Gestures are embedded in specific cultural and political contexts and embodied by socially constructed bodies, carrying gender, race, age, and social status expectations. The assignment aims to question the body as a cultural and political archive. Students will conduct an archeological study of gestures. They will learn how to decontextualize, remix and recontextualize gestures, and speculate on their political and social potential. By researching contemporary media, presentation-making, and performative exercises, the students become familiar with everyday acts of performance and the way body language can challenge social norms.

Through the assignment, the students:

• learn to be attentive to body language, nonverbal communication, and the contexts in which they perform gestures.
• can reflect on the social, cultural, and gender norms that bodies carry when performing certain gestures.
• learn to deconstruct such norms through recontextualizing gestures in collaborative performances.

• A1
  Introduction Lecture (60 minutes, 20 minutes questions/discussion)
  The first session will introduce the theme and assignment and discuss what a gesture is and how it conveys meaning. The introduction presents an imperfect archive of the history of the “dap,” drawing from social theory, art, diasporic histories, music videos, memes, and political discourse. The introduction can also include the work of Alexis Blake and Martin Syms as examples of de- and re-contextualization of gestures. Here is a template for the slide presentation introduction.
  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1siFYMtyRVBWIMIIIDdwaqWK0gZ83cITq
  After the lecture, move immediately to the group forming exercise.

• A2
  Group Forming exercise (40 minutes)
  For group forming exercise:
  • Ask each student to introduce and perform one gesture from their daily life that has to do with work, leisure, or care. All students are asked to note down gestures that they find relatable.
  • Each student, in turn, is asked to:
    • Copy a gesture from a peer and respond to it with their own gesture.
    • Pair up with your peer, continuing to perform the gestures.
    • Keep performing the gesture until another student joins the group, making it a group of three.

• A3
  Collective Body Lexicon (2 hours)
  This assignment asks the students to divide into their groups (from the group forming exercise) and choose one specific gesture from a list provided by the instructor. Next, the students are asked to trace the history of the gesture, paying attention to the different contexts where that gesture appears (digital spaces, physical, and others), the bodies that perform it, and its evolution through time. Next, the teacher asks the student to create a small visual presentation based on the following questions. They are encouraged to use audiovisual material from online searches: music videos, film clips, social media gifs, instructional videos, etc. In addition, they can make quick drawings or take photographs.
  • Some questions to keep in mind working on this assignment:
    • Where does this gesture appear in terms of place but also time?
    • Did it evolve through time, and why? Is the gesture related to a particular historical moment, a particular technology, or media?
    • What is the cultural meaning of this gesture? Does it mean different things in different cultures?
    • In which other contexts does this gesture appear?
    • How did the gesture travel from one body to another (movies, paintings, migration, technology, etc.)?
    • How does the gesture have different meanings depending on the body that performs it (age, body ability, gender, race, class)?

• A4
  Performing the Lexicon (2 hours)
  Continuing from the A3 assignment, the student group now performs their gesture in a 2-min video in 9 different ways. Here are some options:
  • • Very slow
    • Very fast
    • In a repetition/loop
    • Turn it into an instruction/break it down into steps
    • Using only the face
    • Using only the hands
    • Using the whole body
    • Interact with another person
    • Interact with a non-human body (animals, plants, objects)

• • Each group shows the 2-min video to the class. A feedback and discussion round follows immediately after the presentation. Here are some questions and prompts for the students:
    • How does the meaning of the gesture change according to each of the ways performed?
    • How does the gesture’s meaning change depending on who performs it within the group?
    • What happens if you change the context of the gesture being performed?
    • Based on the history and evolution of the gesture and the composition of the group, how can you problematize the gesture? Are there any parts of its evolution or history that carry gender, race, class, or other assumptions?

• A5
  Remixing the Archive (2 hours)
  In this assignment, the student group intervenes in their gesture by altering it or adding a counter-gesture based on the discussions and feedback from the previous session.
  Each group will develop a short presentation that:
  • reflects on the history of the gesture focusing on the elements where they decided to intervene.
  • reflects on their positionality. Based on the group composition, they must situate their new gesture within a specific context and describe it.
  • performs the new gesture and describes how it changed from its original form.

The groups present the collective evolution of their gestures in a series of images or videos.

• Here is a template for the PowerPoint introductory lecture:
  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1siFYMtyRVBWIMIIIDdwaqWK0gZ83cITq

This assignment is based on Contagious Choreographies developed by Gabriel Fontana, Lila Athanasiadou and Carmen Jose for Bachelor students at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.

Author’s Encouragement
We perform gestures daily, but we rarely question their origin and the contexts in which they originated. This exercise allows both improvised performances and critical discussions on how we carry stereotypes through body language.

Prior Knowledge and Preparation
For the teacher:
Familiarize yourself with the material in advance. Create a list of gestures that have potential to be transformed. Try to avoid gestures that involve only the hands or are very obvious. Gestures with potential are for example: telephone call gesture, scrolling, different gestures of labor (https://www.labour-in-a-single-shot.net/en/films/), gesture of rest, gestures of care, gestures of resistance, gestures that relate to sports, gestures that involve the whole body.

For the students:
The students should have basic research skills and should be able to make short presentations.

Accessibility:
Assitance for Learners
Since the assignment relies heavily on visual material, the teacher should make sure the exercise is adapted in text for students with visual impairment. To archive and present their work students are advised to use an accessible free platform such as HOTGLUE.