Embodied Feedback: Second-Order Cybernetics and Somatics

Since its inception, classic cybernetics drew on the nervous system's control of movement as a prime example of how communication and self-regulation work. Second-order cybernetics evolved to consider the nature of observing systems and how we, as observers, influence and construct our perceptions. This shift in perspective parallels the development of somatics, which considers the body as experienced from within, from physical therapy and bodywork. Unfortunately, somatics has a minimal appreciation of cybernetic circuitry and lacks a systemic framework for understanding mind-body connections, sensations, self-image, attitudes, and abilities. Conversely, cybernetics can quickly become an abstract, dissociated, intellectual endeavor. How can these approaches learn and benefit from one another? Can a second-order approach help us understand the often startling physical transformations somatics brings about? Can body-based exploration ground conceptual understanding in our lived experiences? Participants Bios Participants: Larry Goldfarb, CFT, RSME, PhD., is a cybernetician and kinesiologist who has been practicing the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education for nearly fifty years. Dr. Goldfarb gave the keynote address at Cybernetics in the Art of Learning, the 1993 American Society for Cybernetics annual conference in Philadelphia. He has taught in universities, hospitals, dance companies, music conservatories, orchestras, and other venues around the world. Engaging and intellectually rigorous, Larry is simultaneously a fun, straightforward, and collegial teacher who enjoys nothing more than building confidence and fostering competence. Larry is a multimedia author and the founder of www.mindinmotion-online.com. He directs teacher training in the Netherlands, presents international postgraduate programs, and maintains a private practice in Santa Cruz, California. Judith (jude) Lombardi (www.judelombardi.us) is a social worker turned sociology professor turned video- ethnographer. She worked with the elderly and adolescents in residential facilities as a social worker for a decade, then she was a child/family therapist and consultant for a decade, and the following decade, she taught sociology at a local university. In recent decades she has made movies and written several papers, usually related to cybernetics. She is a local bee steward, and recently completed a graphic novel, called The Bees’s Needs, about honeybee behavior and their current needs. In her spare time she swims and plays the snare drum in a brass band.