Phenomenology of Perception Around the World is a video series celebrating the 75th anniversary of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s 1945 Phenomenology of Perception. A project of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle and Chiasmi International, the series celebrates the history, impact, and prospects of this book in philosophy, arts, and other disciplines, with videos by scholars and artists around the world. The released videos can be watched here.

Phenomenology of Perception in Japan: Current Trends and the Future — Launch 8 AM EDT 14 May 2021

Phenomenology of Perception in Japan: Current Trends and the Future, a philosophy video that is the sixth in a series on Phenomenology of Perception Around the World, is ready to launch! The launch features the video’s world premiere, followed by a discussion with its makers, Maiko Sakai, Tadashi Kawasaki, Tetsuo Sawada,  Yasuyuki Sano, and Yu Miyahara, from Japan, and host David Morris (Canada). This will be followed by a question and answer session with attendees, in English (and also Japanese with English translation). The launch is via a Zoom Webinar, on 14 May 2021, 08:00-10:00 EDT (Montreal). It is free but requires registration.

In recent years, some Japanese researchers have read Merleau-Ponty in a new way. They published or are going to publish ambitious works concerning Merleau-Ponty. What aspects of Merleau-Ponty’s thought inspired their works? In this video, five Japanese researchers introduce their own works that interpret Merleau-Ponty’s thought as an attempt at critical phenomenology: an attempt to bring about social change by describing marginalized experiences.

Imagerie par Résonance Corporelle – Launch 30 April 2021

The latest film in our Phenomenology of Perception Around the World series, Imagerie par Résonance Corporelle by María Clara Garavito, Verónica Cohen, Ariela Battán Horenstein, will launch 2:00 PM EDT April 30th!

Given the current context of experiencing virtuality as a familiar way of intersubjective encounter, we take the challenge of using Merleau-Ponty’s work as a point of departure for thinking about intercorporeality in virtual contexts. The leading question of our project was: “What are the virtual encounters made of?” Virtuality, understood as a kind of interruption of the habitual relationship between bodies and environment, has a history in our development in a cultural context. We introduce the notion of “phantom Other” for understanding this phenomenon. The “phantom Other” is linked to the phantom limb syndrome presented by Merleau-Ponty in PhoP. While a specific situation summons the limb through a habit, in virtuality, the other is summoned by the phantom Other constituted by a sedimentation of the elements of past lived intercorporeal encounters (gestures, synchronicity, warmness, affectivity, closeness, intimacy).

The film will debut online as part of a Zoom webinar. The launch event is free to attend but registration is required.

Merleau-Ponty and the Toronto Seminar: A Story of Philosophical Community

Merleau-Ponty and the Toronto Seminar: A Story of Philosophical Community explores the significance of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception for a group of scholars connected through a philosophy seminar that has taken place annually in Toronto for nearly twenty years. Laura McMahon interviews Toronto Seminar founder and organizer John Russon and Merleau-Ponty scholars Kirsten Jacobson, Kym Maclaren, and Scott Marratto about central concepts and features of Merleau-Ponty’s work—the creative nature of phenomenological description, the challenge to mind-body dualism, the rigorous engagement with the natural sciences, the nature of institution and intercorporeality—and their importance for contemporary research on the body, intersubjectivity, and health.

The featured scholars also speak to how the collective thinking that takes place at the Toronto Seminar has shaped their philosophical identities. This video is both an educational introduction to some of what is most insightful and exciting about Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, and a reflection on the power of thinking together in philosophical community.

The launch event will feature the world premiere of the film, followed by a discussion of it with its makers and interviewees Laura McMahon, John Russon, Kirsten Jacobson, Scott Marratto and Kym Maclaren (Canada & USA) with host David Morris (Canada), and then a question and answer session with the audience. The launch is via a Zoom Webinar, on 16 April 2021, 16:00-17:30 EST (Montreal). The event is free to attend but requires registration.

Les Paysages Phénoménologiques des Étangs du Limousin

Les Paysages Phénoménologiques des Étangs du Limousin, a philosophy video that is the third in a series on Phenomenology of Perception Around the World, is ready to launch! The launch event will feature the world premiere of the film, followed by a discussion of it with its maker, Adèle Beaufils (France) and hosts David Morris (Canada) and Ted Toadvine (France), and then a question and answer session with the audience. The launch is via a Zoom Webinar, on 18 December 2020, 13:00-14:00 EST (Montreal). It is free but requires registration. Note that the film is in French, with English subtitles. For the discussion, answers will be in French and/or English, and questions from the audience can be posed in French or English.

Les Paysages Phénoménologiques des Étangs du Limousin explores our way of perceiving our own environment, our being part of it. To do so, this short film calls on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s works on perception—and the origin of our own knowledge.

1945: de Paris à Lyon, contextes et réceptions de la Phénoménologie de la perception

The second video in the Phenomenology of Perception Around the World series is 1945: de Paris à Lyon, contextes et réceptions de la Phénoménologie de la perception. The film will be launched in an online webinar on 11 December 2020, 13:00-14:15 EST (Montreal), with the filmmaker Morgane Blaine (France), hosted by David Morris (Canada) and Stefan Kristensen (France). Those interested in attending the launch can register for the session here. Note that the film is in French, with English subtitles; the discussion and Q & A session will primarily be in French, with questions posed in French or English.

They Roam Together

They Roam Together illustrates some pivotal ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty concerning intercorporeality and shared perception. The film investigates the question: How come two beings, having two different kinds of sense of perception, perceive the same things? Or do they?

The film invites the viewer on a journey that explores these philosophical questions against the backdrop of a small Czech village. It wanders and wonders with its main characters, in a triptych that dives into daily situations and inspects the way perception is shared between human beings, and humans and non-human animals.

The film’s intimate visual language explores our ability to share our sight, our hearing and our attention with another living being. It approaches questions concerning embodiment and shared perception through observations of the protagonists’s experience of space and the surrounding landscapes and soundscapes. Guided by the subtle voice-over of personal reflections of the protagonist and quotes by Merleau-Ponty, the film aims to visualize their experience of watching, feeling, smelling, and noticing, in communion.