MICA invites conference organizers to send posts for forthcoming conferences to info@myrifield.org. Click here to join MICA’s listserv for announcements of events.

July 12-16, 2023. Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities 2023 Conference. University of Warsaw. Theme: Cognitive Approaches to Art: A Reassessment of Results and Articulating New Possibilities.

31st March – 1st April, 2023. Conference on Mind, body, culture – Cognitive Poetics today. Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Lisbon, Portugal

2022-11-19&20. 2022 International Conference on Multimodal Communication. Streamed & recorded.

2022-06-10. 1700 UTC. Click here for your timezone. One hour. Discussion of a paper that will be circulated two weeks beforehand. Click here to join MICA’s listserv to be informed of workshops and receive precirculated papers.
Discussant and author: Xitlally Rivero Romero, Instructor, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, Mexico
Paper title: Metaphor, Rhythm and Iconicity in Prose Fiction.
Abstract: This paper argues that metaphor and iconicity can be identified in prose fiction using models proposed by Freeman, as well as by Fauconnier and Turner. Literary expressions maintain a relation of iconicity with its meaning, so it is possible to perform a metaphorical reading of the text as a poetic form or as a single symbolic construct. As an example stylistic strategies  are analyzed from short stories written by Inés Arredondo.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86162608516?pwd=dWc2UENGM0hxZW9mbGFFekhJYXpjUT09
Meeting ID: 861 6260 8516
Passcode: 661229

2022-03-18. 1600 UTC. One hour. Twenty-minute presentation by speaker, followed by questions and answers.
Speaker: Víctor Bermúdez, Postdoctoral Research, Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, University of Salamanca.
Title: Gesture, Abstraction and Embodied Simulation in Poetic Language: Chantal Maillard.
Abstract: The presentation examines the relation of embodied simulation with processes of self-awareness, consciousness and recognition within the phenomena of ‘literary identification’. I will study embodied images focusing on the verbal description of bodily interactions and gestures that are the experiential basis of such embodied images —that is, mental representations of the body and its interaction with the surroundings, and in which speech is grounded. Guillemette Bolens has fruitfully and extensively investigated this topic (The Style of Gestures, 2012; Kinesic Humor, 2021). My presentation, however, will focus on two (maximum four) poems.The main argument consists of assuming that the creative act is related to the representation of a subject’s movement and the subsequent identification of the self. Mental imagery of action, self-recognition, consciousness of actions, and imitation can be investigated by implementing models of action representation. However, the broader result of this study will be to try to provide literary evidence on imagined actions as a prototypical form of action representation. In the poetry by Maillard, the identification of specific percepts suggests that self-awareness constitutes a part of insinuated interactions —actions that appear incomplete or merely expected, and actions through which the lyric becomes aware of its own body and environment. Within a poem, such mental contents require a protagonist. A self around which the action is organized and extended towards others. And because there is action in a poem we don’t only find images but also movement. Making moving possible is one of the fundamental functions of the brain. Thus, this presentation is ultimately about the representation of the self in poetry by means of the notion of ‘proprioception’ in order to explore the expressions of self-consciousness in poetic texts. By observing body behavior in literary language, I will explore embodied cognition and self-awareness, underlining what the poetic representations of actions can tell us about the self. The analysis of the role of lyric actions in the construction of the self shall demonstrate how subjects become aware of their own movements, while they simultaneously describe the “lyric you” in terms of potential movements that do not belong to the first person. Expected and suggested actions are part of what multiplies the potential simulations. Consequently, we should also address self-awareness in terms of the tension between gesture and intention in poetry. This is a relevant material for imagination research because the perception of the self-motion in the lyric I illustrates how we build the expectation of the others’ action, and how the actions of others are conceived, simulated or understood by the subject.

2022-03-18. 1600 UTC.
Zoom workshop. One hour. Twenty-minute presentation by speaker, followed by questions and answers.
Speaker: Víctor Bermúdez, Postdoctoral Research, Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, University of Salamanca.
Title: Gesture, Abstraction and Embodied Simulation in Poetic Language: Chantal Maillard.
Abstract: The presentation examines the relation of embodied simulation with processes of self-awareness, consciousness and recognition within the phenomena of ‘literary identification’. I will study embodied images focusing on the verbal description of bodily interactions and gestures that are the experiential basis of such embodied images —that is, mental representations of the body and its interaction with the surroundings, and in which speech is grounded. Guillemette Bolens has fruitfully and extensively investigated this topic (The Style of Gestures, 2012; Kinesic Humor, 2021). My presentation, however, will focus on two (maximum four) poems.The main argument consists of assuming that the creative act is related to the representation of a subject’s movement and the subsequent identification of the self. Mental imagery of action, self-recognition, consciousness of actions, and imitation can be investigated by implementing models of action representation. However, the broader result of this study will be to try to provide literary evidence on imagined actions as a prototypical form of action representation. In the poetry by Maillard, the identification of specific percepts suggests that self-awareness constitutes a part of insinuated interactions —actions that appear incomplete or merely expected, and actions through which the lyric becomes aware of its own body and environment. Within a poem, such mental contents require a protagonist. A self around which the action is organized and extended towards others. And because there is action in a poem we don’t only find images but also movement. Making moving possible is one of the fundamental functions of the brain. Thus, this presentation is ultimately about the representation of the self in poetry by means of the notion of ‘proprioception’ in order to explore the expressions of self-consciousness in poetic texts. By observing body behavior in literary language, I will explore embodied cognition and self-awareness, underlining what the poetic representations of actions can tell us about the self. The analysis of the role of lyric actions in the construction of the self shall demonstrate how subjects become aware of their own movements, while they simultaneously describe the “lyric you” in terms of potential movements that do not belong to the first person. Expected and suggested actions are part of what multiplies the potential simulations. Consequently, we should also address self-awareness in terms of the tension between gesture and intention in poetry. This is a relevant material for imagination research because the perception of the self-motion in the lyric I illustrates how we build the expectation of the others’ action, and how the actions of others are conceived, simulated or understood by the subject.

2022-01-10. Literature, Cognition, and Emotions at the University of Oslo: 2022 doctoral research fellowship & visiting scholarships for guest researchers.  Deadline for proposals: 10 January 2022.

2021-12-11&12. International Conference on Multimodal Communication. Streamed & recorded.