Spatiality and embodied meaning of music: On the reduction of music complexity through language

Abstract

From the advent of experimental research on embodied cognition, it was empirically verified that sensorimotor processes, which are the body's orientation and readiness to act in space, condition and regulate the connection modes of cognitive contents, thus allowing the mind to transcend space. Therefore, abstract thinking is inextricably connected to sensorimotor functions and, thus, to the spatial structure of body interactions in the world. It should be noted that the experiences of "occupying" space — sensorimotor — are previous to the experiences of "conceptualization" of space — symbolic. The present work is anchored to the hypothesis that spatial hegemony in our perceptual and cognitive system is based on the fact that the individual retains and prioritizes spatial meanings — discarding the formation of other possible types of meanings — because spatial objectivity offers to memory faster and more accurate performance. That is, it seems that our cognitive strategies using spatial memory schemes to understand the world are systematic processes of reducing the descriptive complexity of the environment. Therefore, I understand that to attribute "materiality" to musical objects and thus construct the embodied meanings of music, we must first reduce the density of the sonic environment, enabling the understanding of the musical flow in coexistent and interacting modalities of configurative coherence.