The first International Conference on Kinaesthesia and Motion in Tampere, Finland - October 2- 4, 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

The infant, minutes after birth, is capable of imitating the gesture that it sees on the face of another person. The new born baby actively watches moving objects rather than stationary objects. Movement seems to be primacy to our perception from the very beginning. The importance of embodiment for understanding cognition has already been made in numerous ways but the meaning and relevance of movement has been largely unexplored. Aristotle says in Physics that nature has been defined as a principle of motion and change. The task is to understand what Aristotle means by this, and more generally: to investigate the role of movement in the constitution of reality and existence. How do we perceive and experience movement? What kind of role movement has in our everyday life? The conference takes seriously Aristotle’s argument and focuses on the different aspects of sensations of movement i.e. kinaesthesia.

The conference does not want to limit discussion on kinaesthesia in proprioception or the perception of muscular tensions. This philosophy-driven interdisciplinary conference encourages to discuss kinaesthesia whether sensations of motion are internal or exterior to the body, visual or tactic, real or virtual. In what ways are seeing and visual sense based on movement? Does speed dominate the development of current technology? What kind of role movement has when we identify objects in the environment? Why do we want to feel as if we were moving in playing computer games sitting still on a chair? Researchers working in the fields of Philosophy, Cognitive Sciences, Sport and Physical Education, Art and Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, History, Education, Psychology Psychiatry and Computer Sciences are encouraged to submit abstracts. Topics of interest include, although are not limited to, the following (in alphabetic order):

·        Emotion and motion

·        Expression, communication and movement

·        Gender and kinaesthesia

·        Intelligence and kinaesthesia

·        Kinaesthetic illusions and imagination

·        Kinaesthetic memory

·        Learning by moving

·        Motion of animals

·        Movement and change

·        Movement and arts

·        Sense modalities and kinaesthesia

·        Spatiality and motility

·        Technology and kinaesthesia

·        Voluntary and involuntary actions

Authors are invited to submit abstracts written in English for oral presentation. Abstract submission deadline is on 31 May 2008 and the authors will be notified of the outcome before 1 July 2008. You can submit abstracts and register for the conference via the congress website www.kinaesthesia.fi (April 1, 2008). In the websites you can also find information of travelling and accommodation.

The keynote speakers of the conference are Dr. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone and Professor Shaun Gallagher. Dr Maxine Sheets-Johnstone is an independent and interdisciplinary scholar affiliated with the Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon. Her most recent research interests include kinesthetic memory, an evolutionary semantics, death and human morality, and Paleolithic cave art. Professor Shaun Gallagher is Chair of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at The University of Central Florida. His research interests include phenomenology and the philosophy of mind, embodiment, neuropsychology, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of time.

More information:
Tel. +358 (0)3 3551 7574, jaana.parviainen@uta.fi