[Xmca-l] Re: Having an experience

Andy Blunden ablunden@mira.net
Fri Jul 17 20:44:04 PDT 2015


I couldn't tell you that, Beth.
On Mike's suggestion, you will recall, the discussion of 
perezhivanie was progressed, avoiding cross-cultural 
difficulties, by a discussion of films!
There is a movie called "An Education," and there is a 
passage in this movie where the young heroine has this 
experience, following the revelation of how she has been 
deceived and exploited. It is the moment of 
self-transformation, but that transformation is extended 
perhaps over a period of 24 hours, in silence, in that kind 
of state. The first movie that was discussed was "Brief 
Encounter" and here that moment of time standing still comes 
at the end of the movie when the heroine reflects on an 
exciting affair and her life with her nice boring husband 
and sees that her life is best just as it is and lets go of 
her romanticism. In my own life, I recall several such 
time-standing-still moments of transformation. But in none 
of these cases was there a therapist involved. It is an open 
question for me, if you want to give a different name 
("meta-perezhivanie") to that perezhivanie where the person 
is able to reflect upon their own experience without the aid 
of another.

Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
On 18/07/2015 1:25 PM, Beth Ferholt wrote:
> Which stage according to Vasilyuk's stages is the standing 
> still?  Redemption or the smack middle of repentance, when 
> you can see both directions at once?  Beth
>
> On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 11:11 PM, Andy Blunden 
> <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>
>     According to Mikhail Munipov (whom you have met on
>     FaceBook, Beth) that process of "life standing still"
>     is characteristic of the cathartic moment of a
>     perezhivanie.
>     And David, if I associate catharsis with perezhivanie
>     I am more referring to its meaning in Greek drama, not
>     19th century medicine or Freudian psychoanalysis, all
>     of these being derivatives of the original Greek, I think,
>
>     Andy
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     *Andy Blunden*
>     http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>     <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>     On 18/07/2015 1:03 PM, Beth Ferholt wrote:
>
>         Yes, this really makes sense!  So it is the doing
>         that is the practical energy.  SO Marx was writing
>         about a method of perezhivanie?
>
>         I may be conflating things but I am trying to
>         piece together several pieces (like how in a big
>         city you know a whole neighborhood as a world unto
>         itself, and then you find out it is in the same
>         area as another neighborhood that you know well --
>         but you did not know they were connected -- ).
>
>         Actually that process of piecing together across
>         the gaps is also related to what we are talking
>         about.  Of course. When you age in a city you also
>         have the depth of the memories in layers at a
>         given place, and this stringing together across
>         time and place is what Virginia Woolf calls life:
>         moments in which "life stands still her" strung
>         together like a strand of pearls = with gaps
>         between them.
>
>         Beth
>
>         On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 10:42 PM, Andy Blunden
>         <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>> wrote:
>
>             Like you, Beth, I have found this xmca thread
>             particularly exciting!
>             There is one thing I'd like to add, which is
>         implicit
>             in Mike's quote from Marx:
>         https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm#art
>             which is that Dewey holds an experience to be both
>             suffering and *doing* [Tatigkeit in German].
>             The doing means that an experience (to be an
>             experience, and stand out from the background of
>             experience, have significance and form a whole)
>             entails wilfully changing the world, even if that
>             changing is trivial, such as changing other
>         people's
>             attitudes to you or most trivially changing
>         how you
>             henceforth interact with a certain kind of
>         situation,
>             person or whatever. But doing is doing, it is
>         not just
>             going through the motions or habit. And that
>         is why
>             experiences in this sense are so important to the
>             development of the personality and the world,
>
>             Andy
>         ------------------------------------------------------------
>             *Andy Blunden*
>         http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>             <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>
>             On 18/07/2015 4:40 AM, Beth Ferholt wrote:
>
>                 This chain of ideas is the closest I have ever
>                 felt to what interests me
>                 most.  It covers all the interests that
>         brought me
>                 first to play and then
>                 to the playworlds and then to
>         perezhivanie.      Before I went to LCHC I was a
>                 preschool teacher and this is a profession
>         that I
>                 think can be described as
>                 being, in its first part, responsible for
>                 reflecting upon the 'having an
>                 experience' that is happening all around
>         you every
>                 day (time is so
>                 condensed for young children so it is
>         happening
>                 all the time) so that you
>                 can support the self-creation beings who
>         are able
>                 to "have an experience''?
