Thresholds are back
SOGLITUDES (2)
The body needs thresholds too
The threshold idea stems from the observation that the mind switches from one aspect to the next in a seemingly uninterrupted flow while still keeping the whole scene in focus. How come there are numerous aspects we must attend to one by one and still, we aware of the fact that we are sitting on a chair at the university in Boston?
Four years after the first thresholds project, this is the second outreach for a new publication. This time contributions will be shorter and more playful. And only in English.
The first publication attracted contributors from neuroscience, literature, art, film, historiography, ethnology, theatre, psychology. Everything was brilliant and excellent, but theory. In this time laps, I am sure those of you who have participated in the first volume of soglitudes over at Conserveries mémorielles have explored new applications and dimensions of the threshold idea and I hope I will have the joy of reading some of your new creations.
This time, the focus moves a little away from the mind and the thoughts and the theory, in order to explore the body and its movements in space and time.
Now, I want you to focus on a more experimental approach: the body and the senses need thresholds too.
I have spent these past years trying to understand philosophy of mind and cognitive psychology. Although it leaves me in awe and gives me cold sweats sometimes, it has led to the experimental approach to perception and thinking. By discovering how the body moves in space and time we think thresholds in a different manner. Like the black screen in between takes in movie making, the threshold acts like a pause, a moment of nothingness, a clean slate, the breathing pause the mind takes before it gives sense to what is perceived in pure experience. Whereas, we have focused on theorizing thresholds in cinema, theatre, neuroscience, literature, art, anthropology for the first volume, this time I am looking for possible practical applications of the theory.
What are the thresholds in walking, dancing, playing tennis or football? If we focus on how the body moves, do we lose track or do we focus better on what we are doing? Does the mind disconnect from the body when we are playing sports, or dancing, or singing, or when we are having sex?
When the body moves, does the head follow or does the body disconnect from thought for a while in order to be able to organize space?
The main themes that I would like to focus on are:
MUSIC
°do you think while you sing?
DANCE
°do you think while you dance?
SPORTS
° where does the mind go while you play?
SEX
° where does the body go then?
Please send me 100 words for now. On any of the above subjects or related ones that fit the threshold concept and the body.
I would like to have them by next week. So from today January 16th 2015 until the 23rd.
If you can add a photograph as well that would be even better. I will try to create an interactive patchwork with your contributions.
Let's see what comes out of it.
That’s it for now.
And it is only the beginning.
Send your contributions to [email protected]