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A Note on Human Action and the Language Machine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Drid Williams
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Abstract

Recently, events occurring in the tiny, relatively marginal world of dance notation (made public in Britain through ‘Tomorrow's World’, BBC1, 18th April, 1974) seem to call for a commemorative note in the Dance Research Journal of CORD, although technological breakthroughs are not usually subjects given serious attention by an anthropologist (1).

The new IBM ‘selectric element’ (i.e., a spherical ball which can be attached to electric typewriters having 88 Labanotation symbols on it) is more than deserving of anthropological attention, indeed, in my view, the matter rates linguistic and philosophical attention as well. In theory, the IBM ‘action sign ball’ has similar potential for wide repercussions in our lives as did Gutenberg's invention several centuries ago. The graphic linguistic sign can now be joined by its obvious counterpart, the printed human action sign.

Somewhat ironically, in today's world, it is technology which may finally establish the credibility of action sign notation (2). More ironic is the fact that IBM's superb achievement (in process of development in the U.S. since 1966) is likely to be denied full recognition because already, ‘the ball’ is being looked on by many as a mere practical aid to recording human movement and it is being associated with specialist fields like dance. As usual, concern with the syntagmata obscures the real issues of the paradigms. This is s a great pity, for there is much more to IBM's action sign ball than ‘practical aids’. Moreover, like any piece of technology, say, the camera, it will only be effective insofar as the vision of the people using it permits.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Fall/Winter 1975 , pp. 8 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1975

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References

1 An article entitled ‘Device Converts Typewriters for Notation of Choreography’ appeared in the New York Times, Thursday, December 20, 1973, announcing the appearance of the new “selectric element” for IBM ‘golfball’ typewriters.

2 For more details on what notation symbols consist of and their theoretical credibility, see Williams, D. Social Anthropology and Dance. B. Litt. thesis, 1972, pp. 148-9 and 159–162 Google Scholar.

3 Abbott, E. Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions. Blackwell, Oxford, 1969 (first published in 1884)Google Scholar.

4 A development which could never have occurred without the sustained and dedicated efforts of Ann Hutchinson (Mrs. Ivor Guest) who was instrumental in establishing the Dance Notation Bureau in the United States and who has written one of the few books we possess on Laban's graphic action sign system, entitled Labanotation: The System For Recording Movement. Theatre Arts Books, New York, 1966 (copyright held by Dance Notation Bureau in 1954).

5 Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art. CUP, 1969, pp. 212–13Google Scholar.

6 Crick, Malcolm. Social Anthropology, Language and Meaning. D. Phil, thesis, 1974, p. 201 Google Scholar. Currently in press as Towards A Semantic Anthropology, Explanations in Language and Meaning. Malaby Press, London, 1975 Google Scholar.

7 Ibid. p. 267.