The project "IdEm (identification, empathy, projection in the performing arts)" explores the concepts and problems related to the relationship of the spectator to the performance. The aim is to reconstruct the history, transformations and issues of the notions used in the history of aesthetic thought in the West since Antiquity to think about this relationship (theater, cinema, dance). The notions are studied in their language, their context, the transfers that mark their history. The project, which was supported by the Labex Transfers, is presented in the scientific blog idem.hypotheses.org.
The heart of the project lies in the constitution of an online and open access dictionary, the Vocabulary of Identification in the Performing Arts, of which a first version will soon be available (hosted by HumaNum). Its construction has been the occasion to reflect on what a dictionary online could bring in comparison to a paper version organized alphabetically. With the researchers involved, we have determined a double structuring: by large selected categories of identification (catharsis, projection, empathy, sympathy, identification, distancing, presence, hypnosis) which bring in themselves information on the historicity of the explored concepts; and by key-words whose structuring gave rise to an in-depth work.
See the conferences related to the project.