Beyond synchronization: Body gestures and gaze direction in duo performance

TL;DR

This paper explores how body gestures and gaze direction influence visual interaction and coordination in duo performances, highlighting their roles in communication and joint action beyond mere synchronization.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of body gestures and gaze behavior in duo performances, emphasizing their importance in coordination and communication.

Findings

Gesture patterns become more predictable during joint tasks.

Coordination can occur through body sway in performances.

Gaze serves both informational and communicative functions.

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on two main categories of visual interaction: body gestures and gaze direction. Our focus on body gestures is motivated by research showing that gesture patterns often change during joint action tasks to become more predictable (van der Wel et al., 2016). Moreover, coordination sometimes emerges between musicians at the level of body sway (Chang et al., 2017). Our focus on gaze direction was motivated by the fact that gaze can serve simultaneously as a means of obtaining information about the world and as a means of communicating one's own attention and intent.