Music-Colour Synaesthesia: A Sensorimotor Account

This article presents a sensorimotor account of music-colour synaesthesia, proposing a radically different perspective than is commonly provided. Recent empirical and theoretical work in music cognition moves away from cognitivist accounts, rejects representationalism and embraces an embodied standpoint. It has been shown that some forms of synaesthesia may be elicited from a concept alone and are often accompanied by shapes and textures. It is from this perspective that a skilful engagement with the environment and relevant sensorimotor contingencies may be identified. Here the role of embodied and enactive perception in general music cognition is extended to music-colour synaesthesia, and an argument is made for how the attributes of bodiliness and grabbiness might be found in a sonic environment, and how music listening might be perceived as an act of doing.

Correction to: Bar, Roi. The Forgotten Phenomenology: “Enactive Perception” in the Eyes of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty

A correction has been made to: Bar, Roi. The Forgotten Phenomenology: “Enactive Perception” in the Eyes of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, v. 28, n. 1, p. 53-72, june 2020.The incorrect abstract was included with the original publication of DOI 10.5195/jffp.2020.928The original article has been updated to reflect this change.

The dancer as documenter: An emergent dancer-led approach to choreographic documentation

Realigning the interrelationship between documentation, choreography and the lived moment of performance, this article asks how choreographic documentation practices can be reimagined to articulate deeper layers of embodied knowledge beyond a focus on movement patterns or gestures. Entrusting the dancer to drive the process, accentuating their expertise in perceiving and analysing bodily sensation, the article proposes a series of experimental documentation methods. These include the use of verbal language, the breaking down of choreographic continuity and linear phrasing, and ‘enactive’ filming, with repetition as an exploratory tool. Developed through practice, these methods consider the use of available technologies (laptops, smartphones, etc.), informed by theories of enactive perception. By relieving the tension between the immediacy of performance and choreography as a framework of previously defined choices and limits, the article focuses on the dancer as the primary asset in the documentation process, advocating their agency in articulating interior knowledge and lived bodily experience in documented forms.

A little more social enaction than that: comment on Arango (2019)

In his article “From Sensorimotor Dependencies to Perceptual Practices”, Alejandro Arango presents a case for socialising enactive perception. While noting the importance of understanding perception as embodied, he argues that addressing just the issues of embodiment is not enough, that the socially situated and conditioned character of bodies, and the practices involved in perception, must be given full account. In surveying the current state of enactive theories of perception Arango dismisses what he terms “autopoietic” enactivism as only “hand waving” on the manner in which social aspects of life affect or transform bodily perception and action. In this commentary I argue that Arango has overlooked an important body of research by researchers in the “life-mind” or “sense-making” domain of enactive thinking. This literature addresses the dynamics of sociality in perception and action, and while greater integration between the descriptions of embodied action and social engagement is needed, significant progress has been made on this matter in recent publications.

Synesthesia: From Cross-Modal to Modality-Free Learning and Knowledge

In an integrated view of perception and action, learning involves all the senses, their interaction and cross-modality, rather than multi-modality alone. This can be referred to as synesthetic enactive perception, which forms the basis for more abstract, modality-free knowledge and a potential underpinning for innovative learning design. The authors explore this mode of learning in two case studies: The first focuses on children in Montessori preschools and the second on MEDIATE, an interactive space designed for children on the autistic spectrum that offers a “whole-body” engagement with the world.