Talks

2026_June_20: ISfAM Healing Arts Congress

Corinna Kühnapfel and I will give a talk on “Aesthetics and Public Art: Connection and Belonging in the Urban Environment”. The talk will explore how aesthetics and public art can shape experiences of connection, belonging, and social well-being in urban environments. More information

Previous Talks and Workshops

2026_May_9: Venice Biennale 2026, Italy

Together with Dr. Vittorio Gallese, I gave a talk on “Art and/or Architecture: Can We Inhabit an Artwork?” at the Venice Biennale 2026 in Italy.

2026_May_5-8: Congress of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA), Jena, Germany

I co-organized and co-moderated the Symposium “Urban Aesthetics: Empirical Approaches to Public Art, City Design, and Mental Well-Being.” at the IAEA in Jena, Germany. At the conference, I also presented “Towards an Affective Aesthetic Cognitivism”.

2025_December_10: TU Berlin, Philosophical Colloquium

I presented on “Epistemic Emotions. A New Look from the Arts”at the Philosophical Colloquium at TU Berlin.

2025_November_7: University of Groningen, Symposium on Empirical Aesthetics

I presented on “Enactive Aesthetic Emotions” at the Symposium on Empirical Aesthetics (organized by Prof. Ralf Cox) at the University of Groningen.

I presented the book “Theories of Seeing” at a Workshop at the University of Turin and presented my paper “Aesthetic Emotions are Epistemic Emotions” at the Beauty and Change Conference. I then gave a talk on “The Philosophy of Neuroaesthetics” at the interdisciplinary conference Image Neuroscience and the Arts in Shanghai (Oct. 19-25), and presented on “Affordances and Aesthetics of the City” at the Philosophy of the City Conference in Busan, South Korea (Oct. 29-31).

2025_October: University of Turin, Beauty and Change Conference (Turin), Image Neuroscience and the Arts Conference (Shanghai), Philosophy of City Conference (Busan)

2025_June_10-12: University of Palermo, Summer School Embodying Visual Culture

I gave a keynote on “An Enactive Media Theory of the City” at the Summer School Embodying Visual Culture at the University of Palermo.

2025_May_1: Potsdam, Museum Barberini

At the occasion of the exhibition Kosmos Kandisky. at the Museum Barberini, Potsdam (Feb. 15 - May 18), I gave a Talk on “Art and Abstraction. Perspectives from Philosophy and Neuroscience” (in German).

2024_September_20-22: Vienna, EVALabs Symposium

I was an invited guest at the EVALabs (Empirical Visual Aesthetics Labs) Symposium in Vienna, Austria. There were two panels and accompanying discussions, on “Empirical Aesthetics –The State of the Art, panels and discussion” and “Empirical Aesthetics – The Future, panels and discussion” respectively. Programme available here.

2024_October_2-4: “Beauty and Interestingness as Urban Affordances,” Madrid: Philosophy of The City International Conference

I gave a talk at the Philosophy of The City International Conference in Madrid, Spain. I was building on last year’s presentation on the inter- and transdisciplinary “Research Platform Neurourbanism” and discussed the role of philosophy of mind and aesthetics within a cognitive science approach to architecture, urban living, and cities.

2024_October_17-19: Third International Conference on Beauty and Change

I was an invited speaker for the Third International Conference on Beauty and Change in Turin, Italy. The conference was devoted to the theme “Aesthetics and Human Flourishing: Theories, Experiments and Applications” and gathered leading scholars from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to reflect on how our aesthetic experiences impact our wellbeing and our psychological functioning. 

2024_August_1-8: "Aesthetic Emotions as an Enactive Category,"Rome: XXV World Congress of Philosophy

I gave a talk on "Aesthetic Emotions as an Enactive Category" at the “Enactive Aesthetics” panel at the XXV World Congress of Philosophy in Rome, Italy.

2024_Mar_13: “Raum und Geist” Online

I presented research on designed space and philosophy of mind at an online Workshop organized by the German Studienstiftung. “Die Einfluss der gestalteten Umwelt auf Körper und Geist.”

2024_June_3-5: “Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities,” Catania: Emotion and Place Symposium

I presented research on architecture and Neurourbanism on a panel on “Emotion and Place” that I put together with John Sutton at the conference in Catania. Giovanna Colombetti kindly agreed to comment on our papers and we will have a great line-up of speakers (incl. Lynn Tribble, Sanne Lehtinnen, etc. More soon on theconference webpage). Here link to my talk.

2023_Oct_14: “UnRuhe/n,” Berlin, Aquarium, Kottbusser Tor

"Ängste und Unsicherheiten durchziehen die Gesellschaft, landen als Anspannung und/oder Erschöpfung im Körper: Unruhe liegt in der Luft. Und kann in weiteren Unruhen münden. Mit der Pandemie und ihren Folgen, zunehmendem Kriegsgeschehen weltweit, rasanten Klimaveränderungen und weiteren Krisen des „fossilen Kapitalismus“ sind wir umgeben von sich überlagernden Krisen. Diese werden medial zu Katastrophenszenarios verstärkt.” More on the conference webpage). My talk was on “Neurourbanistik: Stadt zwischen Stress und Möglichkeitsraum”