Margrethe Voll Storaas´ ph.d. defence successfully completed; opposition given

The last couple of days I have been in Oslo, in relation to the ph.d. defence of Margrethe Voll Storaas at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, at the occasion of her ph.d. thesis "As Agent and Environment: A Biosemiotic Understanding of the Moving Body within Ecology and Technology through Case Studies in Sport". I acted as first opponent, along with second opponent Kathinka Evers (Uppsala University, Sweden), while Ørnulf Seippel was internal committee member. Margrethe started the day by giving the trial lecture "The ecology of the non-human body in the Anthropocene: Comparing the human and non-human body", on our indication. She completed the ph.d. defence successfully. The day ended on her doctoral dinner at the restaurant Park 29 in downtown Oslo.

Involvement in ph.d. assessment and defense of Margrethe Voll Storaas

Earlier this year I have taken part in the assessment of the ph.d. thesis of Margrethe Voll Storaas for the  Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (specifically their Department of Sport and Social Sciences), along with Ørnulf Seippel and Kathinka Evers. In a couple of weeks I will act as first opponent at her public ph.d. defense, which has been scheduled for October 17th (see announcement).

Programme:

10.15–11.00 Trial lecture on the topic “The ecology of the non-human body in the Anthropocene: Comparing the human and non-human body" 

13.00–16.00 Public defense of the thesis "As Agent and Environment: A Biosemiotic Understanding of the Moving Body within Ecology and Technology through Case Studies in Sport" followed by a discussion 

In addition to in person attendance, it will also be possible to watch the defense live on the YouTube channel of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

8th Ex.phil. lecture given

Today I have given the 8th lecture in Ex.phil. this Autumn. The topic was the relation between body and mind.

Session chaired at NoSP2017

Today I have chaired the session 2D "Perspectives on the body: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Jonas, Merleau-Ponty" at the 15th Annual Conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP), held at NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. The session included papers by Sigurd Hverven, Alexandru Bejinariu, Ullrich M. Haase and Solveig Bøe.

Abstract for NoSP 2017: " The search image as link between sensation, perception and action"

I have just submitted the abstract below to NoSP 2017, the 15th annual conference of the Nordic Society for phenomenology, entitled "Phenomenology and the body - Contemporary perspectives". 

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The search image as link between sensation, perception and action

As part of his Umwelt theory, a theory on the subjective, experiential worlds of animals, Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) introduced the notion of the search image (Suchbild). A search image is an imagined object that an animal or human being has in mind as it searches for something. The search image plays a central role in what I have termed the mediated Umwelt, the aspect of Umwelt in which Umwelt objects are encountered indirectly by way of some mediation (e.g. memory, fantasy, anticipation). It is generally related to an animal´s agenda- or interest-driven matching of something it is searching for with something in its environment. Search images are key to understanding how perception works as distinguished from sensation, and how an animal´s perception and action are connected. The search image acts as an intermediary between perception and action, and between the mediated Umwelt and the core Umwelt, the aspect of Umwelt in which Umwelt objects are encountered directly. The imagined object has the form of a schema, and encountered objects may or may not be perceived as fitting with the anticipated schema. The perception of a match may furthermore be either correct or incorrect. Object recognition occurs when an encountered object is correctly perceived as fitting with an anticipated schema. But search images, with their implied schemata, may also be confused with actual perception images of encountered objects. The functioning of search images can help explain why it is that action-related brain activity appears to precede the experience of having made a choice of action. When an animal or a human being operates with a search image, we anticipate encountering the imagined object. We act not only in response to encountered objects, but also in response to imagined ones.

To review book "Den levende kroppen"

I have agreed to review Den levende kroppen (ed. Drude van der Fehr) for Salongen: Nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie.

No Bodily phenomenology

My abstract "Intercorporality and relational being: Nature considered as an intercorporal body (the body of all bodies)" has been rejected by the organizers of the conference Bodily phenomenology.

Contribution to the conference "Bodily Phenomenology"

I have just submitted my contribution to the conference Bodily Phenomenology, to be arranged in Sweden in May.

MORTEN TØNNESSEN
INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY AND SEMIOTICS, UNIVERSITY OF TARTU, ESTONIA

INTERCORPORALITY AND RELATIONAL BEING
NATURE CONSIDERED AS AN INTERCORPORAL BODY (THE BODY OF ALL BODIES)

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED TO THE CONFERENCE BODILY PHENOMENOLOGY
TO BE ARRANGED BY THE CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE
MAY 19-21, 2010
AT SÖDERTÖRN UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN.

The body and the world are obviously related. Not only is the body the immediate centre of the physical world for any given perceiving (and acting) subject. Not only is any perception of ‘the world’ necessarily mediated by the body (organism) of the perceiver. We can further observe that the living world (nature) is in actual fact constituted intercorporally, in other words by the numerous relations that exist between the countless bodies about which we have come to learn.

For me, as a biosemiotician, embodiment is perhaps the most central general topic possible. Consciousness is but the top of the iceberg – mind, in the elemental sense of awareness of something, is everywhere in nature, since every living being is capable of, and dependent on, interpreting, understanding and acting upon its relevant surroundings. Mind, then, is more-than-human, even more-than-animal, and embodied mind must in its most general sense be taken to signify the embodiment not necessarily of an anthropoid, more or less articulate consciousness, but of a highly diverse repertoire of oftentimes diffuse awarenesses.

This is nature. An intercorporal body – a global web of bodies attuned to each other and routinely in conflict with each other – the body of bodies. This is nature – where body relates to body, as partner, as predator, as prey – a world built on bodies all partaking in relational being, a kind of existence wherein the particular beings (you, me, Muki) are constituted in and by their relationships with others.

In the course of this talk, I will allude to elements of the philosophy of embodiment in the work of Jakob von Uexküll, David Abram, Gabriel Marcel and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. My broader project is that of contributing to the development of an Uexküllian phenomenology worthy of the designation semiotics of being.