Knowledge as Embodied Performance

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of knowledge as a process of tacit knowing embodied in dialogue rather than as a process of information transfer embodied in signal processing (Shannon and Weaver 1949). Within dialogue we acquire knowledge (experiential, tacit knowing, practical knowledge) through our embodied performance of ‘how’ and ‘what’ we know about the communication situation we are in. This embodied performance includes utterances, gestures, movement and modulation of body and voice, as well as mediating artifacts, such as interactive technologies. This chapter explores the implications of this perspective of knowledge for the conception and design of interactive technologies that seek to facilitate joint action and joint attention.