Thought Made Visible

Found a brief and lovely essay by Lia Markey from the University of Chicago's Theories of Media site, on the topic of gesture. She quotes W.J.T. Mitchell, a professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago and a theorist of media, visual art and literature, who writes: "It is not the gift, or what is said on the phone, but 'the thought' (that is, the gesture) that counts. Perhaps gesture is best understood as the moment when thought becomes visible, tangible, or palpable, staged and framed as form - something to be held and to hold us in mutual prehension." "Utopian Gestures, The Poetics of Sign Language," (a preface for a forthcoming text on the poetics of sign language), 2002.