This week’s readings were about gesture and spatial writing techniques. In the articles, it talks about why these types of writing are important to use and what they can be used for. Gesture is important when communicating because it conveys emphasis and emotion. Spatial techniques are important because they can convey the most important aspects of a piece of writing and also direct a person’s eyes to important parts of the writing piece. Also, spatial writing pieces can relate to certain places, not just the specific location of words on paper.
Some important topics of discussion from the “Why Study Gesture” article were whether or not gesture was universal. My table group discussed this is depth and we decided that gesture is not universal. While many gestures do mean the same things in different cultures, there are some gestures that mean the complete opposite. For example, the very basic action of nodding your head for “yes” and shaking your head for “no” is reversed in Greece and Bulgaria. This can cause much confusion if someone is going there and does not know this. Another thing that we talked about was not only can a person communicate with their hands, but it gestures also constitute as talking with your face. For example, a mouth turned upwards indicates a person is happy, and a mouth turned downwards may mean that that person is upset or contemplating something. Gestures are very important to pay attention to when talking to someone because it can communicate many things that go unspoken.
My table also discussed important ideas from the other article, “Language and the Making of Place”. For example, we talked about how the names for certain places, or spaces, change.. Many people I know can relate to this as well. For example, home for me is where I grew up, even though I live in Champaign-Urbana for 3/4 of the year. Other people at my table were talking about how their names for home have changed such as they call Champaign-Urbana home and call the place they grew up their home home. This is important to think about when writing or composing something about a particular space because while it may mean and be something to you, it may mean and be something completely different to someone else.
For my gestural/spatial writing piece, I am choosing to create a map of the most important places in my life such as my home, where I was born, my schools I’ve attended, work places, etc.. By creating this map, I hope that it shows the important aspects of my hometown, and the different places that make me who I am.
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