Toward a General Theory of Gestures. Review of Vilém Flusser, Gestures, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2014, 193 pp.

Abstract

Gestures are perhaps the everyday signifying practice that receives the least analytic attention. We process oral and written texts, photographs, films and videos, music (with or without lyrics), paintings, drawings, and graphics of all kinds. We value the design and functionality of the objects that surround us, and we use them on a daily basis. However, we tend to dismiss the gestures that not only accompany but also produce and manipulate the texts and objects that surround us. We incessantly make and interpret gestures, but our analytical attention dismisses them and focuses on their products-what we say, write, build, paint, photograph, film, record, seek, and love-not on the gestures that produce them and, by doing so, frame and shape their meaning.This dimension of the message is greatly neglected, not only by the nonspecialized user but also by the expert analyst. Fortunately, the book reviewed here, Gestures, by Vilém Flusser, offers a deep, extremely original, meticulous, and suggestive reflection on gestures.