Patterning Culture: Developing a system for the visual notation of greetings

Abstract

My research explores how the human interaction of greeting can be analysed through a digital graphic visualisation process to reveal nonverbal dimensions such as personal space, touch and other movement patterns. Previous systems of visualization devised by anthropologists for the study of greetings have stopped short of using contemporary digital technology. I aim to show how the use of digital techniques such as stop motion video, vector animation and interactive programming in the documentation and analysis of human greetings can advance our understanding of culturally patterned behaviour. Such visual and interactive explanations of greetings also open up the possibility of historical preservation and mapping of cultural greetings and, potentially, other forms of human interaction.