Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 mercia_gomes_silva.pdf: 648998 bytes, checksum: 21e1d95659e71242f82d2480d6fd27ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study starts from questions originated by the author s experience as a psychologist in different clinical contexts, in which the plastic expression was used. The study aims to understand how the presence of the plastic language works on the clinical action under an existential phenomenological perspective, to present the presence of the plastic language in different clinical practices and discuss the clinical psychology action under an existential phenomenological perspective. The phenomenal basis is given by the researcher s experience and by clinical psychologists who accept to participate as interlocutors. The narratives collection procedure happened through interviews/testimonials, that allowed the exchange of experiences regarding the clinical practices of the participants and through a field report where the author/ researcher s experiences were registered.Through this context it is possible to go along different senses outlined in different clinical practices modalities developed by the four interlocutors. Aiming to offer psychological support for those who look toward (re)thinking about care and the way they lead their existences. The approaching and interpretation of the experiences, inspired on the analytics sense developed by Dulce Critelli points how plastic language can assume a position of presence and interlacement with the clinical work, so that, presenting and happening in a so interspersed way, is not possible to reduce to a logic of mere use or technical application. On this direction, plastic language is reflected as being closer to a poetic and gestural dimension, once that it runs away from causal and explicative relations as language has been daily molded in our times. Considerations are set concerning an understanding that clinical action in an errant movement and senses building contributes for the people to imply and care about their existences starting from the experience s expansion they make with their own language. This perspective is linked to a notion that considers the intimal relation among being, feeling, thinking and acting in the world. This way, understand the clinical action as an opportunity of listening and embracement to ethical, esthetic/sensible and poetical dimensions that composes existence. Giving value to the client/user/group s comprehensive horizon so they can appropriate the way they are connected to the world. / Este estudo parte de interrogações provenientes da experiência da autora como psicóloga em diferentes contextos clínicos, nos quais utilizou a expressão plástica. Objetiva compreender como se dá a presença da linguagem plástica na ação clínica em uma perspectiva fenomenológica existencial, além de apresentar a presença da linguagem plástica em diferentes práticas clínicas e discutir a ação clínica psicológica sob uma perspectiva fenomenológica existencial. Sua base fenomenal acolhe a experiência da pesquisadora e de psicólogas clínicas que se dispuseram a participar como interlocutoras. O procedimento de colheita das narrativas aconteceu via entrevista/depoimento, que permitiu o compartilhamento de experiências sobre o fazer clínico das participantes e via Diário de Bordo para registro da experiência da autora/pesquisadora. Através deste contexto, percorre-se sentidos traçados em diferentes modalidades de práticas clínicas desenvolvidas pelas quatro interlocutoras, objetivando oferecer suporte psicológico àqueles que buscam (re) pensar sobre o cuidado e o modo como conduzem suas existências. A aproximação e interpretação das experiências, inspirada na Analítica do Sentido desenvolvida por Dulce Critelli, aponta como a linguagem plástica pode assumir uma posição de presença e entrelaçamento com o trabalho clínico, de modo que, de tão entremeadas que se apresentam e acontecem, não é possível reduzi-las a uma lógica de mero uso ou aplicação técnica. Nessa direção, a linguagem plástica é refletida como mais próxima de uma dimensão poética e gestual, uma vez que foge às relações causais e explicativas tal como cotidianamente a linguagem tem sido moldada em nosso tempo. São tecidas considerações que apontam para um entendimento de que a ação clínica − em um movimento de errância e construção de sentidos − contribui para que as pessoas possam implicar-se e cuidar de suas existências a partir da ampliação da experiência que fazem com a própria linguagem. Perspectiva esta atrelada a uma noção que considera a íntima relação entre ser, sentir, pensar e agir no mundo. Desse modo, compreende a ação clínica como uma oportunidade de escuta e acolhimento às dimensões ética, estética/sensível e poética que compõem a existência, valorizando o horizonte compreensivo do cliente/usuário/grupo para que possa se apropriar do modo como está sintonizado no mundo.

