The project aims at developing an interdisciplinary theory of expressive movements as well as a methodology that allows for their reconstruction. It brings together a linguistic take on reconstructing the dynamics of attention and affect through the use of multimodal metaphors in talk (Müller) with a film-analytic model of expressive movements and 'sensory pictures' (Empfindungsbilder) (Kappelhoff).

As far as multimodally expressed metaphors (speech and gesture) in spoken discourse are concerned, we propose that they imply a dynamic activation and construction of cognitive and affective experience and that they constitute specific forms of mundane expressive movements. Regarding the orchestration of multimodal metaphors in film (orchestration of space, image, sound), we assume that they organize a specific form of cinematographic expressive movement, which play a core role in the recipients' dynamically structured orientation of affect.

The project carries out a comparative empirical study of metaphorically organized expressive movements in face-to-face communication, in news and sport reports, in German TV series, in contemporary German Cinema and in Classical Hollywood Cinema (Hitchcock, Film noir). The analysis of forms of multimodal metaphoric orchestration of expressive movements, as well as their distribution over the different types of audiovisually recorded data, serve as point of anchorage for both: the development of a methodology and a theory of expressive movements – a theory which transcends the concept of affect as a symptomatic expression of inner states.

Publications

Schmitt, C., Greifenstein, S., Kappelhoff, H. (2014). Expressive movement and metaphoric meaning making. Müller, C., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mounton.

Schmitt, C., Greifenstein, S. (2014). Cinematic communication and embodiment. Müller, C., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Scherer, T., Greifenstein, S., Kappelhoff, H. (2014). Expressive movements in audiovisual media: Modulating affective experience. Müller, C., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Kappelhoff, H., Greifenstein, S. (2014). Feeling gloomy or riding high: Timings of Melodrama and Comedy. Angerer, M.-L., Ott, M., Bösel, B. (Ed.), Timing of Affect. Epistemologies, Aesthetics, Politics. Zürich: Diaphanes/University of Chicago Press.

Greifenstein, S., Kappelhoff, H. (2014). The discovery of the acting body. Cornelia, M., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Horst, D., Boll, F., Schmitt, C., Müller, C. (2014). Gesture as interactive expressive movement: Inter-affectivity in face-to-face communication. Müller, C., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Müller, C. (2013). Gestures as a medium of expression: The linguistic potential of gestures. Müller, C., Cienki, A., Fricke, E., et al. (Ed.), Body – Language – Communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction. 202-217. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Böhme, D., Greifenstein, C., Schmitt, C. (2012). Analyzing multimodal metaphors in audio-visuals as dynamic temporal orchestrations. Experimental work on Metaphor. Princeton, USA.

Kappelhoff, H. (2011). The Distribution of Emotions: Fassbinder and the Politics of Aesthetics. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory 86 (3). 201-220.

Kappelhoff, H., Bakels, J.-H. (2011). Das Zuschauergefühl - Möglichkeiten qualitativer Medienanalyse. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 5 (2).

Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C. (2011). Embodied meaning construction. Multimodal metaphor and expressive movement in speech, gesture, and in feature film. Metaphor and the Social World 1 (2). 121–153.

Müller, C. (2011). Reaction Paper. Are 'Deliberate' Metaphors really Deliberate. A Question of Human Consciousness and Action. Metaphor and the Social World 1 (1). 61-66.

Schmitt, C. (2011). Metaphorically structured audiovisual expressive movements in commercials: Images as rhetoric gestures. Nomadikon: image=gesture. Bergen, Norwegen.

Greifenstein, S. (2010). Gestures in Film. Describing Gestures in American Screwball Comedies from an Interdisciplinary Approach. 4th conference of the international society for gesture studies (ISGS'10) - gesture. evolution, brain, and linguistic structures. Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder (Germany).

Greifenstein, S. (2010). 'If you won't do it for love, how about money?!' HIS GIRL FRIDAY und das Kleingeld großer Gefühle. Nach dem Film (12: Lachen im Kino und auf der Leinwand). published: 2010/10/22, www.nachdemfilm.de/content/if-you-won’t-do-it-love-how-about-money

Greifenstein, S., Rook, S., Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Schmitt, C., Tag, S. (2010). Multimodal metaphors and expressive movement in film. Audiovisual aesthetic structures modelling emotions. 4th Conference of Language, Culture and Mind (LCM4). Åbo Akademi University, Turku (Finland).

Greifenstein, S., Rook, S., Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Schmitt, C., Tag, S. (2010). 'Psychoanalysis is Opening Doors' – A Film Aesthetic & Linguistic Analysis of Hitchcock’s SPELLBOUND. 8th International Conference on Research and Applying Metaphor (RaAM8): Metaphor and Domains of Discourse. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands).

Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C. (2010). Multimodal metaphors and expressive movements in speech, gesture, and audiovisual images – A cognitive-linguistic and a film-analytic approach to multimodal metaphors. 8th International Conference on Research and Applying Metaphor (RaAM8): Metaphor and Domains of Discourse. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands).

Müller, C., Tag, S. (2010). The Dynamics of Metaphor. Foregrounding and Activating Metaphoricity in Conversational Interaction. Cognitive Semiotics (Special Issue No 6, Spring 2010).

Schmitt, C., Tag, S., Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Greifenstein, S., Rook, S. (2010). Analyzing metaphoric expressions in TV reports. An interdisciplinary approach to metaphors in speech, gesture and film. 4th Conference of Language, Culture and Mind (LCM4). Åbo Akademi University, Turku (Finland).

Schmitt, C., Tag, S., Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Greifenstein, S., Rook, S. (2010). Intertwined Metaphoric Expressions. Bringing together Linguistic and Film-Aesthetic Analysis. 8th International Conference on Research and Applying Metaphor (RaAM8): Metaphor and Domains of Discourse. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands).

Schmitt, C., Tag, S., Kappelhoff, H., Müller, C., Greifenstein, S., Rook, S. (2010). Audiovisual orchestrations of metaphoric gestures in a TV report. 4th conference of the international society for gesture studies (ISGS'10) - gesture. evolution, brain, and linguistic structures. Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder (Germany).