Sensory systems prefer time-varying over static stimuli. An example of this fact is provided by the dynamic spectro-temporal changes of speech signals which are known to play a key role in speech perception. To some investigators such observations provide support for adopting the gesture as the basic entity of speech. An alleged advantage of such a dynamically defined unit - over the more traditional, static and abstract, phoneme or segment - is that it can readily be observed in phonetic records. However, as has been thoroughly documented throughout the last fifty years, articulatory and acoustic measurements are ubiquitously context-dependent. That makes the gesture, defined as an observable, problematic as a primitive of phonetic theory. The goal of the present paper is to propose a resolution of the static-dynamic paradox. An analysis of articulatory and sign movement dynamics is presented in terms of a traditional model based on timeless spatial specifications (targets, via points) plus smoothing (as determined by the dynamics of speech effectors). We justify this analysis as follows: A first motivation is empirical: As illustrated in this chapter both articulatory and sign data lend themselves readily to a target-based analysis. The second part of the argument appeals to the principle of parsimony which says: Do not unnecessarily invoke movement to explain movement. Until a deeper understanding is available of how the neuro-mechanical systems of speech contribute to its articulatory and acoustic dynamics, it would seem prudent to put dynamic (gestural) motor commands on hold. Thirdly, if the schema of static-targets plus dynamic-smoothing is an intuitive way of conceptually parsing movements, it is only natural that phoneticians should have given many speech sounds static labels in traditional descriptive frameworks. Static-target control in speech production should in no way be incompatible with dynamic input patterns for perception. Once that fact is acknowledged, there is no paradox.