Stage III: 2023

During the third stage of the project, the research team focused on placing the theme of the gesture in the context of a phenomenological analysis of action and praxis. This concerned, as in previous years, four components: A. Methodological reflections; B. The analysis of bodily communication and gesture as a foundation of action; C. The historical dimension of gesture; and D. Gesture in its relation to media. As a result of the activities carried out during this stage, the output comprised  five new articles sent for publication, four of which in Web of Science – AHCI indexed journals; two panels organized at international conferences, a large conference  organized in Bucharest, and a total of six presentations at various international conferences.

A. Methodological reflections (Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Delia Popa): The PI together with Delia Popa organized a special panel at the annual international conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology: „Sensory Methodologies”, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, from April 27-29, 2023. The panel organized by the two together with Smaranda Aldea (DePaul University, Chicago) was called „Imagination as method” and aimed at the possibilities of imaginative exploration that phenomenology opens up especially in the research of gestures. The panel presentations analyzed the various dimensions of imagination accessed through Husserl’s genetic turn as well as their methodological potential, exploring its connections with perception and affectivity, its dynamic intervention in the realm of bodily movement, action and gesture, and its relationship to memory and self-identity. The presentations of the two project members were titled “Operationalizing Perceptual Phantasy” (PI) and “Moving Phantasy” (Delia Popa).

B. The analysis of bodily communication and gesture as a foundation of action (Alexandru Bejinariu, Cristian Ciocan, Delia Popa): Alexandru Bejinariu’s research focused on the role of gestures in the constitution and organization of communication. The central hypothesis of his study, sent for evaluation to a WoS/AHCI indexed journal, is that gestures can be researched not only from a semiotic perspective, but also from that of action theory, as actions intended to establish, maintain, orient and organize the communicative process. For this, both analyzes and results from the field of empirical research of gestural studies and elements of the Husserlian theory regarding collective intentionality and its communicative constitution were taken into account. Cristian Ciocan’s research went in a convergent direction, specifically targeting the gestural dimension of the hands. After analyzing this aspect in the writings of Heidegger and Levinas, Cristian Ciocan’s research focused on Vilém Flusser’s work, which proposes a surprising phenomenological exploration regarding the essence of the hand. The research resulted in a new article submitted for publication to a WoS/AHCI indexed journal. Delia Popa for her part developed a new research hypothesis that links the phenomenological investigation of gestures, as the basis of human action, to the problem of “forms of life” as it was approached by Agamben and Jaeggi. The main result of this was the article titled „The Materiality of Experience: Phenomenology between Phainology and Phenomenism”, which was accepted for publication in the special issue of the journal Sintesis (indexed in ERIH+) dedicated to the theme „Materiality in Phenomenology” .

C. The historical dimension of gesture (Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Delia Popa, Alexandru Bejinariu): The PI’s research in this area materialized in the article “Sharing Space: A Husserlian Perspective on Mutual Gazing as the Origin of Gesture”, accepted for publication in the journal Tijdschrift voor Filosofie (indexed in WoS/AHCI). The text focused on Husserl’s research as opening a new way of understanding the social experience of space. Thus, several of Husserl’s concepts can be fruitfully used for a phenomenology of gesture and bodily interaction by interpreting the exchange of glances as an interkinesthetic phenomenon, which can be interpreted as the genetic origin of the gesture. Alexandru Bejinariu participated with the presentation “A Phenomenological Approach to the Historicity of Gestures” atthe international conference Phenomenology and History, Annual Conference of the Central and East European Society for Phenomenology, Novi Sad, Serbia, 6 – 8 September 2023. Bejinariu studied the historical constitution of gestural meaning in the context of the dynamics between the individual and the higher cultural level, opening the way to a phenomenological perspective on gestures from the perspective of their role in the constitution of communication and sociality. Between September 21-23, 2023, the project members organized, together with other colleagues from the Romanian Society of Phenomenology, the international conference “Phenomenology and the Limits of Experience”. The selected panels also included a series dedicated to the theme of gestures, one of which was organized by the PI together with Delia Popa under the title “Gesture and Bodily Interaction.” The two presentations were titled: “Notes for a Genetic Phenomenology of Gesture” (PI) and “The Truth of Gesture” (Popa).

