Human communication goes far beyond spoken or written language. In daily life, we use gestures, posture, facial expressions, and other forms of body movement to show emotions, express intentions, and interact with others. These non-verbal signals are often more direct and natural than words. They play a big role in how we understand each other. Yet despite its ubiquity, non-verbal communication remains difficult to quantify, compare, or analyze across different cultural and social contexts. Unlike spoken language, body language is shaped by context and is not easy to record or translate into fixed meanings.
At the beginning of this project, I started with a series of experiments and observations on non-verbal communication. I was particularly interested in exploring how the implicit factors that shape human interaction beyond language could be applied to interaction design in everyday contexts.
In the early stages of the project, my focus was on how to visualize body language and present it within a physical space. I aimed to show non-verbal communication as a fluid and organic “language”, one that resists fixed interpretation and instead thrives in multiplicity and freedom.
As the project progressed, I revisited its core intentions and shifted my focus from purely visualizing gesture to better understanding it. I began an in-depth investigation into the psychological and sociological dimensions of non-verbal communication and body gestures. The works of Archer and Vinciarelli, in particular, highlighted the cultural variability of gestures and challenged any universal assumptions about body language. These insights led me to redefine the direction of the project: from displaying movement data to exploring how we collect gesture data, and what patterns emerge from it.
This shift enabled me to examine both the shared characteristics and the cultural differences embedded in bodily expression. It also reframed the installation not only as a display tool, but as a research method, one that allows us to observe how people from different backgrounds use their bodies to communicate meaning, emotion, and identity.
Thus, I arrived at the following project statement:
I explore non-verbal communication through an interactive installation that uses motion-tracking technology. As part of this interactive installation, I built a system that invites participants to respond to simple prompts using only their bodies. These prompts are open-ended and might ask participants to express a feeling or idea using their body language. As participants move, the system records their gestures in real-time. This allows us to collect and study a variety of movement data from people of different ages, cultures, and backgrounds. I aim to find patterns in how people communicate through body language—both shared similarities and unique differences.
This project began with a simple question: how do we communicate without words? Through the design of an interactive motion-tracking installation, I explored how people express emotion and intention through body language — across cultures, age groups, and personal backgrounds. The findings reinforce a central idea drawn from thinkers like Wittgenstein and Barthes: communication is not bound by grammar or vocabulary alone. Meaning emerges from shared context, lived experience, and embodied interaction.
By using real-time motion tracking to capture gestures, the installation documents body language not as static signs, but as dynamic, context-sensitive performances. The resulting movement data reveals both common patterns and rich individual and cultural variations, challenging the notion of a universal body language. This research also underscores how technology, when used thoughtfully, can help surface, preserve, and even amplify the subtlety of human expression.
Looking ahead, this work opens new directions for cross-disciplinary exploration. In the field of interaction design and HCI, there is growing interest in moving beyond language-based interfaces toward more embodied, intuitive systems. Projects like Random International’s Study for Fifteen Points or Xu Bing’s Book from the Ground show how gesture, motion, and visual cues can serve as universal or cross-cultural tools for communication. Similarly, the motion-tracked archive I developed could evolve into a platform for cross-cultural education, therapeutic expression, or inclusive design in multilingual or low-literacy contexts.
Future iterations of this project may explore emotional recognition, environmental responsiveness, or multi-user interactions. I am also interested in applying this approach to areas like museum curation, interactive art, or public installations, where non-verbal expression can be used to foster empathy, curiosity, and shared understanding.
Ultimately, Tracing the Unspoken is not only a study of how we move, but how we make meaning through movement. It asks us to pay closer attention to the gestures we perform, the spaces we share, and the many ways we speak without saying a word.
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