Embodied minds

Interacting minds: combining art and science to explore the social, dynamic, and embodied nature of human cognition

  In this series of three seminars, we will discuss the view of "extended cognition", or how to bring social interactions, the dynamic feedback loops between us and our environments, and our bodies into the study of the mind. Particular focus will be in how the cross-exposure from art and science can reveal phenomena about our minds, sociality and interactions that would be impossible for either to reach alone.

 We will look at "improvised interactions" in music, dance, and decision-making, peruse literature from neuroscience, social psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, and see how recent scientific advances (both theoretical and methodological) have changed our view of how the mind works, and form ideas of how we should study it. We will exchange experiences and ideas about how to best combine artistic and scientific practices and ideas.

Seminar 1: Social minds (2.11.)

 What does it mean if we see sociality as the "default mode" of humans interacting with their environment and not as the top end of a tall ladder of elementary, individual functions? How are art and empathy linked?

Seminar 2: Dynamic minds (15.11.)

Statics of the dynamic mind: what changes if we look at the social minds in motion? In psychology and neuroscience we talk of states, e.g. "emotional states", or measure behaviours in trials where we assume the behaviour to switch on at the beginning and continue until the beep at the end. Performing arts know better: being static is a statement; it is not natural; it might even be dead.

 Seminar 3: Embodied minds (22.11.)

 One of the first extensions to cognitive science was the embodied approach: the mind/brain is a part of a body, and the body is not only for carrying the brain around. But embodiment often seems like a popular but empty buzzword; having learned so much about the mind since the inception of embodied cognition, what should embodied cognition 2.0 look like?