The Transforming Representation of the Body in Art from a Kinesthetic Perception Perspective
Chapter from the book:
Akyol Dayi,
B.
&
Özyonar Çırak,
B.
(eds.)
2026.
Visibility and Meaning in Contemporary Art.
Synopsis
This study examines how visual perception is structured through bodily movement and sensory experience within the framework of kinesthetic perception. While traditional theories of perception predominantly define vision as an optical process, contemporary theoretical approaches emphasize that perception is constituted through bodily orientation, movement, and multisensory experience. In this context, the concepts of kinesthesia and kinesthetic perception are evaluated as fundamental conceptual tools for understanding vision as an embodied experience. Drawing on the phenomenological approach of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the theoretical framework of Erin Manning, who conceptualizes movement as a relational process, the study reveals perception as a bodily and spatial experience. Within the context of artistic practice, it is argued that the visual experience shaped through bodily movement transforms the viewer from a passive receiver into an active subject. The research aims to demonstrate that considering visual perception alongside bodily sensation offers new interpretive possibilities for both the production and reception of art.
