Endangered Gestures

Endangered Gestures is a short film showing hand gestures for concepts currently under threat by author­i­tar­i­an shifts around the world. Pairing censored words with gestures proposed by AI, the results sit somewhere between speculative sign language and technical error. The hands that appear are almost-but-not-quite-human, their unreliable digits forming gestures that hover at the edge of meaning. 

The words cor­re­spond­ing to each gesture belong to a list of phrases that started dis­ap­pear­ing from U.S. government websites, documents, and archives in March 2025. Ideas related to diversity, climate change, and social issues were no longer deemed acceptable and removed by hand or algorithm. Ironically, a large portion of the censored words read like a wishlist for a humane and equitable society. 

Asking generative imaging technology to create hand gestures for these words is an ultimately absurd attempt at finding a language of resistance within the ideological constraints of the technology. The increas­ing­ly improbable gestures may leave the viewer wondering what strategies and contortions will be required of us to protect these achieve­ments in the age of tech-enabled author­i­tar­i­an­ism. Endangered Gestures is a reminder of things worth fostering and celebrating, rendered by the intel­li­gence complicit in their erosion.