The micro-phenomenology of interpersonal synergy practices

As we move in our daily lives we create synergies with other people on-the-fly. We coordinate conversations through body language, carry objects together, smoothly move through busy traffic, or do team sports. Through our mutual coordination we create a larger whole, a collective function that arises without words, mediated by embodied knowledge. What exactly does it take to complement, modulate, invite or guide actions of others in real time, while the environment evolves? This project aims to learn about synergy building from interaction experts, using methods that help them explore and verbalize their often implicit expertise; from this we create a scoreline of the process by which a collective synergy is built. Three bodily practices are examined: Taichi (an Asian martial art), Acroyoga (acrobatic lifts) and Contact improvisation (a contemporary dance). In all three fields two individuals practice in close body contact and in a mindful fashion. Every moment is negotiated in real time and the joint path arises as it is walked. Taichi contrasts slightly insofar as its dynamic isnt collaborative; the purpose is to create synergies that induce loss of balance despite an opponents best efforts to prevent this. We will invite experts to workshops, record them while they practice together with two cameras, and ask them to comment on the video-feedback; we have them explore variations of form or dynamics to discover differences that make a difference, explore boundaries, and find action alternatives. To ensure high temporal resolution of these reports we use micro-phenomenological interviewing tools that guide the experts attention to small interaction details. This will include trigger signals for starting, continuing, stopping or rerouting an action; skills for inviting and manipulating others; techniques used to maintain enabling geometries and balance between bodies or to stepwise build collective anatomy structures (e.g. connective force arcs, self-supporting bone alignment architectures or levers between bodies); skills for negotiating critical moments, repairing errors and developing novel options; and finally the individuals bodily pre-organization that makes all this possible. Micro-phenomenology puts the rich experiential knowledge of experts under the magnifying glass. While research on expertise and sports has applied similar methods, our zoom factor is innovative. It hands us a systematic and stereoscopic process audit, which tracks the micro-scale assembly of collective patterns and captures how varying aims or external conditions shape this. We expect multiple benefits: The data can inform biomechanic studies and interaction simulations; interaction pedagogy can benefit (e.g. train the trainer; self-observation); and Embodied Cognitive Science will welcome a fine-grained account explaining how structures of intercorporeality arise and which attentional, perceptual and regulation mechanisms support these ensemble functions.

The project applied the framework of interpersonal synergy to sophisticated interaction skills, with case-studies of partner interaction in acrobatics and a martial art, Taichi. In a research field where quantitative interaction metrics dominate, we pioneered an approach capitalizing on experts' rich subjective body knowledge. We met with experts in 4-hour workshops, where we video-graphed their interaction, did detailed interviews on their perceptions and action strategies, and reconstructed process timelines in detail down to the sub-second timescale. In interpersonal synergies multiple individuals closely coordinate their behavior in real time to contribute to particular collective purposes or functions. This requires embodied know-how for dynamically complementing each other, founded on the ability to extend the cognitive and perceptual system "beyond the skin". This requires inter-kinesthetic responsiveness and skillfully managing the "collective physics" when myofascial, skeletal, and balance systems temporarily merge. Our findings indicate that synergies and their interpersonal negotiation process follows shared principles, yet also differs between domains, e.g. with respect to the role of improvisation, mechanical interaction, role symmetry and collaborative ethos. For example, the interaction in partner acrobatics is cooperative: Lift techniques create sophisticated support architectures based on aligned limb geometries and compression-tension configurations; other techniques repeatedly loop through different poses or involve dynamic flips. Acrobats know these canonical practice sequences, their challenges and contingency procedures as well as transitional "check-points" to abort or correct deviations. However, the timing and details always need to be micro-negotiated through hand pressure, breathing, or brief verbalizations. Inter-kinaesthetic reactivity here presupposes skills for sensing the other's readiness, skeletal alignment, center of gravity, weight transfers, muscle tension, etc. In contrast, Taichi partner practice ("push hands") is competitive. It aims at breaking an opponent's balance within an improvised dynamic. Effects such as elastic rebounds and "uprooting" the opponent are sought by both parties, which exploit inter-body synergies. Practitioners induce these against the opponent's will by "repurposing" their force to provoke openings or opportunities to push. They use their precise positioning and a well-organized inner body to absorb, store, and channel incoming forces so they create "passive dynamic" effects between the bodies. Different to collaborative contexts, the bodily communication primarily utilizes lures, sensory subterfuge, and subtle manipulations unnoticed by the opponent. Overall, the project contributes a precise micro-phenomenological description of skill and action components that underlie sophisticated interaction feats - from deep embodied habits to short-lived reaction skills - as well as the physical communication dynamics needed to negotiate collective embodied meanings. Our strategy of tapping into the practical knowledge of highly specialized interaction experts benefits training science, practitioner reflection and embodied cognition theory alike. It also provides new ways to think about the myriad, if less conspicuous synergies that pervade our everyday embodied coordination with others.