The choreographic process as an ecological environment : study of embedded and extended cognition

Abstract

This research’s aim was to study the relationship between the mind and the environment in a choreographic process to gain a deeper understanding of their relationship. This was coupled with the desire to shift the paradigm, where dance/choreography is not always given enough of a platform in studies of cognition/mind and environment, particularly from the theory of 4E cognition. The main research question, where does the [mind] choreographic process end and the world begin?, was a retranslation of a question posed by philosopher Alva Noë: From this perspective the research was position as being ecological, that the individual and the world are in relation to one another. In this consideration the research question was broken down further into four separate questions through the application of vertigo zoom. The four questions were as follows: • Where does the choreographic process end, and does the world begin? (Shifted to situate ecologically) • What is the ecological relation between a choreographic process and the world? (Shifted to situate within 4E cognition of embedded and extended cognition) • How does an agent perceive in an ecological choreographic environment when engaged in embedded and extended cognition? (Shifted to situate with perception-action and affordances in embedded and extended) • How to approach a choreographic process as an ecological environment, through a study of embedded and extended cognition? (Investigated across four artistic processes) The research positioned itself where physical, social, and cultural aspects of the environment inform the process and tools and technologies contribute to cognition. An individual accesses this information from the position of James Gibson’s theory of affordances, or that there are opportunities in the environment that afford action. The study was conducted through a three-pronged methodological framework of theoretical paper, choreographic practice, and the model for dynamic systems theory The practice was carried out as a project that consisted of four different environments: a self-practice, a workshop with University of Malta Bachelor students, an embedding of the research into an interdisciplinary multi-media installation And Then There Was Quiet, and a study on how the camera shapes perception and offers another way to study affordances. The synthesis and analysis of the project was embedded alongside the model for dynamic systems theory, which accounts for a triangulation of individual, task, and environment that yields a behaviour or performance that is contingent upon the particular individual involved, various elements in the particular environment, and accounts for multiple timescales. The research introduced the element of (re)orientation or as how this defined it as: the ability to see what you are not seeing, with the acknowledgement if you are perceiving from where you are(currently) or where you came from(past). (Re)orientation shared similarities with another emerging element that when a process is in relation or ecological, it means that there is fluctuation and constant shifting due to the constraints and opportunities that exist during a particular time and space with a specific agent(s) and environment. The research also contributed to the discussion of the relation to objects and technology by positioning this relation as one of cohabitation. In cohabitation objects and technologies are not only tools for cognition but can exist as entities themselves and aide in communication in a choreographic process. The researched, as a whole, offered a co-terminological approach to merging a choreographic process with theories of the mind and environment.