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Sharing of subjective time and space
Self
Other
Other
Self
Temporal Ma
Subjective time
and
space
Subjective time and space
A
B
Co-emergence of Maai
Spatial Ma
Fig. 1 Subjective time and space and Maai
mutual positioning slightly ahead of time with other players makes it possible to
realize improvisational communication.
To share such a positioning with others, one has to share the time and space
where each person is positioned. However, time and space is not just a physical
time and space, but a subjective time and space for emerging relationships. In
Japan, people express such a subjective time and space through each other's bodies
as the spatiotemporal concept “Ma” (Fig. 1 ) . Ma is a key Japanese cultural concept,
closely related to interpersonal distance, which can be determined by individual
feelings. The proxemics of Hall suggests that such distances are produced in
response to social relationships, physiological relationships, and surroundings,
among others [ 1 ] . The temporal aspect of Ma refers to timing, tempo, or interval of
silence. Matching them with others in collaboration is important. Hall describes the
importance of the interval of silence in communication thusly:
Time talks. It speaks more plainly than words. The message it conveys comes through loud
and clear. Because it is manipulated less consciously, it is subject to less distortion than the
spoken language. It can shout the truth where words lie [ 2 ].
In this manuscript, the term “Maai” is used to represent the spatiotemporal Ma,
which includes both “temporal Ma” and “spatial Ma.”
Therefore, one has to view improvisational communication as mentioned in the
opening sentence of this chapter from the perspective of the co-emergence—or self-
organization—of Maai (subjective time and space). This means that considering the
co-emergence of Maai as the motion expressed outside us is insuf ! cient. We must
also study the mental and physical functions that create the action in order to
understand the mechanism for self-organization of Maai. However, eliciting the
mental and physical functions in a form that is observable outside us is generally
dif ! cult, because these functions are latescent. Co-emergence of Maai is clearly a
self-organization phenomenon that arises through embodied interaction (mental and
physical functions) that becomes possible by being in the same place. In remote
communication, where each body does not exist in the same place, creating Maai
with a remote partner using a telecommunication system that transmits only explicit
information is dif ! cult.
 
 
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