>
>                 Like with Greg's students, as a preschool
>         teacher
>                 you find that what is
>                 most important is to describe what is
>         happening in
>                 a way that is true to
>                 the children's experiences. Vivian Paley
>         shows us
>                 how to do this.  If you
>                 don;t do this you find dealing with the
>         Golem who
>                 has had the words that
>                 give it life removed from its mouth: you
>         just have
>                 dirt, nothing even
>                 remotely related to the Golem, not even
>         weight.
>
>                 I think it is the teacher/artists who can
>         find for
>                 us those properties that
>                 will characterize the experience as a
>         whole. What
>                 Monica named 'preschool
>                 didactics from within' is a process of working
>                 with these people in
>                 research. This sounds like 5D.
>
>                 Andy, Vygotsky is talking about the the two
>                 purposes of art criticism.  One
>                 is entirely in the domain of social life,
>         he says,
>                 guiding what art creates
>                 in its audience in useful directions.  The
>         other
>                 is to 'conserve the effect
>                 of art as art'.  He says we know this is
>         needed,
>                 because art is a unity,
>                 and without the whole criticism is not
>         related to
>                 art -- he calls what we
>                 have left, without the unity, a wound.  But
>                 criticism of art treats art as
>                 a parliamentary speech -- often -- he
>         says.      Vygtosky shows how to avoid
>                 this in the chapter on Bunin's short story.
>
>                 As a preschool teacher you know that art
>         is life
>                 because if you forget this
>                 then you have unhappy children and your job is
>                 impossible, or worse.  As an
>                 researcher, every time you hit something
>         hard you
>                 can revert to the first
>                 purpose of art/life criticism, or anyhow
>         to the
>                 part that does not conserve
>                 the effect, without any consequences on your
>                 livelihood.  If we could have
>                 a system of science that makes it
>         impossible to
>                 leave the hardest questions
>                 to the first purpose of criticism, then we
>         could
>                 have so many people
>                 working on these hardest questions in a
>         meaningful
>                 way, but I do not know
>                 how to do this even in my own work.
>
>                 Except one way is to place the desires of the
>                 teachers and children before
>                 your own.  This is sort of a method of love or
>                 empathy.  Kiyo suggested The
>                 Method of Hope by Miyazaki (no relation I
>         think)
>                 and this is related, also
>                 Edith Turner's work where she sees the reality
>                 that the people she is
>                 studying see.
>
>                 Maybe it is a method of perezhivanie.
>
>                 Beth
>
>
>                 On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Alfredo
>         Jornet
>                 Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
>         <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>         <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
>         <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>>>
>                 wrote:
>
>                     Mike, could you elaborate on that?
>
>                     Alfredo
>                     ________________________________________
>                     From:
>                    
>         xmca-l-bounces+a.g.jornet=iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                     <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>                    
>         <xmca-l-bounces+a.g.jornet=iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                     <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>>> on
>                     behalf of
>                     mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu> <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>>>
>                     Sent: 17 July 2015 19:40
>                     To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>                     Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Having an experience
>
>                     Alfredo--
>
>                     a "method of organization" seems close
>         to a
>                     synonym for design.
