Q: How can someone in the everyday world see this most easily, this dance metaphor? In poetry?
A: I think it is played out in every way that anybody talks to each other. If I buy a ticket for the movie, I have a conversation with the lady behind the window. And I smile, and she smiles back. And we have become friends for two seconds. And we have contacted another human being. And this is probably what makes some people a little bit queasy about me. This is my personal fun which I have in life, to contact other people in such a way that the other is taking notice of me.
You know my funny statement, the hearer and not the speaker determines the meaning of an utterance. And if you know that, then you need to determine how you must speak so that the hearer is dancing with you.
Q: So it makes sense that someone who is a performer you would use some of that body language to help that dance take place.
A: Yes. But I don’t play the tricks. What I do is, I aim that way. If I step up to the ticket counter, I know I’m speaking to a human being.
Heinz von Foerster
From Christina Waters
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/HvF/festschrift/waters.html
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