La pedagogia del corpo in chiave semplessa
Abstract
The scientific elaboration that revolves around the concepts of body and corporeity
represents one of the objects of study of educational research that has given rise to a
new transdisciplinary perspective; through the training potential of the movement, a
pedagogy of corporeity emerges that questions "the existential dimension of the body
experienced during the unfolding of human experience" (Cambi, 2010). The different
pedagogical meanings of corporeity have made it possible to redefine the scientific link
between theory and practice in the educational field, through an open comparison with
research fields that have been considered incompatible for a long time. New
investigative paths aimed to bring two worlds traditionally considered distinct, trying to
put together a complex, systemic and interactive epistemological vision and integrating
different perspectives in the approach to thematic nuclei (Fraunfelder, 2011).
A pedagogy of the body is declined in the need for a search for the possible boundaries
of the formative dimension of corporeity and the definition of an educational space
whose identity form could be unclear due to a plurality of meanings attributable to the
motor phenomenon: "hinged on care on the (of the body as self-image; as beauty,
health, efficiency; as the cultivation of corporeity, so as to make it one's own, more and
more one's own) and on the dialectical (social and cultural) consciousness of corporeity:
which also means capable of resisting theoretical and practical reductionisms, to live
conflicts (and social and personal) on their own and to strive for a still personal
modeling of the body-ego-conscience ”(Cambi, 2010).
The Embodied Cognition approach, in overturning the classical neo-Cartesian
conception that considers mind, brain and body as separate entities, considers the mind
as a complex system that dynamically emerges from the brain and the body (Wilson,
2002); the key notion is action: cognition is constrained by the physical characteristics
of the body (Gibbs, 2006; Gallese, 2005; Rizzolatti, Sinigaglia, 2008). Bersalou (2008),
with Grounded Cognition, argues that modal simulations, body states and situated
action are the basis of cognitive processes; in order to effectively understand the
functioning of cognition, it is important to consider 4 domains: the sensory-motor
systems, the body, the physical environment and the social environment.
In this perspective, Berthoz's studies on “simplexity” are inserted, which redefine the
meanings of movement and attribute to the body the ability to define motor solutions
that are able to cope with the complexity of the system; in the didactic field this reflects
on the potential of the body which carries out vicarious and compensatory actions to
respond to specific needs (Sibilio, 2012).
In the theater of the twentieth century, in the same way, the new centrality of the actor
upsets the way of doing theater: the essence was always the text, the space, the
scenography, etc ... but everything was re-evaluated on the basis of thoughts and
emotions of man. Certainties collapse: the rejection of traditional and institutional
theater leads to the zeroing of knowledge and attention shifts to the process rather than
to the product. The actor becomes the subject and no longer the simple executor of the
production; laboratories, ateliers, research centers are configured as training experiences
for humans (even before the actor). Thus the foundations are laid for the birth of theater
pedagogy understood as a creative and innovative dimension that sees man placed at the
center of the social changes of his time, enhancing the educational spirit to the detriment
of the pure transmission of notion and technicalities. [edited by Author]