>
>                     mike
>
>                     On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 9:42 AM, Alfredo
>                     Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
>         <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>                     <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
>         <mailto:a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>>>
>
>                     wrote:
>
>                         I like very much how Greg brings in a
>                         methodological issue here with his
>                         mention about ethnography and his
>         reading
>                         of "fidelity"; that the latter
>
>                     is
>
>                         not about representing exactly,
>         but about
>                         describing events in terms of
>                         consequences for the participants,
>         which
>                         they display for each other in
>                         their actual practice.
>
>                         This methodological aspect makes
>         me think
>                         that the the notion of ANALYSIS
>                         BY UNITS, which has been discussed
>         in xmca
>                         before, is useful here. Unit
>                         analysis reminds us that, as units,
>                         experiences, as concrete and real
>                         phenomena, have some form of
>         organization
>                         that extends in time. That is
>                         why, if I understood the
>         discussion below
>                         correctly, Beth is warned not
>
>                     to
>
>                         think of the unit of experience as
>         a unit
>                         "in itself".
>
>                         Dewey and Bentley 1949 made the
>                         differentiation between
>         self-action and
>                         transaction. In self action,
>         things are
>                         explained by their own powers.
>
>                     This
>
>                         is, I believe, what Vygotsky would
>         have
>                         referred to as analysis by
>                         elements. In transaction, they say,
>                         “deal[s] with aspects and phases of
>                         action, without final attribution to
>                         ‘elements’ or other presumptively
>                         detachable ‘entities,’ ‘essences,’ or
>                         ‘realities,’ and without isolation
>
>                     of
>
>                         presumptively detachable
>         ‘relations’ from
>                         such detachable ‘elements’”. An
>                         experience can be studied precisely
>                         because it is not a thing in itself:
>
>                     it
>
>                         is always a moving, gesture, a
>         "method of
>                         organization" as Dewey &
>
>                     Bentley
>
>                         write.
>
>                         I thought this my add something to
>         your
>                         fascinating discussion,
>                         Alfredo
>
>
>         ________________________________________
>                         From:
>                        
>         xmca-l-bounces+a.g.jornet=iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                        
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>                        
>         <xmca-l-bounces+a.g.jornet=iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                        
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:iped.uio.no@mailman.ucsd.edu>>> on
>                         behalf of
>                         mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>
>                         <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>>>
>                         Sent: 17 July 2015 18:23
>                         To: Andy Blunden; eXtended Mind,
>         Culture,
>                         Activity
>                         Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Having an
>         experience
>
>                         Marx: It is only in a social
>         context that
>                         subjectivism and objectivism,
>                         spiritualism and materialism,
>         activity and
>                         passivity, cease to be
>                         antinomies and thus cease to exist
>         as such
>                         antinomies. The resolution of
>                         the theoretical contradictions is
>         possible
>                         only through practical means,
>                         only through the practical energy
>         of man.
>                         Their resolution is not by any
>                         means, therefore, only a problem of
>                         knowledge, but is a real problem of
>                         life which philosophy was unable
>         to solve
>                         precisely because it saw there
>
>                     a
>
>                         purely theoretical problem."
>
>                         On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 10:45 PM, Andy
>                         Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>                         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>>
>
>                     wrote:
>
>                             No, no, Beth. As Dewey says:
>
>                                 "This unity is neither
>         emotional,
>                             practical, nor
>                                 intellectual, for these
>         terms name
>                             distinctions that
>                                 reflection can make within
>         it. In
>                             discourse//about//an
>                                 experience, we must make
>         use of
>                             these adjectives of
>                                 interpretation. In going
>         over an
>                             experience in
>                                 mind//after/ /its
>         occurrence, we
>                             may find that one
>                                 property rather than
>         another was
>                             sufficiently dominant
>                                 so that it characterizes the
>                             experience as a whole."
>
>                             Isn't this beautiful
>         scientific prose!