Text in English / The present paper analyses the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological backgrounds of art reception and art creation in modern visual art and creative processes. It critically presents two models of aesthetic experience to provide a comprehensive theoretical basis for the discussion. The research purpose is to show that with increasing experience and expertise the referential frame of the aesthetic judgment is changing and that neural processes involved in object recognition provide a starting point for visual aesthetics. Thus, the investigation focuses on constructing and testing neuropsychological theories that fall in the domain called 'neuroaesthetics'. These theories, in turn, serve as a starting point to formulate neural laws of art and aesthetics and aesthetic experience. Some artistic styles, such as expressionism, reflect specific neural processes. Various studies indicate correlations between hemispheric specialisation and art or creativity and show the right hemisphere plays a particular role in it. However, studies exploring the neural correlates of aesthetic preference have yielded mixed results. Furthermore, neuroimaging studies have proved that different categories of modern artworks are processed in different areas of the brain. These diverging results will be discussed in a critical assessment of the two models of aesthetic experience. Besides, the question of identifying exclusive neural correlates of aesthetic preference will be raised. Comparing amateurs and experts has revealed the more reduced the cortical activation, the more efficiently it works. Biological and neuropsychological factors of creativity point out the meaning of the activation level, cognitive inhibition and prefrontal cortex. Divergent thinking differs from convergent thinking in terms of the neural level. Neurodegenerative processes and brain injuries sometimes influence the artistic output surprisingly or even launch it. Lesion studies contributing to understanding art experience will be explained. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The present paper analyses the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological backgrounds of art reception and art creation in modern visual art and creative processes. It critically presents two models of aesthetic experience to provide a comprehensive theoretical basis for the discussion. The research purpose is to show that with increasing experience and expertise the referential frame of the aesthetic judgment is changing and that neural processes involved in object recognition provide a starting point for visual aesthetics. Thus, the investigation focuses on constructing and testing neuropsychological theories that fall in the domain called 'neuroaesthetics'. These theories, in turn, serve as a starting point to formulate neural laws of art and aesthetics and aesthetic experience. Some artistic styles, such as expressionism, reflect specific neural processes. Various studies indicate correlations between hemispheric specialisation and art or creativity and show the right hemisphere plays a particular role in it. However, studies exploring the neural correlates of aesthetic preference have yielded mixed results. Furthermore, neuroimaging studies have proved that different categories of modern artworks are processed in different areas of the brain. These diverging results will be discussed in a critical assessment of the two models of aesthetic experience. Besides, the question of identifying exclusive neural correlates of aesthetic preference will be raised. Comparing amateurs and experts has revealed the more reduced the cortical activation, the more efficiently it works. Biological and neuropsychological factors of creativity point out the meaning of the activation level, cognitive inhibition and prefrontal cortex. Divergent thinking differs from convergent thinking in terms of the neural level. Neurodegenerative processes and brain injuries sometimes influence the artistic output surprisingly or even launch it. Lesion studies contributing to understanding art experience will be explained. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

That consciousness is ubiquitous, and relevant to autopoietic self-organisation and embodiment within every living being and/or organism, is a prevalent idea in contemporary consciousness research. However, because ‘consciousness’ as a word is derived from con or cum, meaning ‘with’ or ‘together’ and scire, ‘to know’ or ‘to see’ it infers the experience of knowing with an ‘other’ and/or ‘others’. The narrative that follows, while expressing a life of its own, documents the interdisciplinary research conducted and questions who and/or to what ‘other’ might infer. My visual diary, Dust from dust: Microorganisms and other tales: An Artist’s diary, created as the visual component of a creative practice-as-research undertaking, was silently performed amidst ‘others’ in the Unisa gallery, in an attempt to render visible, the autopoietic, self-organising embodiment essential to the conscious self-developmental component of the project. Once upon a time, I grew bacterial yeast cells in a glass vitrine to observe how they self-organised their own embodiment and photographed the process. At the same time, I conducted interdisciplinary research into consciousness as a self-developmental process, and utilising the cellular symbiosis unfolding in the vitrine as a self-reflexive mirror, came to visualise how indispensable bodily feelings are to conscious self-development, and being-in-the-world-with-others processes. As a creative-practice-as-research undertaking, I grew, manipulated and photographed the cellular imagery in the vitrine over many years in an attempt to unfold personal bodily feeling associations the imagery held captive, while gathering photographic footage I considered capable of expressing the primordial nature of certain emotive feeling experiences. Once obtained, I choreographed and performed a stop-frame video, entitled Dust from Dust: Microorganisms and other tales. An artist’s diary. The stop-frame video, along with a catalogue that focuses on the processes engaged with, accompanies the written narrative. Once edited, I macroscopically projected different phases of the video into a three-walled enclosure in the UNISA Art gallery. The three videos, representing a facet of my praxis, ran concurrently over a two week period. The fourth facet, presented with the video projections to emphasise conscious self-development as an in-the-world-with-others process, was the glass vitrine. It was positioned in a darkened enclosure in the gallery space, opposite the video projections. This narrative documents how I projected myself into the cellular imagery developing in the glass vitrine, in a way akin to how the ancient alchemists ‘projected’ themselves into the prima materia with which they worked. While the alchemists seemingly worked unconsciously, and my praxis initially started somewhat unconsciously, the process developed into a conscious attempt to embody the research findings. So, while the video choreographed, champions a microbial cell story, by referring to it as an artist’s diary, I emphasise the subjective nature of my praxis as a whole. In this creative-practice-as-research undertaking, I address the significance of bodily feelings and their relevance to being-in-the-world-with-others processes. In doing so, I aim to offer insight into how and why feelings are essential to inter-subjectivity and/or sociality, self-organisation and conscious self-development, as well as how and why conscious self-development can lead to immersive experiences, which I interpret as embodied adaptation to the rich diversity and/or fullness of life itself. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Art History)