A mix of posts on gesture, HCI, perception or robots and some personal information.
In the news today, another wonderful gesture story. An Indonesian politician, Tifatul Sembiring, shook hands with Michelle Obama. Sembiring is a conservative Muslim who states that he should not touch women who aren’t related to him (he avoided doing so while meeting Tsunami victims for example). Sembiring quickly tried to spin the story via Twitter [...]
Typically, people can see whether a movement is intended to communicate (a.k.a. a gesture) or whether the movement’s producer has some other intention, be it practical or just fidgeting. There are however plenty of examples where the movement is ambiguous: it could be a gesture but it could also be a meaningless incidental movement. Barack [...]
Sunday the French will cast their final votes and get a new president: either Sarkozy or Royal. On the big final TV debate there was one ‘gesture’ that received considerable attention. Segolene pointed her finger repeatedly at Sarkozy while accusing him of something.
Watch out for the scene that starts around 4:00 in this video [...]
Here’s a bit of world news for you: Prime Minister Blair of the UK was a bit of a rascal in his youth and student days. Well, good for him, you might think, and I hope the Britons will do the same. Specifically, it turns out that he made a crude or lewd gesture in [...]
A young guy called Ryan Florence was arrested today after making a ‘gun gesture’ at English politician David Cameron (see Metro). Strangely enough, he seems not to have been arrested for the gesture. He is charged with possession of cannabis… after they searched his house… (because of what?).
Boy, did he pick the wrong guy to [...]
The Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek possibly faces a fine for giving the finger to another Czech politician KSÄŒM Deputy VladimÃr KonÃÄ?ek, who was offended by the gesture and filed a complaint.
Politicians, always trying to express their opinions carefully? (source)
(Prague Monitor) Topolánek unfurled an erect middle finger 2 February when opposition deputies complained about cabinet [...]
It has become a bit of a classic, so here’s president Bush rubbing the shoulders of bundeskanzler Angela Merkel at the G8, last summer.
(for higher quality images, see this slideshow)
This bit of cross-atlantic communication between Bush and Merkel comes fairly close to a cultural misunderstanding.
Yet I do not think Bush’ gesture (giving a shoulder [...]
Kofi Annan has been the Secretary-General of the United Nations since 1997 and will stop at the end of this year. You can read about his accomplishements in his Bio or at Wikipedia.
What concerns me are of course his gestures. How does he gesture when he is talking, addressing a crowd, or [...]
The lip-pout (see the Nonverbal Dictionary) is a near universal sign of sulkiness. In the Netherlands our minister Rita Verdonk was stripped from her responsibility for immigration (a topic on which she is a notorious hawk) after the elections brought about a leftish majority for a general pardon. During the press conference she displayed a [...]
Do not take the following politically. I just wanted to add this case to my collection of famous gestures by public speakers caught on camera. George W. Bush is caught giving the finger in what he calls ‘a one-fingered victory salute’. According to About.com’s D. Kurtzman this happened in Austin during the later months of [...]
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