Embodied Cognition, Acting and Performance

In this collection of essays, the four branches of radical cognitive science―embodied, embedded, enactive and ecological―will dialogue with performance, with particular focus on post-cognitivist approaches to understanding the embodied mind-in-society; de-emphasising the computational and representational metaphors; and embracing new conceptualisations grounded on the dynamic interactions of "brain, body and world". In our collection, radical cognitive science reaches out to areas of scholarship also explored in the fields of performance practice and training as we facilitate a new inter- and transdisciplinary discourse in which to jointly share and explore common reactions of embodied approaches to the lived mind. The essays originally published as a special issue in Connection Science.

Experience Bryon, PhD. is Senior Lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama specializing in Practice as Research and Interdisciplinary Performance, UK. She is also author of Integrative Performance: Practice and Theory for the Interdisciplinary Performer (Routledge 2014) and Performing Interdisciplinarity: Working Across Disciplinary Boundaries Through an Active Aesthetic (Routledge 2018).

J. Mark Bishop is Professor of Cognitive Computing at Goldsmiths and Director of TCIDA: The Centre for Intelligent Data Analytics. Mark also serves as a ‘co-opted expert on Artificial Intelligence’ for ICRAC: the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

Deirdre McLaughlin is a PhD candidate at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, UK. Deirdre has directed and performed in over 50 productions within the US and UK with companies including Shakespeare’s Globe, Battersea Arts Centre, and National Theatre Studio. Her research interests include applications of cognitive science to the actor’s process.

Jess Kaufman is practitioner-researcher in New York, USA, investigating experiences of meaning-making in audience responsive devising. She has been published in Theatre and Performance Design and ArtsPraxis, and her credits include Off-Broadway and US national tours. MA in Advanced Theatre Practice, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.