International Conference "Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind"

We are pleased to invite you to participate to the International Conference “Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind”. The event will take place from 26th to 30th August 2013 and will be hosted by Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg - Institute for Advanced Study Delmenhorst  (Germany).

The Conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers to take part in a lively exhange of ideas within an international and interdisciplinary community of experts in aesthetics and the embodied mind thesis. Its aim is to bring together and integrate the multiple and complementary ways of investigating, analyzing and discussing the refutation of the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy and its consequences for aesthetics beyond art theory.

The embodied mind thesis that is usually traced back to the work The Embodied Mind by Varela & Thompson & Rosch denies a separation of mind and body, sees meaning, reason and imagination as embodied and ties reason to emotion. In other words, experience and cognition are bodily mediated and depend on the sensorimotor capacities of individuals embedded in a biological, psychological and cultural context that interact with the environment in a relation of co-determination.

Following the embodied mind thesis in his work The Meaning of the Body philosopher Mark Johnson argues that aesthetics is not just art theory. Rather, it should be considered to be the study of everything that goes into the human capacity to make and experience the bodily pre-linguistic cognitive, emotional and sensory-perceptual conditions of meaning constitution having its origins in the organic activities of living creatures and in their organism-environment transactions.

The Conference will present and discuss cutting-edge research that highlights the link of the following research fields to the embodied mind thesis in aesthetics:

• pragmatist aesthetics
• neuroaesthetics
• phenomenological aesthetics
• empirical study of literary aesthetics
• experimental aesthetics
• psychology of aesthetics
• analytical aesthetics
• computational aesthetics
• technology and aesthetics
• robotics and aesthetics
• HCI and aesthetics
• Embodied emotions and aesthetics

Prospective participants are invited to send their abstract (max. 300 words), a short CV indicating their publications (where possible) and the main achievements, their affiliation and a motivation letter to the following address: aestheticsandtheembodiedmind1[at]gmail.com

Applicants will be chosen based on their academic qualification, motivation and scientific interest.

DEADLINE for abstract submission: 15th December 2012. THIS DEADLINE WILL NOT BE EXTENDED.   Notifications of acceptance or rejection: 5th January 2013   Registration: from 15th January to 15th May 2013   Venue: Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst (Germany) Institue for Advanced Study

Registration fee:

The registration fee for prospective participants is 380€ and includes

• welcome buffet
• meals (lunch and dinner)
• coffee breaks
• gala dinner
• registration
• a reader
• certificate of attendance (for academic credits)
• visit to the museum
• shuttle (every day) from the city centre or your hotel to the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg and back
• It does not include accommodation. 

The language of the Conference is English. Participants will present their work in thematic parallel group work sessions.

   
Programme:  https://sites.google.com/site/aestheticsandtheembodiedmind/