Altered states: an essay on communication and movement

Abstract

The concept of mobility seems to be sweeping across the humanities and social sciences. We argue that the close relationship between communication and movement is to some extent independent of specific communication technologies. We demonstrate this through the particular ‘knottings’ of music and physical/imaginative movement. We also suggest that in order to do justice to the complex entanglements of communication and movement, it would pay to re-examine social theories from an age when communication and transportation were not yet fully differentiated. The latter promises to reveal that communication is connection and interchanges/exchanges that impact the senses.