Report from WOF: About gesture and ornament

This is what we did so far at the World Ornamental Forum in Davos: After a day of introductions and reflections of what ornament and gesture mean in our work, i.e. the work of the participating researchers with backgrounds in art, architecture, philosophy, sociology, literature, and management, we started today to build up models of the WOF. I particularly like the one with the two benches on which I had the pleasure to assist C. Lars Schuchert, because for me it symbolizes the relationship between ornament and gesture very well:

The ornament is the benches tied together that create resonance, in that case with me as observer. The gesture happens when I make the relation between us manifest, i.e. when I touch it at the lower side and lift it up. From the gesture, a complete different ornament evolves. I am still puzzled about what this means in the context of work – but I have the strong feeling that gesture should become part of reflections in management science studies about work.