The handshake is an ingrained social habitus widespread all over the world and the most common form of casual greeting. Shaking hands, however, is not merely a routine gesture to greet someone, but it is rather a multifaceted ritual which, according to its enactment in different situations and contexts, can assume a variety of meanings. More specifically, in political communication the ceremony of handshakes acquires an exceptional value. It represents an essential part of the protocol which cannot be avoided, especially when the greeting is happening publicly. Intentionally or unintentionally, the sequence of gestures employed by politicians in the choreography of the handshake tends to shape significance around the nature of the relationship established between the two people. The wide spectrum of the diverse power dynamics embedded and perpetuated through the handshake is the territory explored within this research project.

Coupling a designer perspective with an analytical approach, the investigation took the first steps towards the creation of a taxonomy of handshakes. It started by gathering a significant amount of material from photojournalistic images and footages depicting politicians greeting each other during summits and public events. Navigating the archive, it became possible to put in comparison the discrete events in order to find recurring poses and patterns. A series of historical manuals of gestures and body language (Balwer, 1644; Austin, 1806; Bacon, 1875; Delsarte, 1887) worked as a solid scientific base to inform my data. However, the more I was delving into the enquiry, the more its intrinsic complexity, which escapes simplistic categorization and unequivocal interpretation, became clear. Because of the performative nature of the handshake, I found in performances an appropriate and fruitful medium to explore the nuances of the phenomenon. I believe that performances, through re-enactments and bespoke plays, allow to extrapolate the gestures from their context while offering a close-up view on the individual movements.

As a graphic designer, my interest lies in different branches of communication. I believe that body language, due to its ineffable character and ambiguity, provides a fertile ground to explore the intersections between design and non-verbal communication. Particularly, this research project fits in a current body of work about politics and silent forms of rhetoric. Examples are the performance staged by the artist Liz Magic Laser (2012), proposing a mute hand-gestures dialogue between two American presidents, or the investigation conducted by graphic designer Ted Hyunhak Yoon (2019) on dictatorial statues and the decoding of their cliché immutable poses loaded with significances. Other than the methodological approach or the medium used, what my research shares with the above-mentioned projects is a common intention to unravel the complexity of body language in order to make the inner mechanisms that rule it visible.

• Austin, J. (1806) Chironomia, or a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery. London: Cadell, T. and Davies, W.
• Bacon, A. (1875) A Manual of Gestures. Source: archive.org / contributor: University of California Libraries
• Balwer, J. (1644) Chirologia, or the Natural Language of the Hand. Reprint. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2003
• Delsarte, F. (1887) Delsarte System of Oratory. 3rd ed. New York: Edgar S. Werner
• Hyunhak Yoon, T. (2019) Decoding Dictatorial Statues. Eindhoven: Onomatopee
• Laser, L. M. (2012) The Digital Face. [Performance and two-channel video, 10 minutes] Performed by Alan Good and Cori Kresge at Derek Eller Gallery, New York. Available at: https://vimeo.com/40673987 (Accessed: 10 May 2021)