>                             We make these distinction when
>
>                     we
>
>                             *reflect* on an experience. And
>                             perhaps we include the
>         experience in
>
>                     our
>
>                             autobiography, act it out on the
>                             stage, analyse it
>         scientifically, all
>
>                     of
>
>                             which presupposes analysis and
>                             synthesis. But it is important to
>
>                         recognise
>
>                             that the unity is prior. It is not
>                             only a unity of emotion and
>
>                     cognition
>
>                             (for example) but also of
>         attention
>                             and will - and any other
>         categories
>
>                         you
>
>                             abstract from an experience.
>
>                             Andy
>         ------------------------------------------------------------
>                             *Andy Blunden*
>         http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                            
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>
>                             On 17/07/2015 3:00 PM, Beth
>         Ferholt wrote:
>
>                                 Or reproducing the part that
>                                 represents the whole? Like a
>                                 fractal? I
>                                 think it is the similarity
>         across
>                                 scales that makes an
>         experience
>                                 proleptic, or gives that
>         'bliss
>                                 conferred at the beginning
>         of the road
>
>                         to
>
>                                 redemption" that Vasilyuk
>         refers
>                                 to.  You have an experience on
>
>                     several
>
>                                 timescales and so a sense of
>                                 deja-vu is central to
>         having an
>
>                     experience.
>
>                                 This is what I am thinking
>         about
>                                 after reading both the
>         paper of
>
>                     Dewey's
>
>                                 and your recent piece on
>                                 perezhivanie, Andy,
>         although I am
>                                 picking up
>
>                         on a
>
>                                 small piece of the last
>         email in
>                                 this chain -- : If
>         something is only
>                                 itself in its whole then
>         you can't
>                                 study it, is what is
>         bothering me.
>
>                         Beth
>
>                                 On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at
>         11:22 PM,
>                                 Andy Blunden
>         <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>                                 <mailto:ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>
>                                 <mailto:ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
>
>                                 <mailto:ablunden@mira.net
>         <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>>> wrote:
>
>                                      Not "getting at
>         something",
>                                 Michael. Just pursuing
>                                      this question you raised
>                                 about Dewey's saying that the
>                                      aesthetic quality of
>         medieval
>                                 buildings arises from
>                                      their not being "planned"
>                                 like buildings are nowadays.
>                                      He goes on to say
>         "Every work
>                                 of art follows the plan
>                                      of, and pattern of, a
>                                 complete experience." The
>         puzzle
>                                      he is raising here is the
>                                 completeness of an
>                                      experience which
>         gives it its
>                                 aesthetic quality, and
>                                      this cannot be created by
>                                 assembling together parts in
>                                      the way a modern
>         building is
>                                 planned. An experience -
>                                      the kind of thing which
>                                 sticks in your mind - is an
>                                      original or prior
>         unity, not
>                                 a combination, and this
>                                      is what gives a work
>         of art
>                                 that ineffable quality,
>                                      something which can
>         only be
>                                 transmitted by reproducing
>                                      that whole of an
>         experience.
>
>                                      Andy
>          ------------------------------------------------------------
>                                      *Andy Blunden*
>         http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                                
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                                      On 17/07/2015 2:32 AM,
>                                 Glassman, Michael wrote:
>
>                                          Andy,
>
>                                          I'm still not
>         sure about
>                                 your question.  Did I set
>                                          out to have that
>                                 experience, that
>         morning...no, I
>                                          don't think so
>         (it was a
>                                 long time ago, but I'm
>                                          pretty sure no).
>         Could I
>                                 have just treated it as
>                                          an indiscriminate
>                                 activity, probably, I had done
>                                          so before.
>
>                                          But I am guessing
>         you're
>                                 getting a something here
>                                          Andy?
>
>                                          Michael
>
>                                          -----Original
>         Message-----
>                                          From:
>          
>         xmca-l-bounces+glassman.13=osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                                
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>                                 <mailto:
>         osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                                
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>>
>           [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+glassman.13
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bglassman.13>
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bglassman.13
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%252Bglassman.13>>
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bglassman.13
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%252Bglassman.13>
>                                
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%252Bglassman.13
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%25252Bglassman.13>>>=
>
>         osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                     <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>
>                                
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:osu.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>>] On
>                                 Behalf Of
>                                          Andy Blunden
>                                          Sent: Thursday,
>         July 16,
>                                 2015 12:21 PM
>                                          To: eXtended Mind,
>                                 Culture, Activity
>                                          Subject: [Xmca-l] Re:
>                                 Having an experience
>
>                                          YOu said: "...
