This innovative work introduces the interdisciplinary field of research of kinesemiotics, offering a new adaptable model and means of analysis for understanding forms of movement-based communication, such as dance, that use a codified language shared by a community of users. It begins with a theoretical overview and review of existing literature on the main approaches to movement-based communication, specifically dance, which underpin kinesemiotics as an area of study. It reaffirms previous work which established dance as a form of embodied communication in that it encompasses a wide range of semiotic styles and forms shared by communities of "speakers." In collaboration with the English National Ballet, Maiorani employs the genre of ballet as a means through which to understand and analyse some of the key concepts of kinesemiotics, mainly that of space as a semiotic dimension and "motivated movement," or movement with meaning. Supported by automated movement recognition tools from the fields of bio-robotics engineering and computer science, Maiorani argues for ballet’s capacity, when movements are projected into meaningful space, to extend beyond sequences of physical movements to become a meaning making practice. Kinesemiotics advances interdisciplinary research in the fields of social semiotics, media and communication, multimodality, linguistics, and performance studies and will be of particular interest to students and scholars in these areas.

This textbook provides the first foundational introduction to the practice of analysing multimodality, covering the full breadth of media and situations in which multimodality needs to be a concern. Readers learn via use cases how to approach any multimodal situation and to derive their own specifically tailored sets of methods for conducting and evaluating analyses. Extensive references and critical discussion of existing approaches from many disciplines and in each of the multimodal domains addressed are provided. The authors adopt a problem-oriented perspective throughout, showing how an appropriate foundation for understanding multimodality as a phenomenon can be used to derive strong methodological guidance for analysis as well as supporting the adoption and combination of appropriate theoretical tools. Theoretical positions found in the literature are consequently always related back to the purposes of analysis rather than being promoted as valuable in their own right. By these means the book establishes the necessary theoretical foundations to engage productively with today’s increasingly complex combinations of multimodal artefacts and performances of all kinds.

Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication is the result of a collaborative and transdisciplinary effort towards a first definition of "dance data", with its complexities and contradictions, in a time where cognitive science is growing in parallel to the need of a renewed awareness of the body’s agency in our manyfold interactions with the world. It is a reflection on the observation of bodily movements in artistic settings, and one that views human social interactions, multimodal communication, and cognitive processes through a different lens—that of the close collaboration between performing artists, designers, and scholars. This collection focuses simultaneously on methods and technologies for creating, documenting, or representing dance data. The editors highlight works focusing on the dancers’ embodied minds, including research using neural, cognitive, behavioural, and linguistic data in the context of dance composition processes. Each chapter deals with dance data from an interdisciplinary perspective, presenting theoretical and methodological discussions emerging from empirical studies, as well as more experimental ones. The book, which includes digital Support Material on the volume's Routledge website, will be of great interest to students and scholars in contemporary dance, neuro-cognitive science, intangible cultural heritage, performing arts, cognitive linguistics, embodiment, design, new media, and creativity studies.

What is gesture and what does it do? What is the meaning of multimodality? What do these concepts signify within the different theoretical approaches to interaction and communication among human beings? Why do we study gesture and multimodality? The thirteen chapters that make up this volume provide answers to these questions. They bring together an eclectic set of recent studies on visible bodily actions conducted by junior and senior researchers and are a testimony to the curiosity and vitality that have always distinguished gesture studies. This young yet rapidly growing field investigates the semiotic features of gesture in relation to speech as integral parts of utterances, the different uses of gestures with and without speech, such as gestures in language acquisition, gestures in the performing arts (music, dance, theatre) and gestures in Artificial Intelligence.

'Choreutics' can be said to contain the essence of Laban's thought as well as an elaboration of the framework which he found useful for the penetration of the bewildering complexity of human movement. This he based on the unity of space and movement and he recognised a natural order in which the energy from within unfolds in space.

What neural processes underlie the appreciation of painting, music, and dance? How did such processes evolve? This book brings together experts in genetics, psychology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, art history, and philosophy to explore these questions. It sets the stage for a cognitive neuroscience of art and aesthetics.

This collaboration between artists, choreographers, researchers, experimental psychologists and cognitive scientists investigates ways in which choreographers and performers make innovative, expressive movement, and audiences interpret what may well be a previously unmapped experience. Thinking in Four Dimensions is the first book to address the cognitive processes that underpin the creation of new works of contemporary dance. With case studies including data gathered from dance audiences as well as psychological analysis of new dance works, plus interviews with artists and video of performance pieces, Thinking in Four Dimensions is a unique package. Thinking in Four Dimensions is available in two formats. The e-book version incorporates text, full-colour images and video, which gives access to unique footage of choreographers and performers creating important new Australian dance works. The d-book is a print-on-demand version of the text with black and white images. This exciting collection of essays suggests that dance-making can be a form of imaginative enquiry - a thinking in time and space - both for those who perform it, and for those who watch.

This truly multidisciplinary book explores how culture-founding terms like ‘space’ and ‘place’ have been reconsidered, re-elaborated and how they have acquired new meanings through academic research that crosses the traditional borderline between the humanities and social sciences. All chapters explore from different perspectives how the notions of space and place are still modelling our sense of reality by investigating social and cultural phenomena of various types that evolved between the 20th and 21st centuries. The essays collected here provide evidence of the growing necessity of building bridges across disciplines to allow knowledge, in general, and academic work, in particular, to work towards new forms of epistemology. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and students in the areas of cultural studies, discourse analysis, multimodality, communication and media, linguistics, literary and film studies, anthropology and ethnography.