ENAMARE · Enactive model of aesthetic perception through rhythm and entrainment

Enactive model of aesthetic perception through rhythm and entrainment

ENAMARE was a project aimed at studying and modeling the aesthetic component of experience from an enactive perspective – i.e. non-representational, embodied, action-oriented – combining philosophical research, results from cognitive science, and dynamics systems theory. The conceptual backbone of the project is a notion of rhythm as entrainment that stems from John Dewey’s thought. This notion differs from the standard one of rhythm as measure. Yet, the notion of rhythm as a formal aspect that emerges at the interaction of brain, bodily, and environmental oscillations that constrains the same process from which it emerges is not completely new either. It goes back until the very first existing account of rhythm, composed by the Greek mercenary and poet Archilocus. For him, rhythm is form. Both constituting us and our relation with the environment and constraining it. This project assumed that the philosophical field of aesthetics is a valid point to understand our relationship with the environment, for every object, agent or event is able to afford the activation of an aesthetic component of experience. This conceptualization allows to consider the aesthetic component not as an isolated cognitive component triggered by a specific what, but as a particular how of general experience. The aesthetic emerges as not restricted to particular events or objects, such as artworks, but to specific engagements between human beings and the environment. Hence, aesthetics becomes a way to address, explore, and understand how certain interactions take place, their roots, dynamics, and potential outcomes. For example, this aesthetic component can be useful in an educational context to try to enhance attentional and memory processes by controlling environmental circumstances such as light conditions, background music, and the affordances of educational tools. It also allows to develop an understanding of how the aesthetic is constantly used as a backdoor to manipulate us into certain actions. In sum, this focus on the aesthetic component of experience underlines the continuity and dynamics of the aesthetic not only in the exceptional circumstances of museums, concert halls and forests, but in our daily life activities connected with education, shopping, and intersubjective relations. The first and main objective of this project was elaborating a theoretical model of this aesthetic component of experience. A second objective is to further the research on enactive approaches to cognitive processes. To this end, the specific model of the aesthetic component of experience was trimmed into a more general one ruled by three dynamic notions: rhythm, entrainment, and constraint. This model, along with complementary information in the form of a glossary with the most relevant terms of dynamic systems theory used during this project, will hopefully help researchers interested in these interdisciplinary approaches.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз