Enacting cognitive change through Australian art

Art not only points to the potential for inflection and reconfiguration of the organism-environment relationship, it can prompt specific directions for change by projecting or constructing objects, environments and networks that trigger such changes. In this paper we will address ways the Australian landscape has been used to image this potential along with artists working within the Australian context that take up the challenge described by enactive theories of cognition in their art practices. The essay consists of two sections, the first addresses the way images hold the potential for change, specifically in this case the Australian outback, as seen in Wim Wenders 1991 film, Until the End of the World, focusing on the Australian outback, the technology of capturing perception and dreams and the regenerative value of storytelling. The second section will discuss specific Australian artists that deploy cognition approaches, such as Darwin’s (1859) pre-adaption or exaption (Gould and Vrba 1982) James’s radical empiricism and Daniel Stern’s “breakfast interviews” (2004). To that end, we will discuss drawing practices (Brian Martin) , performance-installations (Melanie Irwin) and our own work in this area, that present real time enactments at 1:1 scale. Our aim is to discuss the value of decompressing experience, which would allow for art to function as a means to move across modes of sensing and modes of transmitting knowledge at 1:1 scale.