“Drawing Hands”, lithograph by M.C. Escher (1948)
Developing a website is never a simple process. The approach requires one to organize existing reflections by seeking to adapt them to the constraints of the medium used. When I started working on this website a few weeks ago, I had to decide how to organize its structure. I decided to create four main sections that would provide readers with four perspectives to grasp the notion of rhythmic intelligence:
The “Emerging thoughts” section would be a collection of reflections whose aim is to capture insights about rhythmic intelligence, the ways to define it, as a concept which is part of a broader theory of human development and education, and to conceive its development as the focus of a dedicated emancipatory praxis.
The “Dialogic explorations” section would gather observations and interpretations produced through my participation in different settings, including courses taught, training and coaching practices provided in various academic institutions.
The “Resources” section would provide readers with a collection of texts, references and links that introduce notions, theories and authors whose contributions are relevant for the study of rhythmic intelligence.
Finally, the “Research processes” section would provide a space of “meta-reflection” aiming at contextualizing the production of this website and reflecting on the temporal and rhythmic dimensions that are parts of its elaboration.
Such a structure fundamentally translates my understanding of scientific activity.
The first section “emerging thoughts” translates indeed a conception of science as an act of creation. It may not be the aspect of scientific activity the most often acknowledged, but it remains one of the most important one. Ideas – more or less formalized – emerge in different contexts, inspired or triggered by heterogeneous experiences. A significant part of the scientific activity is to formulate and organize them. At the core, it is a creative act, as it requires one to establish new relations between existing ideas.
The second section “dialogic explorations” refers to the fact that scientific activity is always based on the gathering of experiences, whether lived or observed. I like to stress the idea of “exploration”, because it highlights the fact that scientific activity is also inscribed in the experience of uncertainty that researchers have to confront, with all the anxiety is may produce (Devereux). Such an uncertainty comes from the systematic confrontation to otherness and the radical doubt (Morin) that may be constitutive of the process through which knowledge is produced.
The third section “resources” relates to another aspect of scientific work: the activity of synthesis, that relies on information and knowledge already existing.
Finally, the last section “research processes” refers to the critical and reflexive dimensions inherent to scientific activity. It is based on the assumption that knowledge can be produced through the self-observation and the self-correction conducted by researchers as they take their own praxis as a source of reflection.
From a rhythmic perspective, each of those four perspectives on scientific activity relates to specific rhythms:
The rhythms inherent to creative activity
The rhythms inherent to empirical explorations
The rhythms that characterize the activity of synthesizing existing knowledge
The rhythms that shape self-observation and self-reflection.
Cite this article: Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2019, October 7). Four processes to conceive scientific activity. Rhythmic Intelligence. http://www.rhythmicintelligence.org/blog/2020/10/7/four-processes-to-conceive-scientific-activity