| This study investigates the process of idea construction during brainstorming for a group project involving the production of a short film. It is demonstrated how shaping of an idea becomes a collaborative and social activity through the deployment of gestures and talk. The data shows three college students in a group meeting building imagery step-by-step. By gestures and talk, they propose and visualize their ideas in the shared space by virtually switching roles between the actors and the cameraman. The embodied idea then elicits others’ responses; participants accept or refuse each others’ proposals and modify or add upon them using gestures. Therefore, gestures employed during brainstorming not only enable participants to describe a scene through various perspectives, but also embody the process of idea proposal and invite others’ co-participation in it. In the present data, novel gestures are produced to propose a new idea, or replace the previously proposed ideas and create different images, while similar gestures are repeatedly employed to indicate the connection between the previous and upcoming sequence, or combine multiple proposals into complex wholes. This study thus demonstrates the roles of both new gestures and recycled gestures during the activity of collaboratively designing a film scene; depending on the type of gestures--namely, a new gesture, previously created gesture, or modified-version of previous gesture--participants can monitor what aspects of proposed ideas that they agree or disagree with. Gestures make idea construction a public, collaborative process--they enable participants to co-orient towards a proposal and jointly form a shared idea step-by-step. |
