Agenda
Transmission in Motion – Tim Ingold, “On Doing Undergoing”
We are happy to announce that for our next TiM Seminar we have invited prof. Tim Ingold, who is going to talk about “On doing undergoing: Experience, Imagination, and the Principle of Habit”.
The seminar will take place on January 23rd, from 15:00 -17:00.
The location is again the Grote Zaal, at Munstraat 2A.
More information about the talk
We do many routine things in daily life without apparently giving them any thought. Often, we are scarcely even aware that we are doing them. With these operations, the more practiced we are at them, the less thought and attention they demand of us. They seem virtually automatic, to the extent that they could just as well be done by machine. Other things, however, such as playing a musical instrument or practicing a craft, entail intense concentration and a heightened awareness of the presence and movement of both the self and of others in the environment. The question is: how are we to distinguish bodily automatisms from the practiced mastery of a craft? Both are easily confused under the rubric of habit. Tim argues that theories of embodiment, which treat habit as a kind of sediment, beyond the reach of conscious deliberation, fail to provide an answer to this question. Drawing on the work of John Dewey, Tim argues instead for an alternative understanding of habit that rests on the way in which the practitioner, though actively engaged in the practice, is nevertheless inside it. Or in Dewey’s terms, the doing is also an undergoing; what we do is also done in us. And in this ‘doing undergoing’, in dwelling in habit, imagination and experience come together as one.
If you would like to join, please RSVP through this link or send an e-mail to tim@uu.nl.
After the talk, you are invited to join us for drinks at the theatre bar, at Muntstraat 2A.