Imagination, Multimodality and Embodied Interaction

In this project we combine an analysis of multimodal interaction (e.g., Goodwin 2000a; 2000b; Heath and Hindmarsh 2002) in a magnetic resonance (MR) laboratory with a reading of a patient experience in the MR clinical context. We consider the co-construction of meaning and experience in these two contexts, focusing on the intersubjective enactment of imagination (Murphy 2004, 2005; Nishizaka 2000, 2003) between researchers, and between patient and clinical technician (for a treatment of imagination in the workplace see also Suchman 2000). We propose that meaning is spatially and intersubjectively enacted in embodied practice through gestures (which in some cases can be acoustic as well as visually perceived events), vocalizations (acoustic events which may be linguistic or nonlinguistic), relationships of gaze and body position, and negotiation of representations and instrumental modalities in the environments of the magnetic resonance laboratory and clinic (Alac 2005, 2006; Alac and Hutchins 2004). Actors in the fields of enactment we consider include bodies, equipment, representations, as well as the space of the imagination. ¹