The Engagement Space and Parallel Coordinated Movement: Case of a Conceptual Drawing Task

Abstract

The engagement space (Gill, Kawamori, Katagiri, Shimojima, 2000) is the arena within which coordinated body movements take place in interactive settings. It is a commitment on the part of its participants to be together, or to be present. Previous work on the metacommunicative body dynamics of the engagement space showed that composite dialogue acts, of gesture, speech and silence (Body Moves (BM)), play an important role in the flow of information in interaction. One of the Body Moves, namely the Parallel Coordinated Move, was difficult to categorise according to the patterns of metacommunicative body motion that involved a clear rhythmic sequential motion of action and reaction, and was hence left undeveloped (Gill et al. 2000). This move will be described as a multi-activity gestural coordination, where different but related projects are being expressed in the body actions of the participants at the same time. It is analysed here for its collaborative feature which enables participants to negotiate and engage in the formation of a common ground. The analysis of the parallel coordinated move also raises a need to appraise the concept of floor, and it will be proposed that ‘floor’ needs to be conceived as consisting in three dimensions of ‘self’ and ‘self with other’ dynamics.