Gestural sense : art, neuroscience and linguistic embodiment

Abstract

In introducing this work it's useful to consider both the thematic threads that link the following chapters and the question of why an artist might choose to engage with the type of critical theoretical writing that is exemplified here. I will start by considering some of the threads that can be used to connect an eight year old reading Wittgenstein, "gesture-haptic writing", freestyle poetry, and unaided human flight. Two questions can help in identifying those threads. Firstly, what can each of these subjects tell us about the ways in which language acts-on and alters bodies? And secondly what are the implications of those alterations for the process of speculating on how language and the body might continue in a particularly productive and creative relationship of co-evolution? Or, to put it in a slightly more linear fashion, how might various language-based creative practices be employed as agents in the continued evolution of the body.

Date of Award	2009
Original language	English