A study in the cognition of individuals’ identity: Solving the problem of singular cognition in object and agent tracking

This article compares the ability to track individuals lacking mental states with the ability to track intentional agents. It explains why reference to individuals raises the problem of explaining how cognitive agents track unique individuals and in what sense reference is based on procedures of perceptual-motor and epistemic tracking. We suggest applying the notion of singular-files from theories in perception and semantics to the problem of tracking intentional agents. In order to elucidate the nature of agent-files, three views of the relation between object- and agent-tracking are distinguished: the Independence, Deflationary and Organism-Dependence Views. The correct view is argued to be the latter, which states that perceptual and epistemic tracking of a unique human organism requires tracking both its spatio-temporal object-properties and its agent-properties

Elogio de Naomi Kawase

Este texto fue redactado en 2004; la versión que publicamos incorpora algunos añadidos posteriores del propio autor.Este ensayo del artista y crítico francés Érik Bullot recorre una serie de motivos que atraviesan las películas de la cineasta japonesa Naomi Kawase. Bullot estudia su relación con la fotografía y el cine de autor, así como la mezcla de géneros (documental, diario, relato íntimo, video de artista, meditación poética, autobiografía, ensayo) y sus grandes temas: la huella, la desaparición, el abandono o la infancia.This essay by French artist and critic Érik Bullot traces the evolution of a set of issues in the films by Japanese Film-maker Naomi Kawase. Bullot analizes Kawase's relation with photography and independent cinema, her mix of genres (documentary, diary, intimate narratives, art video, poetic meditation, autobiography, essay) and the main topics she tackles: traces, disappearances, abandonment and childhood

Langue des oiseaux

Traduire le chant des oiseaux est une activité complexe et paradoxale. Ornithologues, poètes, artistes ont utilisé de nombreuses techniques à cette fin : l'onomatopée, le mimologisme, la notation, la transposition musicale, l'imitation, l'enregistrement et le sonogramme, l'interprétation phonétique d'inspiration ésotérique, à mi-chemin de la transcription et de l'interprétation. Autant de techniques qui rappellent la traduction entre les arts. La frontière entre les espèces est-elle comparable à la séparation entre les arts ? Passer d'un art à l'autre, traduire un poème en symphonie ou un tableau en sculpture, relèvent-ils d'une communication entre les espèces ? Cet article propose une cartographie des modes de traduction du chant des oiseaux comme une allégorie des relations entre les médiums.To translate bird songs is a complex and paradoxical issue. Ornithologists, poets, artists have used a lot of tricks for this purpose: onomatopoeia, mimologism, musical notation, musical composition, imitation, sonogram, esoteric interpretation, that lie midway between transcription and interpretation. All these techniques recall the translation between the arts. Is the border between species comparable with the frontiers that exist between the arts? Switching from one medium to another, translating a poem into a symphony or a painting into a sculpture: do not these gestures belong to an interspecies communication? This article proposes a survey of the different modes of translating bird songs as an allegory of relationships between mediums

Auditory and cross-modal attention for the cognitive access to objects

This article aims at studying how we track and identify objects on the basis of multimodal perception. It belongs to ‘procedural' theories according to which demonstrative identification depends on using procedures of perceptual attention (e.g., Campbell, 2002; Clark, 2000; Evans, 1982; Pylyshyn, 2003; Ullman, 1984). In contrast to prevalent views according to which demonstrative identification is primarily based on the orienting of visual attention to the target object itself (Campbell, 2002: 115-16), I shall investigate an alternative Crossmodal View. According to the Crossmodal View, demonstrative identification depends more fundamentally on crossmodal attention. I shall present an argument maintaining namely that perceivers routinely use the coordinating ability of crossmodal attention to retrieve the continuity and uniqueness of the spatiotemporal path of the target object of their identification acts. The analysis will focus on examples of crossmodal links between audition and vision