LOTLab: Embodied Reading

The human brain evolved heavily with the evolution of the upright walk – but what is left from it? We are sitting at our laptops, in offices, in university, thinking hard and immobile. This is especially true for reading. Even though it is practiced by so many people in contemporary societies, even those for whom reading is one of their main job activities rarely think about how they read. Almost always it is only considered “mental work”. Thus, we tend to forget that reading is actually a physical practice. It involves the whole body, from capturing the text with our eyes to the distraction of an uncomfortable sitting position or a painful back. It triggers physical reactions such as an accelerated pulse rate reading exciting novels or pulling out hair over difficult theory. Some texts also change our physical perception through their formulated thoughts. And we all experience that our…