>         But that
>                                 time I had the experience
>                                          with the
>         paintings..."
>
>                                          I mean that was an
>                                 experience. Did you set out
>                                          that morning to
>         have that
>                                 experience?
>                                          RE, your
>         question: "what
>                                 does he mean when he says
>                                          you can't do things
>                                 indiscriminately and have
>                                          vital experience,
>         but you
>                                 also can't plan things?"
>                                          Andy
>
>          ------------------------------------------------------------
>                                          *Andy Blunden*
>         http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                                
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>           <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                                          On 17/07/2015
>         2:09 AM,
>                                 Glassman, Michael wrote:
>
>                                              Well I'm not
>         sure I
>                                 understand your question
>                                              Andy, but
>         perhaps it has
>                                              something to
>         do with
>                                 my grandfather's favorite
>                                              saying
>         (translated from
>                                              Yiddish),
>
>                                              Man plans,
>         God laughs.
>
>                                              Michael
>
>                                              -----Original
>                                 Message-----
>                                              From:
>          xmca-l-bounces+mglassman=
>
>         ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                        
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>
>           <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                                
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>>
>             [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+mglassman
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bmglassman>
>                                
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bmglassman
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>           <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%2Bmglassman
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>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%252Bmglassman
>         <mailto:xmca-l-bounces%25252Bmglassman>>>=
>         ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
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>                                
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu>>>]
>                                              On Behalf Of
>         Andy Blunden
>                                              Sent:
>         Thursday, July
>                                 16, 2015 12:04 PM
>                                              To:
>         xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>                                
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
>           <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>
>                                
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>         <mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>>
>                                              Subject:
>         [Xmca-l] Re:
>                                 Having an experience
>
>                                              So Michael,
>         there was
>                                 just that one occasion,
>                                              in all your
>                                 museum-going, when you had an
>                                              experience.
>         Was that
>                                 planned?
>                                              (I don't mean
>         to say
>                                 you haven't had a number
>                                              of such
>         experiences,
>                                              Michael ...
>         just some
>                                 number actually)
>
>                                              Andy
>
>         ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                                              *Andy Blunden*
>         http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>                                
>         <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>               <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>
>                                              On 17/07/2015
>         1:19
>                                 AM, Glassman, Michael wrote:
>
>                                                  Hi Larry
>         and all,
>
>                                                  I think
>         this is
>                                 one of the most complex
>                                                  aspects of
>                                 experience, what does he mean
>                                                  when he
>         says you
>                                 can't do things
>          indiscriminately
>                                 and have vital
>                                                
>          experience, but
>                                 you also can't plan
>                                                  things? 
>         I have
>                                 discussed (argued) about
>                                                  this a
>         lot with
>                                 my students. I have
>                                                
>          especially seen
>                                 him raise this point in at
>                                                  least two
>         of his
>                                 great works, Democracy
>                                                  and
>         Education and
>                                 Experience and Nature -
>                                                  and again of
>                                 course in Art as Experience
>                                                  (notice
>         he is not
>                                 saying how Art enters
>                                                  into
>         experience
>                                 but how art is experience
>                                                  - I have
>         come to
>                                 notice these little
>                                                  things
>         more and
>                                 more in his writing).
