What is a Cat? What is a feeling?

Reading an article this morning on the idea of embodied language acquisition and early childhood development.  

The article is arguing for the idea that language isn't a communication coming out of hazy concepts from our inner world into expression and meaning in the physical world but rather a form of embodied intersubjectivity where the meaning and function of words and sentences is derived from our bodily experiences. 

We have a greater and more embodied understanding of meaning than a relation to a kind of referential platonic ideal of any subject or concept. We have an embodied experience of that thing. 

When thinking of a CAT , for example, we're also filled with associations of the feel of a cat, the movement of a cat, the weight of the cat on our lap, the scent of a cat  that time our cat ran away, etc. 

These layers of meaning are developed through our interactions and become part of our cognition and integral to our experience and use of language. 

I'm reading this as I attempt to solidify my thinking on musical communication and it rings true to my experience of musical composition. 

We develop our own internal schema for what sounds mean as a direct relationship to our embodied interaction with those sounds, our cultural interactions with the sounds, and the feelings and associations with these sound concepts create. 

These make up the vocabulary of sonic self expression we use to create our own musical expression/communication. 

The same amount of intersubjectivity and association presents itself when the words aren't the carrier of our meaning or when paired with words to create a deeper composite meaning or convey a more complex level of understanding for either the music or the text. 

The subjective nature of these experiences and expressions returns me to the nature of communication of any idea, all communication is at best an approximation of true meaning. These layers of subjectivity create an impenetrable wall of association so there is no true conveyance of experience its always mediated by some kind of carrier/medium that misses some nuance, that colors its reception, slightly distorts the meaning. 

The translation of our intent to communicate something into some kind of artifact of communication is reductive. Its hard to get at what we really mean and get that across. 

Bringing this back into teaching composition it leave me with a few things I am mulling over- 

If we are always acquiring our language and communication schemas through embodied intersubjective experiences then when we are composing we should be introducing opportunities for those experiences as ways to build up internal schemas for meaning and tools for musical communication/expression. 

We should also be aware of the INTER part of Intersubjectivity, the ways in which we encounter and experience musical communication will become inextricably linked with our associations and usage of those pieces of communication. How do we create a constructed environment to be conscious of these associations and how to we draw out the existing layers of meaning that students already have and make them a discreet part of the compositional process? 

How do we access feelingful intention? How do we create spaces to provide experiential learning opportunities to build and explore the connection between feeling, intent, and methodology?

The embodied part of learning to compose is another aspect that has my brain itching a little today- how do we use the skills we have to create and influence our world, our culture? How do we create processes that celebrate subjective experience while also teaching the grammar and structure of generalized communication? How do we connect these structural elements of composition to our students as TOOLS for self expression rather than Rubrics to be met?  

How do we make the bridge the gap from the land of self expression to the land of communication without getting lost in the finnicky parts of technique? 

We can't all be capt. beefheart, can we?

Continuing Questions:

Do you agree that all communication is an approximation of meaning? Why?
How do we connect elements of music as tools rather than objects of observation for students?
How do we assess access to feeling through composition?
How do students interpret our meanings? How can we build the bridges of understanding through experience?