Thinking in Motion
Editor:
Jessica Hemmings
Introduction
PARSE journal issue 18 (2024) explores the thinking that occurs when bodies are in motion. Contributors from the fields of aesthetics, sports history, psychology, literature, performance and craft consider the ways our solitary bodies in motion think differently to our social and sedentary selves. Eclectic, rather than esoteric, content aims to draw attention to the various ways movement can influence, and at times unlock, fixed patterns of thinking. Departing from the interests of cognitive science to explain why thinking in motion takes place, contributors instead offer examples of what thinking in motion entails and how it may influence artistic practice. Examples of motion include the more familiar experiences of walking and running – but also swimming, cycling, rock climbing and motorcycle riding. The experimental spirit of the issue is reflected in contributors’ use of hybrid genres of writing and methods of research. The academic voice sits beside storytelling and memoir, history is re-walked and re-written, orality heard and the first person vivid. Thinking in Motion offers insights relevant to the interconnected realms of creativity, concentration, stamina, the subconscious, mental health and the individual. The solitary is emphasized in an effort to recover respect for the crucial benefits of thinking alone, a vital and effective component of many creative practices frequently decommissioned from the activities currently deemed worthy academic research. Shared by contributors is a recognition, and trust, in the reality of embodied knowledge because, to borrow from the eloquence of Rebecca Solnit, “the motions of the mind cannot be traced, but those of the feet can.” (Wanderlust pp. 6) Journal issue 18 contributors: Lisa Garber, Jools Gilson, Jessica Hemmings, Robert Muponde, Martin Polley and Bálint Veres.