[CogSci] Call for Registrations - Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change

[Jacopo Frascaroli]

Call for Registrations

*Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change*

*“Aesthetic Experience and the Drive for Knowledge”*

Turin, Italy, 15-18 October 2025



The BraIn Plasticity and Behavior Changes (BIP) research group at the
Department of Psychology, University of Turin and the Giorgio Amendola
Foundation are delighted to invite registrations for the Fourth
International Conference on Beauty and Change
<https://fondazioneamendola.it/eventi/general-information/>, an
international and interdisciplinary conference that will be held in Turin,
Italy on 15-18 October 2025.

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 “Aesthetic Experience and the Drive
for Knowledge" and will gather leading scholars from the fields of
philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to reflect on how our engagement
with the arts and our aesthetic experiences influence, interact with, or
emerge from our drive to explore and understand the world.





*Invited Speakers*

Jérôme Dokic (Institut Jean Nicod)

Arto Haapala (University of Helsinki)

Jan R. Landwehr (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Diana Omigie (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Francesco Poli (University of Cambridge)

Elisabeth Schellekens (Uppsala University)

Eva Specker (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen)

Martin Skov (Copenhagen Business School; Copenhagen University Hospital,
Hvidovre)

Edward Vessel (City College of New York)





*The Theme*

The intrinsic human tendency to seek knowledge and explore new information
has attracted growing interest across the sciences and humanities in recent
years. A broadening range of philosophical, psychological, and
neuroscientific theories are being developed to explain the origins of this
“drive for knowledge” and capture its effects on crucial psychological
phenomena such as learning, memory, attention, and motivation. At the same
time, an expanding body of research is examining the “epistemic emotions”
that accompany our behaviour as information-seekers (curiosity, interest,
insight, wonder, surprise, confusion, boredom, etc.), shedding light on
their phenomenology, their role in motivating behaviour, and their neural
underpinnings. Together, these efforts are painting an increasingly rich
picture of our lives as epistemic agents.

In parallel, a growing body of scholarship in philosophy, psychology and
neuroscience is pointing to the idea that there might be a fundamental
connection between aesthetic experiences and the drive to explore the
environment and seek new information. According to many recent theories, in
fact, aesthetic experiences are pleasurable precisely because they tap into
and satisfy our needs as creatures animated by a drive for knowledge, and
the arts are particularly effective means to meet that need. This
perspective is opening new avenues of inquiry across disciplines.
Philosophers are re-examining historical and contemporary debates on the
relationship between the aesthetic and the epistemic, and on what art
contributes to knowledge and understanding. Psychologists are refining
models of how art and aesthetic experiences interact with and mobilize
epistemic emotions and information-seeking behaviour. Neuroscientists, in
turn, are uncovering how information-seeking activates reward circuitry in
the brain, raising new questions about the nature of aesthetic pleasure and
its relationship to other kinds of pleasure. These research efforts hold
rich potential for advancing our understanding of both aesthetic
experiences and epistemic practices.
The Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change aims to explore
these new lines of research systematically and in a thoroughly
interdisciplinary way. It will gather philosophers, psychologists,
neuroscientists, and artists interested in both theoretical and empirical
research to get a clearer picture of the many connections between our
aesthetic experiences and our behaviour as epistemic agents.


*How to Register*

To register for the conference, please follow the instructions on this page
<https://fondazioneamendola.it/eventi/general-information/registration/>.



*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




*Other Information*

Information about venue, travel and accommodation is available on the
conference
website <https://fondazioneamendola.it/eventi/general-information/>.

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
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