perception and artistic issues
Perception is a cognitive act of information processing. The perception of the human being seems to function in a holistic manner meaning that we perceive information not only with one but with all our senses. The eye that is mostly thought to function as most dominant organ of perception is by far not as dominant as commonly thought(P. Krieger).
Artistic issues are unclamped in between objective actuality and subjective perception. They can be considered on different levels with regard to its materiality or form but also in regard to their intended and actual experience. Artistic issues are not only forms that can be solely described as formal and put into aesthetic categories. They also transport sensations that can lead to sensational cognitions - “Cognito sensitiva”.
German aestheticians that sought to describe and analyze the act of viewing paintings and sculptures in the 19th century called the experience of viewing “empathy”. They posited a kind of physical connection between viewer and the art work in which the viewer’s own body would move into and inhabit the various features of the artwork. In that sense empathy entails a kinesthetic level - "Kinesthesia."
American dance critic John Martin based his entire theory on how dance communicates upon the assertion that viewers actively partake in the same kinesthetic experience as the dancers on stage that they are watching. He states that when we see a human body moving, we can vicariously reproduce it through kinesthetic sympathy in our own present muscular experience and awaken associational connotations as might have been ours if the original movement had been our own making.
For movement analyst Deidre Sklar, kinesthetic experience and its analysis entails attending to the qualitative dimensions of the movement, the kind of flow, tension and timing of any given action as well as the ways in which any person’s movement interacts and interrelates with other people, objects and events. In connection with French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the “habitus”, Sklar like Bordieu imbue cultural patterns with symbolic meaning. A cultural pattern would for instance be the kind of specific movement patterns and actions exercised in the cultural practice. Taken together these patterns can constitute a way of knowing in a given cultural context, constructing a form of embodied knowledge in which intertwined, corporeal, emotional and conceptual memories are stored. As a consequence this knowledge can be withdrawable when recognizing interlinked movement patterns that can be interpreted in a specific cultural way. In that sense there is also a connection between kinesthetic experience and cultural values.
how do I perceive a choreography ?
With my senses : eyes, ears, empathy,
kinesthetic emphathy, spacial awareness
Through a filter of cultural values/perception
Through a filter of personal values/perception
what do i perceive of a choreography ?
Theme
Intention
Composition
Movement
Dynamics
Rhythm
Empathic emotional feeling
Kinestetic empathic feeling
Sound
Placement and use of space
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