Books in the Performance and Science: Interdisciplinary Dialogues series

" ... [this book] equips readers with a clear understanding of how research in cognitive neuroscience has illuminated and expanded traditional approaches to thinking about topics such as the performer, the spectator, space and time, culture, and the text."--Provided by publisher.

Theatre, Performance and Cognition introduces readers to the key debates, areas of research, and applications of the cognitive sciences to the humanities, and to theatre and performance in particular. It features the most exciting work being done at the intersection of theatre and cognitive science, containing both selected scientific studies that have been influential in the field, each introduced and contextualised by the editors, together with related scholarship from the field of theatre and performance that demonstrates some of the applications of the cognitive sciences to actor training, the rehearsal room and the realm of performance more generally.The three sections consider the principal areas of research and application in this interdisciplinary field, starting with a focus on language and meaning-making in which Shakespeare''s work and Tom Stoppard''s Arcadia are considered. In the second part which focuses on the body, chapters consider applications for actor and dance training, while the third part focuses on dynamic ecologies, of which the body is a part.

This international collection brings together scientists, scholars, and artist-researchers from four continents to explore the cognition of memory through the performing arts and examine artistic strategies that target cognitive processes of memory and learning. The strongly embodied and highly trained memory systems of performing artists render artistic practice a rich context for understanding how memory is formed, utilized, and adapted through interaction with others and active engagement with tasks, instruments and environments. Using methods of scientific experimentation, practice-based research, and analytical case studies that bridge disciplines, the authors pursue questions about the following subjects: * embodiment and amnesia in collectively distributed memory; * memory triggers in performance creation and reception; * the journey from explicit learning to implicit skill acquisition in performance training; * the relationship between memory and creative spontaneity; * memorization and gesture, * and the augmentation of identification through performance recall.

This is the first volume to provide a detailed introduction to some of the main areas of research and practice in the interdisciplinary field of art and neuroscience. With contributions from neuroscientists, theatre scholars and artists from seven countries, it offers a rich and rigorous array of perspectives as a springboard to further exploration. Divided into four parts, each prefaced by an expert editorial introduction, it examines:* Theatre as a space of relationships: a neurocognitive perspective* The spectator''s performative experience and ''embodied theatrology''* The complexity of theatre and human cognition* Interdisciplinary perspectives on applied performanceEach part includes contributions from international pioneers of interdisciplinarity in theatre scholarship, and from neuroscientists of world-renown researching the physiology of action, the mirror neuron mechanism, action perception, space perception, empathy and intersubjectivity.While illustrating the remarkable growth of interest in the performing arts for cognitive neuroscience, this volume also reveals the extraordinary richness of exchange and debate born out of different approaches to the topics.

This international collection brings together scientists, scholars and artist-researchers to explore the cognition of memory through the performing arts and examine artistic strategies that target cognitive processes of memory. The strongly embodied and highly trained memory systems of performing artists render artistic practice a rich context for understanding how memory is formed, utilized and adapted through interaction with others, instruments and environments. Using experimental, interpretive and Practice-as-Research methods that bridge disciplines, the authors provide overview chapters and case studies of subjects such as:* collectively and environmentally distributed memory in the performing arts;* autobiographical memory triggers in performance creation and reception;* the journey from learning to memory in performance training;* the relationship between memory, awareness and creative spontaneity, and* memorization and embodied or structural analysis of scores and scripts.This volume provides an unprecedented resource for scientists, scholars, artists, teachers and students looking for insight into the cognition of memory in the arts, strategies of learning and performance, and interdisciplinary research methodology.