An animal’s position in space and time determines its ability to collect information about the world around it. These spatiotemporal concerns are of particular importance to animals engaged in communication with each other: the relative spatial positioning of sender and receiver over time can help to optimize information exchange or hamper it because sensory systems and the signals that stimulate them are often highly directional. To understand how spatiotemporal dynamics are coordinated by participants in a communication system and how these dynamics shape evolution, this symposium addresses biomechanical, neurophysiological, and ecological constraints on display performance, navigation, and orientation towards receivers. We further consider receiver encoding of complex signals and how these factors impact success in communication and the associated decision making, from neurobiological, cognitive, and philosophical perspectives. We further consider receiver encoding of complex signals from neurobiological, cognitive, and philosophical perspectives. We leverage machine learning and social network tools to characterize spatiotemporal dynamics of interactions. Our symposium integrates cross-disciplinary perspectives to open exciting new avenues of inquiry that should pay dividends across these fields and beyond.