ENACTIVISM AND PERFORMANCE ART: PUTTING ON DISPLAY OUR PERCEPTION
Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philosophia October 30, 2021 DOI: 10.24193/subbphil.2021.2s.08 (opens in new tab)
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractPerception, particularly vision, is not merely a brain-bound process but an active, participatory endeavor we engage in collectively. Drawing on performance art, the author argues that seeing is something we do together, not alone. Performance art's features—an autopoietic feedback loop, an exchange between spectator and performer, and a fluid subject-object relationship—serve as a model for understanding perception as inherently relational, participative, and transformative. This theoretical paper reinterprets perception as a shared, dynamic activity rather than a passive reception of stimuli.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Argues that perception, modeled on the performing arts, is constitutively relational, participative, and transformative, and that seeing is something done together rather than alone. |
Abstract
Seeing, according to the enactive approach, is not something that happens inside our brain, rather it is something we do, but, as I will argue thanks to the performance art, it is something we do together. The performing arts, with their characteristics – autopoietic feed-back loop, spectator/performer exchange, oscillation of the dichotomous subject-object pair - constitute a model through which to investigate the nature of our perception, which is constitutively relational, participative, and transformative.