Embodied Cognition in Performance
Ana Hedberg Olenina, Faculty Associate, Center for Film, Media, and Popular Culture
Bonnie Eckard, Professor, School of Film, Dance and Theatre
Eric Amazeen, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Natalia Dounskaia, Associate Professor, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion
Jason Papenfuss, PhD Student, School of Sustainability
This research cluster will examine current research in performance theory, phenomenology, cognitive psychology, and the neuroscience of movement in order to develop a fuller understanding of the role that motion and proprioception plays in cognitive and affective processes. In launching an interdisciplinary, collaborative think tank focused on embodiment, they seek to lay the theoretical groundwork for collaborative research and pilot an experimental study. Their goal is to develop a method for investigating the way in which movement practices developed in the context of actors’ training and physical therapy (Michael Chekhov, Anne Bogart, Alexander Technique, and Feldenkreis) change the subjects’ mental body schema and expand their capability of solving new cognitive tasks in the physical world.