PhD defence Ohad Ben Shimon: Articulating embodiment in knowledge institutions

On Wednesday 2 September, Ohad Ben Shimon will defend his dissertation ‘Articulating Embodiment in Knowledge-Intensive Institu-Situations’. In his thesis, he examines how knowledge emerges through embodied relations between people, institutions, and their environments. 

How knowledge is created

Ben Shimon observed that many people working in knowledge-intensive institutions, such as universities, art institutions, and research organisations, found it difficult to articulate how their bodies, relations, and material surroundings shape the way they work and produce knowledge. By exploring these connections, he develops concepts and methods for articulating these often-overlooked dimensions of knowledge production.

Consider, for example, how a philosophy seminar is not shaped only by the ideas that are discussed, but also by who is present, how people interact, the technologies they use, and the spaces in which they meet. Rather than treating the knowledge-intensive institutions as fixed systems, Ben Shimon demonstrates that they are shaped and reshaped through everyday practices and encounters.

Glowing concepts

During his research, Ben Shimon developed a new methodological approach: ‘glowing concepts’. These are concepts that do not exist in advance, but emerge during the research. They emerge when something in the research begins to gain meaning, resonate, or become tangible. 

An example of this in Ben Shimon’s research is the concept of ‘intensity’. During his research at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, artists described their experiences as intense or spoke about seeking intensity in their work. The term stood out because it captured something important about their experiences, while also revealing the limits of language to fully articulate them.

Some experiences, interactions, or patterns seem to ‘glow’: they stand out because they reveal something about the relationships between people, knowledge, and organisations. These glowing concepts are starting points for exploring how relationships, experiences, emotions, and institutions come together in the emergence of knowledge. 

Prior to the defence, Ben Shimon will give a layman’s talk starting at 10:00.