More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces
Hand gestures play an important role in human communication. Although the study of their repertoires and roles for past communities is a popular field of research, there has been no attempt so far to study their visibility during public events. The aim of this study was to determine the maximum numb...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Virtual Archaeology Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/article/view/19315 |
| _version_ | 1797770569774530560 |
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| author | Kamil Kopij Kaja Głomb Szymon Popławski |
| author_facet | Kamil Kopij Kaja Głomb Szymon Popławski |
| author_sort | Kamil Kopij |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hand gestures play an important role in human communication. Although the study of their repertoires and roles for past communities is a popular field of research, there has been no attempt so far to study their visibility during public events. The aim of this study was to determine the maximum number of people who could see hand gestures well enough to understand their meaning. Using gestures taken from ancient Roman rhetorical treatises, which we divided into three classes related to the detail of the gestures (fingers, hand, arm, or arms), we conducted a series of experiments to determine the maximum distance from which each class of gestures could be seen. We used the results, including regression analysis, to conduct visibility analyses for two case studies: one on the rostra on the Late Republican Forum Romanum in Rome; and the other on Pyramid No 3 in the centre of Late-Classical Mayan Tikal. We used the calculation of the areas where gestures were visible to estimate crowd sizes by drawing on crowd behaviour observation during contemporary public gatherings. They show not only how many people could have potentially seen the gestures, but also what percentage of the theoretically available space could have been occupied by people who had the potential to see them. According to the findings, only a little under half (44.8%) of the maximum possible audience were able to detect all types of gestures (various levels of detail) at the LR Roman Forum, while at Pyramid No 3 in Tikal, just a mere 16.7% were able to do so. We believe that the results presented and the methodology used can be applied to analyse any public space, regardless of place and time, thus providing a valuable tool to comprehend past public assemblies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:24:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca7a2538f34e41c9853c6fb51dd078c9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1989-9947 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:24:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Universidad Politécnica de Valencia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Virtual Archaeology Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca7a2538f34e41c9853c6fb51dd078c92023-07-28T11:18:06ZengUniversidad Politécnica de ValenciaVirtual Archaeology Review1989-99472023-07-01142911310.4995/var.2023.1931518507More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spacesKamil Kopij0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9937-9791Kaja Głomb1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5083-0385Szymon Popławski2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0208-1903Jagiellonian UniversityJagiellonian UniversityWrocław University of Science and TechnologyHand gestures play an important role in human communication. Although the study of their repertoires and roles for past communities is a popular field of research, there has been no attempt so far to study their visibility during public events. The aim of this study was to determine the maximum number of people who could see hand gestures well enough to understand their meaning. Using gestures taken from ancient Roman rhetorical treatises, which we divided into three classes related to the detail of the gestures (fingers, hand, arm, or arms), we conducted a series of experiments to determine the maximum distance from which each class of gestures could be seen. We used the results, including regression analysis, to conduct visibility analyses for two case studies: one on the rostra on the Late Republican Forum Romanum in Rome; and the other on Pyramid No 3 in the centre of Late-Classical Mayan Tikal. We used the calculation of the areas where gestures were visible to estimate crowd sizes by drawing on crowd behaviour observation during contemporary public gatherings. They show not only how many people could have potentially seen the gestures, but also what percentage of the theoretically available space could have been occupied by people who had the potential to see them. According to the findings, only a little under half (44.8%) of the maximum possible audience were able to detect all types of gestures (various levels of detail) at the LR Roman Forum, while at Pyramid No 3 in Tikal, just a mere 16.7% were able to do so. We believe that the results presented and the methodology used can be applied to analyse any public space, regardless of place and time, thus providing a valuable tool to comprehend past public assemblies.https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/article/view/19315forum romanumhand gesturesnon-verbal communicationpublic gatheringspyramid no. 3 in tikalvisibility analysis |
| spellingShingle | Kamil Kopij Kaja Głomb Szymon Popławski More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces Virtual Archaeology Review forum romanum hand gestures non-verbal communication public gatherings pyramid no. 3 in tikal visibility analysis |
| title | More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| title_full | More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| title_fullStr | More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| title_full_unstemmed | More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| title_short | More than words: a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| title_sort | more than words a study on the visibility of hand gestures in public spaces |
| topic | forum romanum hand gestures non-verbal communication public gatherings pyramid no. 3 in tikal visibility analysis |
| url | https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/article/view/19315 |
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