Enaction

What is enaction? The prefix “en” signifies a “belonging to”  – thus, en-action is a belonging to, a being created by the activity. When we enact something we “belong” to it in the way that it is co-creating us.

Our bodies + action + environment are enactive – they are creatively coming from their intra-related activity, and they are also creatively making them. The now classical example of this is from the poet Antonio Machado, who explains it as a “laying down a path in walking.” Thus, when we say “simply being alive is a profoundly creative act,” it is because “we” are enactively laying down a path in walking… We can really see  how radical and important this is to creativity by taking a moment to consider the “subject” of enaction – the “we” or the “i” is not the assumed internal subjective personal “I.”

The subject is the outcome and an agent in a larger process that it can never be separated from. Enactive creativity shifts creativity from being focused on the human mind. With this logic of enaction we have a creativity that is not simply subjective, nor is it reducible to our intentions. It is a creativity that is always there because of who we are + what we are doing + the environment we find ourselves in.