Distributed cognition in oral poetry improvisation: a semiosis-centered approach
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Pedro Atã
Pedro Atã is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice, Free State University, South Africa. Atã earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Linnaeus University, Sweden. His main research interests are: Pragmatism and process philosophy; Surprise, creativity and semiotic complexity in distributed cognitive processes; Experimentation with cognitive technologies in arts and poetry. He has published on topics such as intersemiotic translation between music and poetry, oral poetry improvisation, cognitive artifacts in dance, artwork authorship, situated problem solving, and cognitive niche construction.
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João Queiroz
João Queiroz is a professor at the Institute of Arts, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he coordinates the Iconicity Research Group (IRG). He has been teaching courses on Cognitive Semiotics, Intermediality Studies, and supervised Ph.D. and Master students in the fields of Semiotics, Latin-American Art and Literature and Cognitive Aesthetics. He has several publications in international journals, books, and conferences, including the Commens Digital Companion to Charles S. Peirce (co-organized with M. Bergman and S. Paavola). Queiroz is a member of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS), member of Group for Research in Artificial Cognition (UEFS, Brazil), and associate researcher of the Linguistics and Language Practice Department, University of the Free State (South Africa).
Abstract
We propose a semiotic externalist approach that takes cognition as semiosis, gives central importance to the notion of temporal distribution, describes the elements of distributed cognitive systems (DCSs) as signs, and identifies the DCS itself as a system that enacts a sign. This is a semiosis-centered, and thus a non-agent-centered account of DCSs. In order to develop and illustrate our argument, we describe an example of DCS – the Brazilian verbo-musical improvisational tradition of repente – considering it first as embodiment of the formal structure of a cognitive task, and then as embodiment of a semiotic process. The latter corresponds to a semiotization of the description of repente sessions as DCSs, that focuses on how the DCS can embody a meta semiotic process, semiosis that supervenes on, and determines, distinct types of smaller-scale semiotic process.
Funding source: National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
Award Identifier / Grant number: 404770/2023-1
About the authors
Pedro Atã is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice, Free State University, South Africa. Atã earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Linnaeus University, Sweden. His main research interests are: Pragmatism and process philosophy; Surprise, creativity and semiotic complexity in distributed cognitive processes; Experimentation with cognitive technologies in arts and poetry. He has published on topics such as intersemiotic translation between music and poetry, oral poetry improvisation, cognitive artifacts in dance, artwork authorship, situated problem solving, and cognitive niche construction.
João Queiroz is a professor at the Institute of Arts, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he coordinates the Iconicity Research Group (IRG). He has been teaching courses on Cognitive Semiotics, Intermediality Studies, and supervised Ph.D. and Master students in the fields of Semiotics, Latin-American Art and Literature and Cognitive Aesthetics. He has several publications in international journals, books, and conferences, including the Commens Digital Companion to Charles S. Peirce (co-organized with M. Bergman and S. Paavola). Queiroz is a member of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS), member of Group for Research in Artificial Cognition (UEFS, Brazil), and associate researcher of the Linguistics and Language Practice Department, University of the Free State (South Africa).
Acknowledgments
The authors thank, for their support and interviews, Ana Luiza Fernandes and the singing poets Toínho Batista, Edmilson Silva, Zé Viana, Paulo Martins, Fredi Guimarães, Tindara, Felipe Pereira, Ivanildo Vila Nova, Edmilson Ferreira, Sebastião Dias, Iponax Vila Nova, Antonio Lisboa, Siba, and Guerreira. João Queiroz thanks CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for the support through the research productivity scholarship PQ2 (308355/2023-7). Pedro Atã thanks the Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Free State for his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.
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Research funding: This work was supported by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development under the project no. 404770/2023-1.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Distributed cognition in oral poetry improvisation: a semiosis-centered approach
- Externalization of the mind in the meaning-making process: An integrated semiotic and cognitive science perspective
- The virtual habits underlying the behavioural hallmarks of alloanimal episodic memory: a Peircean model
- The body says it all: Non-verbal indicators of choice awareness
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Distributed cognition in oral poetry improvisation: a semiosis-centered approach
- Externalization of the mind in the meaning-making process: An integrated semiotic and cognitive science perspective
- The virtual habits underlying the behavioural hallmarks of alloanimal episodic memory: a Peircean model
- The body says it all: Non-verbal indicators of choice awareness
