Reading-talking

Lausanne, December 2025.

The activities of the mind, which can be percieved as purely abstract and located within the skull, rely on incorporated techniques and instruments, among which writing plays a central role. Studying mathematical demonstrations on the blackboard, Christian Greiffenhagen emphasized writing-talking a proof. While mathematics has a special relationship with writing by hand on the blackboard or whiteboard, the rest of scientific presentation activities most often involve reading-talking that writing-talking. Reading-talking means in a skillful back-and-forth between the eyes, slides and notes already taken by hand, printed or printed, highlighted and annotated manually.

Invited to a conference, this young researcher accompanied her slide presentation with an ingenious device for externalizing the reasoning she wanted to convey to the audience. She cut out and pasted her handwritten notes onto yellow cardboard index cards. Unlike sheets of paper, which sometimes slip during the presentation and may not be heavy enough to resist the force of gravity, the cardboard cards, numbered according to the slide show, allow her to keep her remarks in her hands and in front of her eyes. After clicking on the next button, she alternates between quick glances at the text she wrote and adressing the audience, repeating her notes more or less litteraly, depending on her interpretation of the public’s reactions, the time she has, and any rephrasing or digressions that come to her mind at the moment.Even when well prepared, this reading-talking performance cannot be reduced to what she had prepared; there is always something that escapes.