Four applications of embodied cognition

This article presents the views of four sets of authors, each taking concepts of embodied cognition into problem spaces where the new paradigm can be applied. The first considers consequences of embodied cognition on the legal system. The second explores how embodied cognition can change how we interpret and interact with art and literature. The third examines how we move through archi- tectural spaces from an embodied cognition perspective. And the fourth addresses how music cogni- tion is influenced by the approach. Each contribution is brief. They are meant to suggest the potential reach of embodied cognition, increase the visibility of applications, and inspire potential avenues for research

De las catacumbas a los últimos confines: violencia, sentido y representación en los periplos del martirio

En este trabajo propongo un análisis transversal de las figuras del mártir y del martirio. Recurriendo a la noción de mediación, en la primera parte analizo el rol protagónico de las representaciones del martirio en las prácticas de la memoria durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVI. Analizo algunas de las condiciones que contribuyeron a la emergencia de una "cultura del martirio" y el rol de las mediaciones en tal surgimiento. En la segunda parte, estudio la forma en que el (re)descubrimiento de las catacumbas romanas, abrió un campo de producción de sentido en torno a la figura del martirio. En la tercera parte, centrándome en la Compañía de Jesús, analizo algunas mediaciones a través de las cuáles las figuras del martirio transgredieron las fronteras de iglesias y conventos para proyectarse a los últimos confines en un mundo en plena expansión.Neste artigo proponho uma análise transversal das figuras do mártir e do martírio. Usando a noção de mediação, na primeira parte eu tento analisar o papel de liderança de representações de martírio em práticas de memória durante a segunda metade do século XVI. Eu analiso algumas das condições que contribuíram para o surgimento de uma "cultura do martírio" e o papel da mediação nesta emergência. Na segunda parte, eu estudo como a (re) descoberta das catacumbas romanas abriu um campo de produção de significados em torno da figura do martírio. Na terceira parte, com foco na Companhia de Jesus, analiso algumas mediações pelas quais as representações do martírio transgrediram as fronteiras de igrejas e conventos para se projetar nas fronteiras de um mundo em plena expansão mundial.This paper proposes a cross-sectional analysis of martyr and martyrdom. Through the notion of mediation, in the first part I analyze the leading role of representations of martyrdom in memory practices during the second half of the sixteenth century. I analyze some of the conditions that contributed to the emergence of a "martyrdom's culture" and the role of mediation in such emergence. The second part studies how the (re)discovery of the Roman catacombs encouraged the production of meanings around the figure of martyrdom. In the third part, focusing on the Society of Jesus, I analyze a few instances of mediation through which the figures of martyrdom transgressed the boundaries of churches and convents to project themselves to the last frontiers of a world in full expansion.Fil: Salamanca Villamizar, Carlos Arturo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

The impact of the Netherlandish landscape tradition on poetry and painting in early modern England

Copyright © 2013 The University of Chicago Press.The relationship between poetry and painting has been one of the most debated issues in the history of criticism. The present article explores this problematic relationship in the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, taking into account theories of rhetoric, visual perception, and art. It analyzes a rare case in which a specific school of painting directly inspired poetry: in particular, the ways in which the Netherlandish landscape tradition influenced natural descriptions in the poem Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622) by Michael Drayton (1563–1631). Drayton — under the influence of the artistic principles of landscape depiction as explained in Henry Peacham’s art manuals, as well as of direct observation of Dutch and Flemish landscape prints and paintings — successfully managed to render pictorial landscapes into poetry. Through practical examples, this essay will thoroughly demonstrate that rhetoric is capable of emulating pictorial styles in a way that presupposes specialized art-historical knowledge, and that pictorialism can be the complex product as much of poetry and rhetoric as of painting and art-theoretical vocabulary

Empathy, engagement, entrainment: the interaction dynamics of aesthetic experience

A recent version of the view that aesthetic experience is based in empathy as inner imitation explains aesthetic experience as the automatic simulation of actions, emotions, and bodily sensations depicted in an artwork by motor neurons in the brain. Criticizing the simulation theory for committing to an erroneous concept of empathy and failing to distinguish regular from aesthetic experiences of art, I advance an alternative, dynamic approach and claim that aesthetic experience is enacted and skillful, based in the recognition of others’ experiences as distinct from one’s own. In combining insights from mainly psychology, phenomenology, and cognitive science, the dynamic approach aims to explain the emergence of aesthetic experience in terms of the reciprocal interaction between viewer and artwork. I argue that aesthetic experience emerges by participatory sense-making and revolves around movement as a means for creating meaning. While entrainment merely plays a preparatory part in this, aesthetic engagement constitutes the phenomenological side of coupling to an artwork and provides the context for exploration, and eventually for moving, seeing, and feeling with art. I submit that aesthetic experience emerges from bodily and emotional engagement with works of art via the complementary processes of the perception–action and motion–emotion loops. The former involves the embodied visual exploration of an artwork in physical space, and progressively structures and organizes visual experience by way of perceptual feedback from body movements made in response to the artwork. The latter concerns the movement qualities and shapes of implicit and explicit bodily responses to an artwork that cue emotion and thereby modulate over-all affect and attitude. The two processes cause the viewer to bodily and emotionally move with and be moved by individual works of art, and consequently to recognize another psychological orientation than her own, which explains how art can cause feelings of insight or awe and disclose aspects of life that are unfamiliar or novel to the viewer

