Ilya Vidrin
Assistant Professor Creative Practice Research at Northeastern University.
My current research integrates examines theory and practice of partnering through the lenses of social epistemology and ethics of care.
My current research integrates examines theory and practice of partnering through the lenses of social epistemology and ethics of care.
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Papers by Ilya Vidrin
Building on conversations that emerged during the Rhetoric and Sensation Seminar at the 2015 RSA Summer Institute, we consider how to harness the power of rhetorical force. Differentiating between rhetorical force and rhetorical work, we argue that material, bodily, and sensory actions can create whirlpools of rhetorical force (storehouses of rhetorical energy, stilled momentum from rhetorical exertions) that can then be channeled into rhetorical work (more concrete instantiations of verbal or bodily rhetorical action). Operating from this point of view provides space to notice how seemingly inconsequential gestures and movements accumulate into recognizable rhetorical actions.
We access rhetorical force through choreography, which we view as a rhetoric of invention concerned with the history of places and bodies in recent memory, to explore how patterned bodily responses to exigencies can generate thrust. We position Susan Foster's definition of choreography as "a kinesthesis, a designated way of experiencing physicality and movement that, in turn, summons other bodies into a specific way of feeling towards it" (2) in tandem with Nathan Stormer's definition of space as a "dense, dynamic, heterogeneous network of material-semiotic elements that is the result of ordered, collective action" - in order to construct a framework of rhetorical choreography that explains how the interaction of individual trajectories delineates subjects in rhetorical spaces, produces torques of exigency, and constitutes resistance.
Drawing on our combined expertise in gesture, dance, and cognitive science, we aim to create a space for exploration, discovery, and embodied realization. We will provide framing questions and pointed tasks for participants to explore how gesture and movement are always operating with their own set of political and ideological assumptions, even (or perhaps especially) in academic spaces. Participants will be guided through movement explorations in order to physically experience the meaning and potential of rhetorical choreography. Through these explorations and discussions, we will address the following questions: what is the rhetorical nature of movement and gesture? Motion? How are rhetorical decisions choreographed? Is choreography delivery or something else?
From minor bickering and missteps to major conflicts and, even, injuries, labeling trust and care as merely abstract principles can have harmful consequences. After extensive research in cognitive neuroscience, social psychology and philosophy of interaction, I discovered a few key points that help distinguish trust and care in order to support a more effective and ethical partnering practice.