Seminar | Gesturing with Machines: An Autoethnography of Embodied Meaning-Making with AI Companions
Seminars / Lectures / Workshops
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Date
16 Apr 2026
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Organiser
Department of English and Communication and International Society for Gesture Studies – Hong Kong
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Time
17:30 - 18:30
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Venue
Online via Zoom
Speaker
Prof. Angel Lin
Dr. Liang Cao
Summary
Our analysis reveals three dynamics. First, we trace moments of gestural attunement and misalignment between human and AI, revealing both the possibilities and limits of algorithmic perception. Second, we examine how the repetition of particular gestures in interaction normalizes social structures, including gendered performances aligned with hegemonic masculinity. Third, we document the human likeness of AI’s gestures and the human adaptation to them, showing signs of both “anthropomorphism” (Brandtzaeg et al., 2022) and “robotization” (Lin, 2024), where the machine becomes more human-like while the human also shifts subtly to align with machines’ interactional patterns.
Contributing to gesture studies, this paper demonstrates how human-AI interaction both relies on and transforms embodied meaning-making, raising critical questions about the social norms encoded in algorithmic bodies.
Keynote Speaker
Prof. Angel Lin
Chair Professor of Language, Literacy, and Social Semiotics in Education, The Education University of Hong Kong
Professor Angel M. Y. Lin is Chair Professor of Language, Literacy, and Social Semiotics in Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is a leading scholar in the fields of English language education and critical literacies. Since the late 1990s, she has conducted impactful classroom research projects in Hong Kong schools. Her research expertise spans second language education, discourse analysis, translanguaging (TL), trans-semiotising (TS), content and language integrated learning (CLIL), decoloniality, and critical media literacies.
Dr. Liang Cao
Post-doctoral Fellow, The Education University of Hong Kong
Dr. Liang Cao is RGC-funded postdoctoral research fellow working at the Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests include the intersection of language, gender and sexuality, human-AI intimacy, critical AI literacy, and critical GenAI awareness in language education. His work appears at leading journals such as Journal of Homosexuality and Linguistics and Education.
