ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on attention and perception, i.e., actors’ embodied/sensory engagement with the ‘world’ they encounter as they attend to, perceptually become aware of, are affected by, and/or come to understand ourselves in relation to any given ‘world’ as they encounter it in any specific ‘present’. It discusses the nature of perception before articulating an enactive view of perception in action. The chapter presents an extended description and analysis of one example of directing/opening attention in and through a series of simple breath-control exercises in order to open up for discussion the type of pre-performative training actors receive. It also focuses on perception in action, specifically examining attention, awareness, and the active imagination in the work of the actor. Studies of perception have often focused on the nature of visual perception – in the West what is often problematically assumed to be the most ‘innocent’ mode of perception.
