are connected within a performative space. The individual material will literally be transformed by approaching it from different perspectives, making a net of representations and shared experiences visible and generating knowledge on the basis of this synthesis.

During a final symposium in Berlin (End of 2018) the results as well as the process itself will be presented to a wider public.

The project is hosted by the Braunschweig University of Art; funded by Volkswagen Foundation within the framework of the Arts&Science in Motion program; supported by University of Applied Arts Vienna.