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Who controls the movements of circus performers? An acrobat in the air can subconsciously coordinate her body to extended her hand with such precision that it could be grasped by her partner, relying only on information captured in her peripheral vision. Furthermore, even an acrobat’s vision is not consciously controlled, because she can direct her eyes without voluntary attention. As such, mutual visual contact with her partner could be maintained throughout her jump. It is thanks to the living body (corps vivant) that such high-level coordination of the whole body, including the eyes, is possible without conscious effort. The pre-reflexive and pre-motor living body makes instantaneous decisions necessary to ecologically adapt itself to the ever-changing environment. However, we are aware of such decisions only retroactively because of the 450-ms time-lag separating the activation of the brain and its perception by consciousness. In addition, factors such as subjective body image and everyday frames of consciousness further obscure the living body.
In our research project on the National Center for Circus Arts (CNAC), which was launched in 2013, we used various techniques to overcome the above difficulties. They included body-mounted GoPro cameras, self-confrontation interviews, and philosophical workshops involving the performers. We were thus able to capture the emersion into consciousness of what the living bodies of the performers produced subconsciously during their actions. Based on these findings, we consider the possibility of emersiology, a discipline dedicated to the study of emersion, and its social implications.