D. Gesture in its relation to media (Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Alexandru Bejinariu): Alexandru Bejinariu’s article “Gestures in Slow Motion. On the Use of Experimental Media in Phenomenology” was accepted for publication in the journal Dialogue (WoS/AHCI indexed). The PI conducted an extensive research stay in Amsterdam between July and August of this year, at the invitation of the Department of Media Studies and the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis of the University of Amsterdam. His research here has mainly focused on the way gestures are declined within contemporary post-cinematic media, leading to new aesthetic configurations. During this stay , the project director started the project of a collective volume, edited together with Prof. Miriam deRosa (University of Venice), dedicated to the phenomenology of post-cinematic media, which would have one of its central pillars in the consideration of gesture. The volume entitled “Phenomenology and the Aesthetics of Post-Cinema: Gesture, Critique, Environment” was proposed to Springer publishing house, and was approved for publication in the newly founded collection New Directions in Phenomenology.

Stage II: 2022

In the second stage of the project, the research team focused on situating the question of gestures within a wider phenomenological discussion of intersubjectivity. In particular, the research focused on four directions:

A.) Methodological issues

(Christian Ferencz-Flatz; Cristian Ciocan; Delia Popa)

Christian Ferencz-Flatz and Delia Popa co-edited a special issue of Studia Phaenomenologica 2022: “Gestures” (Web of Science – AHCI), published in October 2022. The issue encompasses 9 papers investigating the phenomenological dimensions of gesture. The introduction written by the two co-editors offers an extended argument for using phenomenological concepts (like adumbration, expression, intercorporeality, kinaesthasia, normality) in the study of gestures.

Cristian Ciocan reworked his article titled: “Phenomenology of Gesture Between Heidegger and Flusser”, which was in the mean time published in May 2022 in the journal Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review (Web of Science – AHCI).

B.) Gestures between functionality and expression

(Cristian Ciocan; Delia Popa; Alexandru Bejinariu)

Cristian Ciocan’s research focused on gestures as expressions of the hand, confronting the phenomenology of the hand in Heidegger and Levinas. His main aim was to develop the contrast and intersection between the active-pragmatic and the gestual dimension of the hand. His research abutted in a research article which is currently under review with a journal indexed in Web of Science – AHCI.

Alexandru Bejinariu participated on February 25th 2022 at a public discussion following a screening at the Bucharest Cinematheque under the title Gestures of Labour (1959–1975), organized by Christian Ferencz-Flatz and Ana Szel with the support of the Goethe Institute Bucharest. Bejinariu presented some of his research concerning the theoretical work of Adam Kendon and Villém Flusser concerning the differences between expressive and functional bodily movements. His intervention showed how this distinction impedes on the movements shown in the useful films screened during the event.

During this stage, Delia Popa worked primarily on the role played by ordinary gestures for establishing a sense of experiential evidence, addressing theories by W. Blankenburg. Her research was submitted for evaluation to an international journal (BDI – EBSCO).

C.) The infrapolitics of gesture

(Christian Ferencz-Flatz; Delia Popa; Alexandru Bejinariu)

Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Delia Popa și Alexandru Bejinariu presented a panel titled “Critical Phenomenology and the Infrapolitics of Gesture”, at the conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP), 21-23 April, Stockholm. They drew from James C. Scott’s concept of infrapolitics relating it with contemporary research in critical phenomenology, in order to propose a phenomenological reading of three types of political gestures: provocation, blending in and testifying. Christian Ferencz-Flatz’ and Delia Popa’s presentation is currently being worked into a research article to be submitted at an international journal for critical phenomenology. Delia Popa further pursued some of the issues involved in her presentation in another article, examining the relationship between promise and gesture, which was submitted to an important international journal indexed in Web of Science – AHCI.

D.) Gesture and the media

(Christian Ferencz-Flatz; Delia Popa; Alexandru Bejinariu)

In the first part of this stage, Christian Ferencz-Flatz finished the research article “Screened Intercorporeality. Reflections on Gestures in Videoconferences”, which was submitted for publication and accepted in the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology (indexată Web of Science – AHCI). The paper brings a phenomenological perspective to the discussions concerning the involvement of interbodily experience in platform mediated interactions.

Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Delia Popa and Alexandru Bejinariu presented the panel “Working with Media in the Phenomenology of Gestures” at the international conference of the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS): Epistemic Media: Atlas, Archive, Network, 23-26 June, Bucharest. The presentations contrasted the use of audio-visual materials within contemporary gesture studies with the possibilities of a phenomenological employment of such materials, centered on imaginative variation. The article developed by Alexandru Bejinariu following this presentation was submitted for publication at an international journal indexed Web of Science – AHCI.

Both Delia Popa and Christian Ferencz-Flatz benefitted during this stage from research stays which helped shape their research, at the Ionian Center for Art in Kefalonia, respectively at the Sociology Department of the Technical University in Berlin.

Stage I: 2021

This first stage of the research project focused mostly on three aspects:

1.) Preliminary reflections (A. Bejinariu / C. Ciocan). Engaging different sides of the phenomenological spectrum, both dr. A. Bejinariu and dr. C. Ciocan engaged in ample reflections intended to situate the question of gestures methodologically and thematically in the sphere of contemporary phenomenological research. Thus, Bejinariu focused mostly on an analysis of Husserl’s early conception of descriptive psychology and its ties to the work of Franz Brentano. His talk „How (not) to Establish Phenomenology as a Science. Husserl’s Concept of Descriptive Psychology in the Logical Investigations”,  presented at the international conference The Idea of Philosophy as Science within 19th Century Thinking (16-17.09.2021, Romanian Academy) thus tackled some key methodological aspects for a descriptive-phenomenological approach to gestures.  In his turn, dr. Cristian Ciocan drew from the works of Martin Heidegger and Vilém Flusser in order to outline the principial difficulties facing a phenomenological description of the vast plurality of gestures, showing how this phenomenon brings to interference the various spheres of the body, intersubjectivity, affect and language. A key point in his reflections, concerning the generality of gestures, was at the core of an essay, which he submitted for publication and is presently under evaluation.

2.) Gesture in the Phenomenology of Language (Ch. Ferencz-Flatz, A. Bejinariu). The PI pursued the main objective for this stage, which was to situate the phenomenon of gesture within the larger scope of a phenomenology of language. His approach drew specifically from Husserl’s discussion of occasional expressions and mimetic signs, which he read in junction with the works on gestual interaction by Adam Kendon and Charles Goodwin. His research was presented in an invited talk at the Workshop Phänomenologie (Husserl Archives Cologne, 09.04.2021) and was later on accepted for publication under the title „Gesten als okkasionelle Bedeutungserfüllungen” in Husserl Studies (online first: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10743-021-09295-w). Following a similar path, dr. A. Bejinariu focused especially on self-oriented gestures in monologic speech. In this regard, he used Husserl’s early considerations to phenomenologically come to grasps with the contemporary gestures-for-conceptualization theory (Kita, Alibani & Chu). His research grew into an article which was submitted for publication and is currently under review, while some of his considerations were presented at the 6th Conference of the Central and East European Society for Phenomenology (Ljubliana, 2-4.12.2021).

3.) Applicative Work. (D. Popa, Ch.Ferencz-Flatz). Both the PI and dr. Delia Popa tested their growing insights into the phenomenology of gesture by philosophically engaging various contemporary artistic and media practices. Together they held a presentation at the residence program of Film+ tackling works of contemporary choreography and experimental film. Delia Popa’s paper, „Le musée de la danse : mouvement et répétition” (Noesis, 2021 forthcoming) further deals with repeated movements in dance. Similarly, the PI held several conferences engaging questions of gesture with regard to cinematic procedures („The Zoom Shot between Epistemic Function and Aesthetic Gesture”, NECS 2021, Palermo), new media of videoconferencing („Virtual Intercorporeality. Some Reflections on Gesturing in Videoconferences). He also handed in an essay on gesture in advertising („Die Geste der Werbung. Beiträge zu einer Medienphänomenologie der Gestik“).

A further significant milestone for this year’s research was launching the call for the special issue of the journal Studia Phaenomenologica XX/2022, with the topic: „Gestures”, with the PI and Delia Popa as guest editors: https://phenomenology.ro/cfp-studia-phaenomenologica-vol-22-2022-gestures/.