[CogSci] 2nd CfA - Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change

[Jacopo Frascaroli]

Call for Abstracts

*Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change*

*“Aesthetic Experience and the Drive for Knowledge”*

Turin, Italy, 15-18 October 2025

Deadline for submissions:  1 June 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 contributions for the Fourth
International Conference on Beauty and Change, 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.





Confirmed invited speakers:

Jérôme Dokic (Institut Jean Nicod)

Jan R. Landwehr (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Winfried Menninghaus (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics,
Frankfurt am Main)

Diana Omigie (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Francesco Poli (University of Cambridge)

Elisabeth Schellekens (Uppsala University)

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. We therefore
welcome 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 the
relationships between aesthetic experiences and epistemic behaviour;

· Philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific debates about the
epistemic benefits of engaging with the arts and how art may serve as a
medium for knowledge or understanding;

· Insights into how the study of epistemic emotions (such as curiosity,
interest, insight, fluency, surprise, confusion, and boredom) can shed
light on our aesthetic experiences and vice versa;

· Strengths and limitations of existing theories and models linking
aesthetic pleasure and knowledge acquisition (e.g. appraisal theories,
processing fluency theories, learning theories, predictive processing
theories, etc.);

· Theoretical and empirical contributions on the neural mechanisms
connecting information-seeking with reward systems in the brain;

· Philosophical, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives on the role
of epistemic emotions and exploratory behaviour in creativity and artistic
production;

· Cross-cultural perspectives on the relationships between aesthetic or
creative experiences and epistemic behaviour;

· The influence of aesthetic considerations in epistemic practices and vice
versa;

· Prospects and pitfalls of potential applications of the relationships
between the aesthetic and the epistemic in education, communication,
psychotherapy, and rehabilitation.





*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 1 June 2025.

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: 1 June 2025

Notification of acceptance: 15 June 2025

Conference dates: 15 October 2025 (Satellite Workshop), 16-18 October 2025
(Conference)





*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 by students (BA, MA, PhD). One of the two prizes will be
awarded for a talk, the other for a poster. 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.





*Satellite Workshop*

This year, the conference will be preceded by a one-day satellite workshop
on “The Repeated Experience of Beauty”. The workshop aims to explore the
phenomenon of repeated aesthetic experiences, focusing on the paradoxical
interplay between novelty and familiarity in aesthetic appreciation. It
will feature talks by Jérôme Dokic, Jan R. Landwehr, and Winfried
Menninghaus among others. The workshop will take place on 15 October 2025
and will be open to all registered conference participants at no additional
cost.





*Scientific Committee*

Carola Barbero (University of Turin)

Alessandro Bertinetto (University of Turin)

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

Fabrizio Calzavarini (University of Turin)

Maura Crepaldi (University of Bergamo)

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

Filippo Contesi (University of Cagliari)

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 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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