Faculty of Humanities
Proposal for a research group in the Faculty of Humanities
1. Name of the research group
The Landscape of Affordances: Situating the Embodied Mind
2. Coordinator
Dr. Erik Rietveld
Note: I am also coordinator of the research groups ‘Philosophy of Embodied Cognition’ – together with
Julian Kiverstein –, and ‘Intuitive Expertise: The Architects of Vacant NL’.
Website: http://erikrietveld.wordpress.com/about-2/
E-mail: Rietveld@uva.nl
3. Members of the research group
S.E. de Haan
dr. J.D. Kiverstein
prof.dr. M.J.B. Stokhof
External Members:
A. Brouwers (FMG UvA)
A. Noë (UC Berkeley)
A. Roepstorff (Aarhus)
B. Visser (Visual Artist)
C. van 't Veen (RCE)
D. Denys (AMC/KNAW-NIN)
D. Zahavi (Kopenhagen)
E. Jacobs (Centraal Museum Utrecht)
E. Rietveld (ILLC FNWI)
E. Thompson (Univ. of Toronto, Univ. of British Columbia)
F. Erdemci (Istanbul Art Biennale)
G. Kerkhof (FMG UvA)
H. Dreyfus (UC Berkeley)
J. Bey (Sandberg Institute, Rietveld Academy)
M. Lee (Appsterdam)
N. Frijda (FMG UvA)
R. Ridderinkhof (FMG UvA)
R. Rietveld (Rietveld Landscape)
1
Faculty of Humanities
R. van der Heide (Philips)
R. van Gent (TU Delft)
S. Kelly (Harvard)
V. Kompier (Urban Planning)
K. Friston (UCL)
Knowledge Application:
Provincie Utrecht;
Netherlands Architecture Institute/The New Institute;
Netherlands Architecture Fund (SFA)/Creative Industries Fund;
AMC Research Council.
4. Description of the research programme of the research group (max. 400 words)
The Landscape of Affordances: Situating the Embodied Mind
In many situations, experts at work act successfully, yet without deliberation. Architects, for example,
perceive immediately the opportunities offered by the site of a new project, and intuitively improve the
size of the door in one of their designs. One could label these manifestations of expert intuition as
‘higher-level’ cognition, but still these experts are just acting unreflectively. Traditionally in philosophy,
so-called ‘higher’ cognitive capacities are associated more with explicit deliberation and linguistic forms
of rationality than with unreflective action, but this has left unexplained the characteristic phenomenon
of intuitive expertise (e.g. intuitively improving a design).
The two central ideas behind this NWO VIDI-/ERC Starting Grant-proposal are (a) that many of these
context-sensitive episodes of ‘higher’ cognition can be understood along the same lines as everyday
skillful unreflective activities, such as grasping a coffee cup or riding a bike; and (b) that our
surroundings contribute to skillful action and cognition in a far more fundamental way than is generally
acknowledged.
The overarching aim of this project is to use these ideas to develop a novel conceptual framework for
embodied cognitive science (Thompson, 2007; Chemero, 2009). The cognition we find in expert intuition
is very context-sensitive because it consists of responsiveness to multiple possibilities for action
provided by our surroundings, or ‘affordances’. I argue that the notion of affordances is rich in
application, so it makes sense to say both that a cup affords grasping and that a friend’s sad face affords
comforting. Embodied cognition amounts here to skillful responsiveness to the many affordances
available in one’s surroundings.
2
Faculty of Humanities
This framework is innovative in showing how the increasingly influential field of embodied cognitive
science has a much wider scope than previously thought. Findings thought to be exclusively valid for
everyday unreflective action (or for sensorimotor behavior) can now be applied to skilled ‘higher’
cognition (project 1). Moreover, it brings the context and the social back into cognitive science. We will
also show concrete, real-world applications in the domains of architecture (project 2) and psychiatry
(project 3), respectively. Another interdisciplinary collaboration will advance its convergence with Karl
Friston’s influential work on the anticipating brain (project 4).
5. Envisaged results (max. 100 words)
This research plan for a large 5-year project is currently under evaluation in the final rounds of both the
NWO VIDI and the ERC Starting Grant. The proposal includes funding for one PhD-student and three
Post-docs.
Scientific Results: We will publish articles on the results of the four projects in international top
philosophy journals, architecture journals, and interdisciplinary journals in cognitive science.
Knowledge utilization: We use our innovative philosophical framework to contribute to better
treatments for psychiatric patients with Deep Brain Stimulation, not just at the AMC but worldwide.
Additionally, we will exhibit results at the Venice Architecture Biennale, a high-impact event in the world
of architecture.
6. Work plan and time schedule (max. 100 words)
When
What
Who
August
PI
November
November
June
November
Summer
2013 Start StG/VIDI-project
Start Postdoc Architecture:
Start PhD-student
PI & De Haan
PhD
2014 Start Postdocs Phenomenology &
Psychiatry
Postdocs
End Postdoc Architecture
Postdoc
2016 Exhibition at Venice Architecture
Biennale
PI
November 2017 Dissertation defence
PhD
Winter
PI/all
Conference ‘Situating the Embodied
Mind’
Project
1 2 3 4
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
3
Faculty of Humanities
May
July
2018 End Postdocs Phenomenology &
Psychiatry
End
Postdocs
x
x
x
7. Societal relevance
Societal relevance is one of our priorities and we have an excellent track record here. Via a collaboration
with Sanneke de Haan and Damiaan Denys at the AMC/KNAW-NIN we aim to collaborate to better
treatments for psychiatric patients with Deep Brain Stimulation. The AMC Research Council has already
awarded a grant for the initiation and supervision of a PhD-project on the ‘Phenomenology of
Psychiatric Patients with Deep Brain Stimulation’.
Via collaborations with the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE, Cultural Heritage Agency of the
Netherlands) and Rietveld Landscape (of which I am one of the founding partners) we translate insights
from the philosophy of embodied cognitive science to the practices of architecture and cultural heritage.
We have contributed substantially to the development of the new academic and professional field of
Vacancy Studies, which aims to stimulate using the potential (affordances) of the 10.000 vacant
government/public buildings in the Netherlands – palaces, churches, schools, hospitals, fortresses,
bunkers, prisons, railway infrastructure, etc. – for the widely supported Knowledge and Innovation
Agenda. The Creative Industries Fund of the Netherlands already supports this aim financially.
4