A Shared Global Heritage. Architectural History, Conservation, and Preservation

A series of studies on fascinating cases in architectural history, the essays in this collection reveal the complexity of the current issues in the field, draw attention to the value of architectural heritage and the risks it faces, and suggest possible interpretations as well as alternative methods in the preservation, conservation, reconstruction, and use of architectural heritage. Each essayist has been in residence at Columbia's Italian Academy with a fellowship supported by the Sidney J. Weinberg Jr. Foundation. Edited by B. Faedda Authors: S. Al-Qaisi, P. Aykac, S. Crane, G. de Felice, D. La Monica, F. Marcorin, C. Ruggero, A. Zunic

Can the Heterosexual HIV Epidemic be Eliminated in South Africa Using Combination Prevention? A Modeling Analysis

Little is known about how combining efficacious HIV prevention interventions could lead to HIV elimination. We used an agent-based simulation model, the HIV Calibrated Dynamic Model (HIV-CDM), to assess the potential for HIV elimination in South Africa. We examined several scenarios (from continuation of current status quo to perfect targets) with differing combinations of male condoms, adult male circumcision, HIV testing, and early antiretroviral therapy (ART). We varied parameters including: proportion of adult males circumcised, frequency of condom use in sex acts, HIV test acceptance, linkage to care, ART initiation criteria, ART suppression rates, and loss to follow up. Maintaining current levels of combination prevention will lead to increasing HIV incidence and prevalence while the perfect combination scenario is projected to eliminate HIV on a 50-year time scale from 2013 to 2063. Perfecting testing and treatment, without changing condom use or circumcision rates, resulted in 89% incidence reduction but not elimination. Universal adult male circumcision alone resulted in a 21% incidence reduction within 20 years. Substantial decreases in HIV incidence are possible from sufficient uptake of both primary prevention and ART, but with continuation of the status quo, HIV elimination in South Africa is unlikely within a 50-year time scale

Sensitivity to differences in the motor origin of drawings:from human to robot

This study explores the idea that an observer is sensitive to differences in the static traces of drawings that are due to differences in motor origin. In particular, our aim was to test if an observer is able to discriminate between drawings made by a robot and by a human in the case where the drawings contain salient kinematic cues for discrimination and in the case where the drawings only contain more subtle kinematic cues. We hypothesized that participants would be able to correctly attribute the drawing to a human or a robot origin when salient kinematic cues are present. In addition, our study shows that observers are also able to detect the producer behind the drawings in the absence of these salient kinematic cues. The design was such that in the absence of salient kinematic cues, the drawings are visually very similar, i.e. only differing in subtle kinematic differences. Observers thus had to rely on these subtle kinematic differences in the line trajectories between drawings. However, not only motor origin (human versus robot) but also motor style (natural versus mechanic) plays a role in attributing a drawing to the correct producer, because participants scored less high when the human hand draws in a relatively mechanical way. Overall, this study suggests that observers are sensitive to subtle kinematic differences between visually similar marks in drawings that have a different motor origin. We offer some possible interpretations inspired by the idea of "motor resonance''

When Art Moves the Eyes: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study

The aim of this study was to investigate, using eye-tracking technique, the influence of bottom-up and top-down processes on visual behavior while subjects, na \u308\u131ve to art criticism, were presented with representational paintings. Forty-two subjects viewed color and black and white paintings (Color) categorized as dynamic or static (Dynamism) (bottom-up processes). Half of the images represented natural environments and half human subjects (Content); all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment conditions (Task) (top-down processes). Results on gazing behavior showed that content-related top-down processes prevailed over low-level visually-driven bottom-up processes when a human subject is represented in the painting. On the contrary, bottom-up processes, mediated by low-level visual features, particularly affected gazing behavior when looking at nature-content images. We discuss our results proposing a reconsideration of the definition of content-related top-down processes in accordance with the concept of embodied simulation in art perception