ABSTRACT
Consciousness is most often consciousness of things, emerging from engagement with things in the environment, or with things that they remember or imagine; in the terminology of phenomenology it is intentional. Neuroscientists will tend to treat proprioception as the ‘entirely sub personal, non-conscious’ awareness in the nervous system of the position of the body, while psychologists and philosophers think of it as an element of consciousness. Perhaps the defining feature of the body’s sensual presence is the way it resides in the background. Adorno’s interest in aesthetics was, in part, about an alternative arena in which to think through the subject/object relationship, the appearance for consciousness of an external world. There is something troubling in the apparent simplicity of Counting Sheep. Perhaps the ‘observers’ in the cheap seats have retained some of the privilege of the traditional theatre spectator, able to observe from a distance with fewer distractions what is going on between participants and between participants and performers.
