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Neuroesthetics talk series

Berlin School of Mind and Brain invites to a speech of David Freedberg

Building on the belief that both the arts and neuroscience have purchase on understandings of the human condition, the Association for Neuroesthetics is launching a public talk series, together with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and the Institut für Raumexperiment (Studio Olafur Eliasson). At monthly talks speakers from various disciplines will be invited to present their work. The events will be a platform for dialogue, linking artists, scientists and scholars, as well as a space for interdisciplinary research to be presented and shared publicly.

20 May (Wednesday), 18.30 p.m.,
David Freedberg (Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art, Columbia University;
Director, The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America) speaks at:

Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Luisenstraße 56, 2nd floor, Festsaal
10117 Berlin

David Freedberg is best known for his work on psychological responses to art, and particularly for his studies on iconoclasm and censorship (see, inter alia, Iconoclasts and their Motives, 1984, and The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, 1989). His recent work is on the history of science and on the importance of the new cognitive neurosciences for the  study of art and its history. Following a series of important discoveries in Windsor Castle, the Institut de France and the archives of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, he has for some time been concerned with the intersection of art and science in the age of Galileo. While much of his work in this area has been published in articles and catalogues, his chief publication in this area is The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, his Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History (2002). He is now devoting a substantial portion of his attention to collaborations with neuroscientists working in fields of vision, movement and emotion (such as with Vittorio Gallese, e.g. Motion, emotion and empathy in esthetic experience. Trends Cogn Sci, 2007).


Association of Neuroesthetics e.V.


The sciences, the humanities and the arts approach the natural world and our experience of it from different perspectives. Although traditionally considered separate disciplines, the desire for more holistic understandings has intensified the exchange between them. "Neuroesthetics" is one such node of interdisciplinary exchange, bridging various approaches to questions of art and human experience.
From one side, rapid development in the neurosciences have produced an extensive database of insight that can further our understanding of both artistic appreciation and the processes of creativity. From the other, artists and those in the humanities continually engage with questions of experience, value and knowledge and their expertise is becoming increasingly relevant to scientific explorations aiming to understand these vital human characteristics. The European non-profit Association of Neuroesthetics, which is based in Berlin, has been founded to promote this exciting dialogue and lasting cooperation between the arts and the sciences.

www.association-of-neuroesthetics.org

Further Informations:

Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Luisenstraße 56, 2nd floor, Festsaal
10117 Berlin
phone: +49 (0)30 2093-1706
annette.winkelmann@hu-berlin.de
www.mind-and-brain.de
www.neuroscience-berlin.de