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The Connective Trance as a Perceptual Condition of Aesthetic Experience

Mario Enrique Medina

preprint DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6136669 (opens in new tab)

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Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper
Key points Argues that aesthetic experience depends on suspending immediate interpretation to activate heightened embodied receptivity, and proposes "Connective Trance"—a condition where sensory, symbolic, and affective dimensions converge—as a framework in which meaning emerges as lived experience rather than rational decoding.

Abstract

This article proposes Connective Trance as an original conceptual framework for the analysis of aesthetic experience. Drawing on phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty), complexity theory (Morin), and analytical psychology (Jung), the paper argues that aesthetic experience requires a suspension of interpretative immediacy in order to activate a state of heightened embodied receptivity. The concept of Connective Trance is introduced as a perceptual and cognitive condition in which sensory, symbolic, and affective dimensions converge, allowing meaning to emerge as lived experience rather than as rational decoding. The article positions Connective Trance as a theoretical tool for contemporary art analysis and spectatorship studies.

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