Immersion as an embodied cognition shift: aesthetic experience and spatial situated cognition

Background The main hypothesis of situated cognition is related to the origin of mental processes: the environment is thought to be the source of all cognitive processes. However, immersion enables a dual perception of space by enabling to perceive both the routine environment and a new way to see the world. Aims We want to provide a further insight into the transition from on-line cognition to off-line cognition: we want to show that aesthetic experience towards immersive art comes from the awareness that one's cognition depends on the environment. Although this specific cognition is not independent from the general environment, it abstracts the individuals from their idiosyncratic environment. Therefore, immersive art may induce cognitive processes that are borderline cases of situated cognition. Method Aesthetic experience regarding spatial cognition will be described using an approach of embodied aesthetics, that is to say an approach which connects phenomenology of perception and cognitive sciences. Results No experiments are contemplated as of now. Conclusions The experience of immersive art makes individuals become aware that their perceptual processes can adapt to the environment. Thus, the self-experience, which is typical of aesthetic experience, may be the cornerstone of off-line cognition.