Showing objects in Skype video-mediated conversations: From showing gestures to showing sequences

- Showing objects can be done either as showing gesture or showing sequences, characterized different contextures of talk and embodied conduct.
- Showing gestures are done co-extensively to the talking, and do not project an assessment.
- In showing sequences, the showing becomes the focus of the interaction, and invites assessments.
- Showing sequences can be distinguished as 'informative' or 'evocative'.
- Showing personal objects in video-mediated performs 'intimacy-at-a-distance'.

This paper focuses on sequences in which participants show one another a personal object in video-mediated communication. First, it brings some order into the diversity of showing practices by making a distinction between 'gestural showings' in which the display of an object is a gestural contribution to ongoing talk, and 'showing sequences', in which the visual display of the object becomes the focus of the interaction, with different 'gestalt contextures' of talk and embodied conduct. Second, regarding showing sequences, it introduces a further and important distinction, between 'informative showings' which enact a recipient without relevant knowledge regarding the showable, and 'evocative showings', which enact instead a knowledgeable recipient. Finally, this systematic understanding of the organization of showing practices is used to account for the recurrent production of showing sequences involving personal objects (which index familiar and intimate territories) in video-mediated interpersonal conversations, and to show how such sequences can constitute a powerful resource to perform 'intimacy-at-a-distance'.