I am a philosopher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

My research focuses on the impact of cultural artifacts on perception, emotions, and knowledge. I explore how architecture and urban design affect mental health and well-being, and how images, film, and other media offer novel ways to perceive and understand ourselves. Across these domains, I am particularly interested in how extraordinary works (art) can reshape our relationships and contribute to worldmaking in their unique way.

I am the scientific director of the Research Platform Neurourbanism (RPN) at HU and a principal investigator for the H2020 EU-project ART*IS (Art and Research on Transformations of Individuals and Societies). For my current affiliation and CV go to About Me. I combine my scientific projects in the Arts and Minds group at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

  • Theories of Seeing: An Introduction

    4E | Phenomenology| Pragmatism| Predictive Processing / Media| Aesthetics| Book

    Hier klicken

  • Report on a 4EA Theory of Art

    Transformative Aesthetics| Neuroaesthetics| Enactivism| ART*IS| Project| Fingerhut

    Hier klicken

  • The Aesthetic Self Effect

    Experimental Philosophy| Emotions| Preferences| Moral Values| Personal Identity| Paper

    Hier klicken

  • Art and Embodied Aesthetic Emotion

    Kara Walker| Philosophy of Psychology| Exploration| Evaluation| Draft Paper

    Hier klicken

  • Report on Art in Urban Settings

    Public Art| Urban Design| Neurourbanism| Aesthetics| ART*IS| Project| Fingerhut

    Träume

  • Aesthetic Affordances in Neurourbanism

    Beauty| Interest| Awe| Social Cohesion| Exploration| Evaluation| Draft Paper

    Hier klicken

News & Talks

November 2024, our book Theories of Seeing: An Introduction (with Eva Schürmann) is in print now (Junius, Hamburg).

News Archive

Research

My work is concerned with the intersection of embodied cognitive science with theories of film, media, urbanism and architecture, as well as art. I believe that questions of media-technological developments, aesthetics, and art should be addressed from a philosophy of mind and experimental cognitive science perspective, while such a perspective would be significantly incomplete without capturing our affective-aesthetic relationship to the world and cultural artifacts. I have explored this by working on a New Cognitive Media Theory, initially with particular attention to images and film. Currently, my focus is on the philosophy of the city and the built environment, which I pursue as a theory of neurourbanism, exploring architecture as a central medium of the mind and capturing its impact on mental health and well-being. I also focus on art and transformation, particularly how works of art offer models for the future. This website showcases my work in these interrelated fields.

2024 is also dedicated to finishing a book that introduces Theories of Seeing (in German: “Theorien des Sehens zur Einführung,” w/ Eva Schürmann) and to working on papers and presentations on beauty and wonder in urban environments, building on research we did as part of experiments on interior urbanism and the “Your Emotional City!” citizen science project.

Arts and Minds Lab

At Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin I have a research group on transformative aesthetics, the Arts and Minds Lab. This is where most of my research happens. We focus mainly on one question — addressed both theoretically and experimentally — How do the arts (architecture, images, new media) transform us over time? How does art directly address our relationship to the world and aims at a remediation of those relationships.

To understand how our current technology, cultural artifacts and urban living impact the mind, we span different disciplines (data science, psychology, cognitive neuroscience) by being part of the Research Platform Neurourbanism, which cooperates with citizen scientists and practitioners. The same holds for our art research with the European consortium ART*IS that encompasses art schools as well as well as institutes for neuroscience and psychology of art, for which we also coordinate joint activities with artists, museums, galleries, etc.

Talks and Teaching

I currently teach at the Department of Philosophy are HU Berlin. I have been a deputy Professor for Philosophy of Mind at the LMU Munich and also regularly teach a block course on “Art, Aesthetics, and Media” at a Goldsmiths Master Program. I will either commence teaching as Guest Professor at the Department of Philosophy at HU Berlin or at LMU Munich starting this fall semester. Learn more about my teaching here.

I give most of my talks at conferences and academic workshops. But I will also list some more internal presentations in our projects as well as more public panel discussions and talks at museums and citizen projects.