Imaginative Affordances: Is the Environment Essential for Imagination?
Abstract
Abstract This article examines how the void in the Japanese garden of Ryōan-ji functions as an active affordance that expands imagination, challenging enactive theories that prioritize tangible presence. By integrating phenomenological analysis (Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty) with an enactive approach (Rucińska, McClelland), it argues that the void, far from a mere absence, fosters mental projection and reveals a dialectic between presence and absence. Ryōan-ji, with its minimalist design, demonstrates how structured absence enhances creativity, suggesting that imagination transcends the observable to inhabit the possible.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Embodied and Extended Cognition
Art
Aesthetics
and Perception
Publication details
- Journal / source
- International Journal of Social Imaginaries
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23–40
- Publication date
- 20 January 2026