The language of the hands

Prof Dr Ellen Fricke

The hand held to the ear with the thumb and little finger splayed out to say goodbye: This gesture is widespread and means something like "Let's make a phone call!" Although today's phones barely resemble a bent telephone receiver, we still use this sign without any problems. Prof Ellen Fricke explains how gestures come about, how they are changing and how they could be used in the future in an interview with the Makers of the Week. In the exhibition "Gestures - yesterday, today, the day after tomorrow", the linguist from Chemnitz University of Technology brings gesture research within reach. Until 4 March, visitors to the Chemnitz Industrial Museum can explore gestures and their many aspects through numerous interactive exhibits.

How did the idea for the exhibition come about?
Prof Dr Ellen Fricke: As I have always been enthusiastic about the idea of bringing science, technology and art together and thus having an impact on the region, a funding line set up by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research entitled "The Language of Objects" lent itself to this at the time of my appointment at Chemnitz University of Technology. The exhibition is part of the research project "Hands and Objects in Language, Culture and Technology" - MANUACT for short - in which my team and I are collaborating with labour scientists from Chemnitz University of Technology and the Saxon Industrial Museum Chemnitz. Together with the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria, we have prepared the entire topic for an exhibition.

What can visitors take away from the exhibition?
A central question of the exhibition is: How does the interplay of traditions of object use, their embodiment in communicative hand movements and the contactless gesture control of everyday objects take shape? We want to build a bridge between artefacts of the past and modern gesture use. The interactive exhibits that we have developed together with the Futurelab, such as the "virtual potter's wheel", allow visitors to experience this complex interplay first-hand. If we can use these experiences to initiate a process of reflection, pausing and thinking about our future, including the future of work, then we will have achieved one of our goals.

How do you incorporate research into the exhibition?
A central idea of the research project is that it makes sense to start with the gestures of interpersonal communication for gesture control, because users already know them and don't have to learn a completely new hand movement for every device and every operating function. For example, we have developed an interactive exhibit with the Ars Electronica Futurelab in which the flat hand becomes an aeroplane and can navigate across a virtual globe, like Google Earth. Such interactive exhibits make it possible to directly experience the extent to which our everyday relationship with things is currently changing: from objects that can be touched, such as a traditional school globe, to the touchless gesture control of robots. As a linguist and gesture researcher, I am of course particularly interested in how such a change will affect interpersonal communication in the future.

Are gestures timeless and universally understandable?
Like all means of interpersonal communication, gestures naturally change over time. Many highly conventionalised gestures can be traced back to antiquity - the so-called stinky finger, for example. However, as the telephone gesture shows, handling-based gestures in particular can also represent a kind of knowledge store that preserves past technologies and their handling to a certain extent. Whether this gesture will disappear with the future development of communication technologies or be replaced by a hand shape that is more like a smartphone is, of course, impossible to predict today.

Are there differences between the generations when it comes to certain gestures?
I think the use of smartphones can change gestures. Future generations may use a flat hand as a "phone gesture". Another example is taking photos: Here, a change in the corresponding gesture can already be observed today. Older generations hold an invisible camera in front of them with their hands and press the shutter release with their index finger. Younger generations associate taking photos with a smartphone and are therefore more likely to use a different gesture at a different body height.

Are there any regional differences in the meaning of gestures?
Gestures are rarely universal. There are often intercultural differences: Take the victory gesture, for example, in which the index and middle fingers imitate a V. If I change the orientation of my palm and turn the back of my hand outwards, I can order two drinks with this gesture in Chemnitz, whereas in England and Australia it is used to express offence.

Although it's a lot about language theory and research, is the exhibition on show at the Museum of Industry? Does that fit?
We are very interested in the abstraction path from action to gesture. The historical exhibits on display at the Industrial Museum make it easy to visualise how the role of the hand has changed in the history of production processes such as hammering, spinning or pottery. And many of the exhibits from this history of development are not accessible just by looking at them, but only if you also know how to handle and operate them. This kind of handling knowledge is crucial and is increasingly in danger of being lost. In contrast, we are already - and will increasingly be - dealing with objects that we control with our hands without touch or haptic feedback. In such handling processes, the role of the hand is changing fundamentally. The Industrial Museum therefore not only presents industrial culture of the past, but also of the future. After all, today is already tomorrow's past.

Chemnitz is applying to be European Capital of Culture 2025? What are your hopes for the city until then?
Our exhibition is a great start to the European Capital of Culture bid and a good example of how Chemnitz University of Technology and the Industrial Museum can have an impact on the city and vice versa. Visitors to Chemnitz can use the interactive exhibits to experience for themselves the potential for innovation that can lie in the combination of science, art and technology. In my opinion, this special interweaving has been underestimated in Chemnitz to date. I very much hope that we can make a difference with our exhibition and that the application for the Capital of Culture can also draw ideas from it.