[CogSci] Call for Abstracts - Third International Conference on Beauty and Change

Fri Apr 5 00:00:00 PDT 2024

Call for Abstracts

*Third International Conference on Beauty and Change*

*“Aesthetics and Human Flourishing: Theories, Experiments and Applications”*

Turin, Italy, 17-19 October 2024

Deadline for submissions:  30 June 2024

The BraIn Plasticity and Behavior Changes (BIP) Group at the Department of
Psychology, University of Turin and the Giorgio Amendola Foundation are
delighted to invite contributions for the Third International Conference on
Beauty and Change, a three-day international and interdisciplinary
conference that will be held in Turin, Italy on 17-19 October 2024.

Established in 2022, the International Conference on Beauty and Change is a
highly successful interdisciplinary forum for discussing recent
advancements in philosophical and empirical aesthetics. This year’s
conference will be devoted to the theme “Aesthetics and Human Flourishing:
Theories, Experiments and Applications” and will gather leading scholars
from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to reflect on
how our aesthetic experiences impact our wellbeing and our psychological
functioning.

Confirmed invited speakers:

Anjan Chatterjee (University of Pennsylvania)

Emily Cross (ETH Zürich)

Joerg Fingerhut (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis)

Stefan Koelsch (University of Bergen)

Helmut Leder (University of Vienna)

Lucia Sacheli (University of Milano-Bicocca)

*The Theme*

According to a long-standing philosophical tradition, backed up by
present-day research in psychology and neuroscience, our aesthetic
encounters contribute in important ways to our individual and collective
flourishing. The ways in which they are said to do so are many. Some argue
that engaging with great art offers valuable knowledge about our world and
our condition, our social lives and our relationships, or our mind and its
workings. Others claim that our aesthetic experiences can boost or promote
certain capacities, such as learning, problem-solving, attention, and
empathy. Still others claim that engaging with the arts can constitute a
form of emotion regulation and help alleviate anxiety, depression, and
other psychopathological conditions. Artistic endeavours are also said to
be potent vehicles of self-expression and self-transformation, deeply
involved in the development of our personal identities. On a collective
level, having an aesthetic sensitivity towards how objects, spaces, and
environments are built and altered is said to promote deeper, richer, and
more caring forms of interactions with others and with nature. Plausible as
they might seem, however, these claims are subject to sustained theoretical
debates, and the current empirical evidence in favour or against them is
far from being conclusive.

The aim of the Third International Conference on Beauty and Change is to
probe all these lines of enquiry in a thoroughly interdisciplinary way, to
get a clearer picture of whether and how the arts and aesthetics are
conducive to human flourishing. Philosophers, psychologists,
neuroscientists, and professionals working in the arts, design,
architecture, and urban planning will gather to discuss the theoretical
underpinnings of the various proposals in the debate, their empirical
support, and their applications in concrete scenarios. We are therefore
looking for well-informed theoretical or empirical contributions that might
be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience. Topics include (but are
not limited to):

· Philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives on what
art contributes to our knowledge or understanding, and the role it plays
(or should play) in our epistemic practices;

· Philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives of how our
aesthetic encounters are related to, improve, or impair mental capacities
such as learning, problem-solving, creativity, empathy, attention,
curiosity, motivation, and critical thinking;

· The role of art and aesthetic practices in emotion regulation, affective
scaffolding, and extended affectivity;

· The theoretical underpinnings, benefits, and limitations of art therapy,
art-based interventions, and other applications of aesthetics in
therapeutic contexts;

· The role of art and aesthetics as vehicles of self-expression and in
shaping, defining, and transforming our personal identities;

· The positive and negative impact of the work of art practitioners,
designers, architects, and urban planners on our individual and collective
lives;

· The ways in which theoretical and empirical research in aesthetics can
inform the work of art practitioners, designers, architects, and urbanists
and provide them with suggestions on how to promote human flourishing;

· The prospects and potential perils of artification, gamification,
experience design, recommendation algorithms, and the rise of AI art for
our flourishing and psychological wellbeing;

· The ways the arts and other aesthetic practices can promote or hamper
positive social change.

*Submission Guidelines*

We accept two types of submissions: talks (20 minutes + 10 minutes for
discussion) and posters. For both types of submission, please send an
abstract of no more than 300 words in WORD or PDF format to
beautyandchange at fondazioneamendola.it by 30 June 2024.

Abstracts must be written in English and prepared for blind review. In the
body of your email, please indicate the names and affiliations of all the
authors (specifying the presenting author), and your preferred presentation
type (talk or poster). Each author may submit only one abstract as a
presenting author but can be a co-author in any number of submissions.

We especially encourage submissions from women, early career researchers
and members of underrepresented groups, and we will take diversity into
account when making decisions for inclusion in the programme.

*Important Dates*

Deadline for submissions: 30 June 2024

Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2024

Conference dates: 17-19 October 2024

*Conference Costs*

Conference fee for students (BA and MA): free

Conference fee for untenured researchers (PhD students and postdocs): €100

Conference fee for tenured researchers: €200

Conference dinner (optional): €45

*Student Prizes*

Two small monetary prizes of €100 will be offered for the two best
contributions (posters or talks) by students (BA, MA, PhD). One of the two
prizes will be awarded for a theoretical contribution, the other for an
empirical one. The prizes will be assigned by the conference scientific
committee based on the quality and relevance of the submitted abstract. The
two winners will be announced during the conference. If you would like to
be considered for one of these prizes, please indicate so in the body of
your submission email, specifying which category (theoretical or empirical)
you are applying for.

*Scientific Committee*

Carola Barbero (University of Turin)

Alessandro Bertinetto (University of Turin)

Elvira Brattico (Aarhus University & University of Bari Aldo Moro)

Alice Cancer (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan)

Jacopo Frascaroli (University of Turin)

Irene Ronga (University of Turin)

Maria Luisa Rusconi (University of Bergamo)

Pietro Sarasso (University of Turin)

Sander Van de Cruys (University of Antwerp)

*Other Information*

Information about venue, travel and accommodation will be made available on
the conference website
<https://fondazioneamendola.it/eventi/general-information/> in due course.

We aim to make the conference as accessible as possible. Please do not
hesitate to contact the conference organisers to discuss accessibility
requirements.

All questions and correspondence should be addressed to the Organising
Committee at: beautyandchange at fondazioneamendola.it

-- 
Jacopo Frascaroli
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Turin
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cognitivesciencesociety.org/pipermail/announcements-cognitivesciencesociety.org/attachments/20240405/148fdda1/attachment-0001.htm>