Time and Movement in Symbol Formation

Abstract

In this chapter I proposed a new way to approach the ontogenesis of symbol formation: the analysis of movement and its relation to the development of action. First, I highlighted some of the essential traits of movement, both during the early adult-infant dyad as well as in temporal arts. Among others, I discussed the capacity that movement has to express vital affections and modes of temporal organization of movements: alternation, synchrony and the repetition-variation form. In the second place, I noted that the social circular reactions -characteristic of the first six months of the infant´s life- are, to a great extent, a product of dynamic and cross-modal modeled movement. I suggested that the variations in the quality of movement, the attunements and the repetition-variation forms that constitute the social circular reactions are elaborations -in the Dissanayake sense- which have the virtue to drive a ongoing flow of the vitality affects. I also suggested a possible genetic implication between the social circular reactions and the secondary and tertiary circular reactions of the sensory-motor intelligence. Finally, I proposed that the elaborations that compose the social circular reactions undergo a gradual externalization process beyond the dyad. Also, that these elaborations contribute to the symbol formation of the child in various ways: (1) In pretend play: the elaboration of movement is linked to the ritualization of action that starts in the second year of life. The elaboration of movement promotes and facilitates a gradual separation between the exemplar of action and its adequate object, while it provides expectations and tensions similar to those of the narrative function (2) In the creation of gesture: the culturally-patterned movement, through which the child embodies the manner of movement characteristic of the culture in which s/he develops, is used with a communicative intention and becomes symbolic action. (3) In temporal play: towards the end of the second year of life, the dynamic and pattern of the movement get objectified and transformed into a third party “out there” to which the dyad adjusts. The movement acquires artistic qualities and becomes action with the dyad´s intention of maintaining and recreating it. During the third year of life, temporal play is intertwined with pretend play, which favours an increasingly significant detachment from immediate reality. All these considerations argue that the process of symbol formation is genetically linked to temporal arts and the vitality affect that the latter bring about.