Closer to far away: transcending the spatial in transnational families' online video calling

This paper studies how transnational children and their distantly located but emotionally close family members recreate their relationship using applications for online video calling. The focus is on the interaction of bodies and language, and if/how proximity of any kind is enabled. A critical posthumanist applied linguistics is embraced and communication is viewed as a bodily coordination ocurring in real time. This includes a material and dynamic view of language in constant transformation. Video captures are produced with three transnational, multilingual families in China and their adult relatives residing abroad (Europe). Moment analysis informs the processing of data. The analysis includes multipart semiotic assemblages of critical/creative moments and applies the Deleuzian concept ofsense. The results suggest, the multi-local analogue/digital situation in online calling transcends conventionally imagined spatial 'boundaries'. Furthermore, a bodily, multisensory proximity emerge as simultaneously critical to and created by this transcending spatiality. Multi-local communicative practices shed light on the multiple, material and semiotic components of the human senses, and how a rational understanding of proximity might be twisted. Proximity constantly emerges 'in new copies' transcending the far away and close.

Automated summary

This paper investigates how transnational families use online video calling applications to recreate their relationships, emphasizing the interaction of bodies and language, as well as the importance of proximity. The results suggest that multi-local communicative practices shed light on the multiple, material and semiotic components of human senses.