1Our Sensing Bodies

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding Live Theatrical ExperienceTheatrical form is

an expression of contemporary thought processes; the world changes, and so too do our
ways of representing it. Virtual technology has transformed modes of creating and viewing
art, thrusting the art world into a state of flux where live art events often occur in unfamiliar
environments and where the attendant may not be able to judge the work by utilizing
conventional analytical modes. An understanding of physiology and neurology of the
human body as a receiver of outside stimuli can assist the artist in using sensorial stimuli to
compose a live theatrical event and create an in-between state of experience and
awareness. Likewise, the attendant can be aided in the process of restructuring those
stimuli through cognitive thought processes for a visceral analysis of the event. I will explore
how application of theories drawn from cognitive science and physiology affect live art
practice and the attendant’s experience of the performance. To be an “attendant” of a live
theatrical performance does not necessarily imply conscious awareness of sensorial
stimulation. Whereas our bodies are constantly attendant to the world around us, they note
change and decide whether or not to respond. Mimesis, then, stimulates our brains. As
Michael Gazzanga argues, to stimulate the brain is to constantly remodel its neural
pathways to accommodate and store new information.1Theatre Studies has a long tradition
of speaking about the visual in relation to art practice that takes into consideration
physiology as well as perception and psychology. As advances in neurobiology and neuro-
psychology continue to elucidate for us many of our assumptions about theatrical and visual
representation, it is important that we look to these scientific hypotheses as we investigate
contemporary live performance. Many of the ideas and concepts outlined here from
neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology are generalized and basic from a scientific
standpoint; however, they serve to instigate a series of questions about the relationship
between sensorial perception and performance. Scientific discoveries are rapidly changing
our understanding of the human brain and the ways in which we experience and understand
the world. Those from whose work I draw have extrapolated the conclusions of published
scientific experiments to explain in layman’s terms the status of brain science today. It is
not my intent to add to that body of knowledge, but rather to consider what implications
these scientific explanations of the senses can suggest to theatre and performance scholars
and to practitioners. There are already a number of theatre scholars working on various
approaches that articulate systematically the content of seminal cognitive science
researches.2 Taken together, all of these studies provide the foundation for understanding
the ways in which cognitive neuroscience can provide a new framework for understanding
theatrical expression. To understand the ways in which stimulation of human brain
processes can be used in the creation and interpretation of theatrical and performance
practice, we need to consider how our perception and processing systems function.
Physiology and cognitive science provide a framework for theatre studies to consider and
apply our understanding of mimesis and its significance. The usefulness of vision, hearing,
touch, taste, and smell lies in how they each aid cognition, and for our purposes, it is how
they aid the creation, reception, and interpretation of mimetic representation.

The brain is what it is because of the structural and functional properties of neurons. It
contains between one billion and one trillion neurons that signal by transmitting electrical
impulses along their axons. It is through these impulses that we perceive, monitor, and
interpret the data that our senses collect. The fragments of sensations that sight, touch,
hearing, taste, and smell present to the nervous system are the means by which we create
the world around us. Typical neurons are made up of three parts: its dendrites, the cell
body, and the axon. Dendrites branch out to obtain information from other neurons and
bring it to the cell body. The cell body contains the nucleus of the cell and DNA. Finally, the
axon brings information away from the cell body to other neurons. It is a cable of sorts that
can reach the extremities. A synapse is the point of communication between one neuron
and another. They transmit electrical impulses towards the dendrites of the neighboring
neurons. The process is like a relay race, passing messages from the senses to each neuron
until the message reaches the brain for processing. All of the senses are sending fragments
of information that the brain puts together into a percept. A neuron receives either an
excitatory signal that triggers it to fire off and send a message to the next neuron or an
inhibitory signal that tries to prevent the firing. Neuronal messages can be turned on and
shut off depending on how much stimuli fuel them. Because neurons do not touch, they
depend on chemical massagers to bridge the gap of the synapse to excite or inhibit action.
It is like a giant stadium wave cresting and falling into a frenzy of activity. When fewer
people participate, the wave dies out. All we sense and perceive relies on this chemical
process, whose goal is cognition.3To understand how cognition works, we first must
familiarize ourselves with the basic mechanics of the brain and the senses, because they
provide the input that cognition uses to create thought. The brain is one of the largest of
adult organs, consisting of over one hundred billion neurons and weighing about three
pounds. It is typically divided into four parts: the cerebrum; the cerebellum; the
diencephalon (thalamus and hypothalamus); and the brain stem (medulla oblongata, pons,
midbrain), which is an extension of the spinal cord.The most important part for our
purposes is the cerebrum because it is most closely related to the receiving and processing
of the senses. We are what we are because within the human cortex lies our sensory
capacities and sensitivities to the external world, our motor skills, our aptitudes for
reasoning and imagining, and our unique language abilities. The cerebrum is made up of
two sides, the right and left cerebral hemispheres, which are interconnected by the corpus
callosum. Though asymmetrical, the two hemispheres are mirrored, each with centers for
receiving sensory (afferent) information and for initiating motor (efferent) responses. The
cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the cerebral hemispheres, which is composed of
gray matter. It also is divided into two hemispheres, both of which are able to analyze
sensory data, perform memory functions, learn new information, form thoughts, and make
decisions. The cortex is divided into four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital
(named after the cranial bones under which they are situated). The frontal lobe is involved
in planning, organizing, problem solving, the ability to concentrate and to attend,
personality, and a variety of higher cognitive functions including behavior and emotions.
The parietal lobes contain the primary sensory cortex, which controls sensation (touch,
pressure). Behind the primary sensory cortex is a large association area that controls fine
sensation (judgment of texture, weight, size, shape). The temporal lobes allow us to tell the
smell of grease paint from the smell of bacon grease and a hooting owl from a car horn.
They also help in sorting new information and are believed to be responsible for short-term
memory, as well as being responsible for visual reception and processing. It also contains
association areas that help in the visual recognition of shapes and colors. In summary, the
cerebrum gives us awareness of one’s self and one’s environment, thought, reasoning and
memory, vision, hearing, touch, speech, language, motor control, and emotions. It controls
our responses to the theatrical events that we are attendant to.