Re: CHAT and Gibson

pprior who-is-at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Mon, 4 Mar 1996 21:54:27 -0600

Mike Cole wrote:
>Dear Xmca-ites-- Has anyone out there done work bringing together the
>ideas of cultural-historical activity theorists and Gibsonian psychology?
>We published a neat article by Arthur Still and Alan Costall on
>"Mutual elimination of dualism in Vygotsky and Gibson." I believe these
>authors have done further work that I am tracking down. But beyond
>citations, what is known collectively in xmca about this topic?

Could you post the citation for the Still and Costall article?

I've just recently started thinking about the relationship between Gibson's
notion of affordances as ecological relations between organisms and the
world, notions of activity as relational configurations of persons, tools,
and the world, and notions of the world as sociohistorically objectified
(e.g., Ilyenkov, Lektorsky). In my own work, I've been considering ways
that semiotic artifacts (like published texts and research data), the
existence of particular institutional forums for future publication, and
certain literate practices may work in conjuction to form semiotic
affordances that help constitute disciplinary genres. I'd be interested in
hearing from others thinking about these relationships.

Paul Prior
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Tel: 217-333-3024