Ecological psychology and enactivism, despite sharing roots in embodied cognition, have diverged in how they understand embodied experience. This paper argues that recognizing these differences can lead to a more integrated approach to agency, social cognition, and art reception. The authors propose a synergy where ecological psychology incorporates felt experience as a dynamic element in its models, while enactivism accounts for directly perceived relations arising from enactments in the social and physical world. Such complementarity is not only possible but already emerging, potentially overcoming current divisions of responsibility in cognitive science.
Watching a performance is an active, embodied, and interactive experience in which meaning is co-created between performer and spectator, not passively received. This view aligns with enaction, a comprehensive approach to cognition rooted in biology, dynamic systems theory, and phenomenology. Performance studies, originating in anthropology and philosophical pragmatics, shares similarities with enactivism but also differs due to their distinct intellectual genealogies. This article examines both common ground and differences between the two fields, clarifies misunderstandings, and aims to open pathways for future connections.