Discussion

The aim of the symposium is to explore the concept of reduction primarily from a phenomenological perspective, as a movement towards the cornerstones of lived experience, as an attempt to grasp the primary encounter between self and world through the senses, and as an articulation of the link between embodied experience and knowledge.

Phenomenological reduction is not merely a theoretical concept but a practice or exercise. As developed by Edmund Husserl, phenomenology focuses on the operations performed by ‘living bodies’ in the most concrete and precise way, it is an ‘embodied approach to the construction of meaning’ (Susan Kozel 2007). Far from being just a theory resorting to reflection and analysis, or a merely operational method, phenomenology constantly integrates the intellect with sensory experience and is essentially performative. If the performative describes those actions in which one needs to figure out what one is doing whilst doing it, then phenomenological reduction is a performative approach to knowledge, an exercise of thought.

‘Practices of reduction’ refers to the idea of doing, of a poietic aspect through which different means approximate the embodied experience of the world. The symposium will thus focus on the possibilities that different means of expression (such as literature, dance, and music) afford in conveying and producingembodied experiences and will address the intersections of these forms of expression with the different technologies that make them possible nowadays, especially digital and AR technologies.

The first day of the symposium will see the opening of the exhibition Catalysts – Somatic Resonance. Using AI and mixed reality techniques, the installation will immerse the audience in a choreographed somatic experience.