RefleCT/Xion from enaction to “daily enaction”

Overview & Synopsis

The concept of enaction deals with a bodily experience, an action knowledge. The body-inmovement is not a pure figure of action. It is, first of all, interaction with our environment that reveals us the limits of our own bodies and also the qualities of the space that surrounds us. The traditional approach to enaction was by notion of “interface”, however the purpose of this approach is not to point out the tension that exists between body and space but rather the possible devices and mechanisms that can act upon this relationship. This interface comes in the form of any tool manipulated by the hand, to acquire more complex technical expressions, thanks largely to computer equipment. The concept of enaction is thus translated in terms of inter-relation between man and machine. This interface (man / machine) is dedicated sometimes to emphasize certain qualities of a space but also to the creation of a virtual space that is superimposed on the physical context. In contrast to these ‘indirect' modes, there exists a primitive and direct enaction, that of the bodily experience of space. The interrelationship of man and machine is replaced by the simple interaction between man and space. By moving, touching, listening, watching and feeling, the body ‘understands' and decodes knowingly and reads extensively its surroundings. Browsing an area is the first condition of any appropriation. Some senses allow us ‘to touch by distance' but others require a direct contact-our skin, the last frontier before the world, is an essential gatherer of information about our environment. The body's motor acts offer us a dynamic reading of our environment where its sensitive variations (thermal, aerolics, light, sound, smell...) stimulate our perceptions and reveal the various possible readings of a space.