We plan to have three sessions.
Aikido practice is highly standardized, and from an exogenous point of view seems only to imply the "repetition" of conventional gestures. However, from the point of view of practitioners themselves, the task to be accomplished at each moment of their practice is to coordinate gestures, a task which implies to interpret the gestures of the other for identifying a relevant moment to begin the next gesture. After briefly mentioning some theoretical and methodological points I'll examine the interpretation of gestures from the point of view of practitioners themselves as they make it accountable by sequentially accomplishing their gestures.
The data that I will bring are from a six-minute phone call between former U.S. president Johnson and his Secretary of Defense McNamara related to recommendations made by a third party. There is something in particular that I am interested in in this conversation, but I will not impose my own interests on the data session.
If anybody is interested in bringing their own data, analyses, observations, arguments, or whatever, to a next meeting to discuss together, please contact Aug Nishizaka at augnish(a)soc.meijigakuin.ac.jp.