>
>                                                  The
>         difficulty we
>                                 have, at least in the
>                                                  United States
>                                 because of the dominance of
>                                                  the idea of
>                                 meta-cognition, is that we too
>                                                  often
>         translate
>                                 what individuals are
>                                                  bringing
>         in to
>                                 experience to organize it
>                                                  as a form of
>                                 meta-cognition. It is kind
>                                                  of
>         possible to
>                                 make that interpretation
>                                                  from
>         Democracy
>                                 and Education, although
>                                                  what I
>         think he
>                                 is doing more is arguing
>                                                  against
>                                 misinterpretations of his
>         work as
>                                                  random, child
>                                 centered activities.  I
>                                                  think he is
>                                 clearer in Experience and
>                                                  Nature
>         that we
>                                 bring in who we are at the
>                                                  moment
>         into the
>                                 activity, and use who we
>                                                  are (I
>         don't want
>                                 to say identity) as an
>                                                  organizing
>                                 principle for what we do.  It
>                                                  is
>         perhaps one of
>                                 the places where Dewey
>                                                  and
>         Vygotsky are
>                                 close. Perhaps I can use
>                                                  the same
>         Jackson
>                                 Pollock example.  The
>                                                  first few
>         times I
>                                 saw his paintings I was
>                                                  trying to
>                                 "apprecitate" them because
>         I was
>                                                  told that
>         was the
>                                 best way to experience
>                                                  them. 
>         Dewey says
>                                 no vital experience
>                                                  there
>         because my
>                                 activities become stilted
>                                                  and artificia
>                                                      l.
>         Sometimes
>                                 I went through the
>                                                  museum
>         and just
>                                 looked at pictures, one to
>                                                  the other. No
>                                 vital experience there,
>                                                  just random
>                                 threads. But that time I had
>                                                  the
>         experience
>                                 with the paintings I was
>                                                  allowing
>         who I
>                                 was, what had been built up
>                                                  in the
>         trajectory
>                                 of my life to enter into
>                                                  my experience
>                                 with the painting, making it
>                                                  a vital
>                                 experience.  I think Dewey
>         makes
>                                                  the
>         argument in
>                                 Experience and Nature that
>                                                  it is not
>         just
>                                 the experience the moment
>                                                  before,
>         but the
>                                 experiences leading to
>                                                  that
>         experience,
>                                 the context of my life,
>                                                  of my
>         parent's
>                                 life, of a long line of
>                                                  historical
>                                 experiences.
>
>                                                  Anyway,
>         my take.
>
>                                                  Michael
>
>                                                  -
>
>
>
>
>
>                                 --
>                                 Beth Ferholt
>                                 Assistant Professor
>                                 Department of Early
>         Childhood and
>                                 Art Education
>                                 Brooklyn College, City
>         University
>                                 of New York
>                                 2900 Bedford Avenue
>                                 Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
>
>                                 Email:
>         bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>
>                                
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>>
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>
>
>                                
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>>>
>                                 Phone: (718) 951-5205
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-5205>
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-5205>
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-5205>
>                                 Fax: (718) 951-4816
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-4816>
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-4816>
>         <tel:%28718%29%20951-4816>
>
>
>
>                         --
>
>                         Both environment and species
>         change in the
>                         course of time, and thus
>                         ecological niches are not stable
>         and given
>                         forever (Polotova & Storch,
>                         Ecological Niche, 2008)
>
>
>
>                     --
>
>                     Both environment and species change in the
>                     course of time, and thus
>                     ecological niches are not stable and given
>                     forever (Polotova & Storch,
>                     Ecological Niche, 2008)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>         -- 
>         Beth Ferholt
>         Assistant Professor
>         Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
>         Brooklyn College, City University of New York
>         2900 Bedford Avenue
>         Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
>
>         Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>         <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>>
>         Phone: (718) 951-5205 <tel:%28718%29%20951-5205>
>         Fax: (718) 951-4816 <tel:%28718%29%20951-4816>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Beth Ferholt
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
> Brooklyn College, City University of New York
> 2900 Bedford Avenue
> Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
>
> Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu 
> <mailto:bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu>
> Phone: (718) 951-5205
> Fax: (718) 951-4816



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