Papers

Overview

The probably most important paper for me has been Enacting Media, in which I introduce a New Cognitive Media Theory and the concept of neuromediality. It has evolved as a response to cognitive film theory that I claim is too obsequious with respect to the cognitive sciences and ignores twofoldness as a central feature of image experiences. I also believe that we need a more encompassing, comparative media theory that includes new media.

Affect and Emotions play a central in our interaction with the environment. I explore this in multiple ways. First, I defend a theory of Aesthetic Emotions (this paper gives a good overview) that sees such emotions as both constituting our evaluation of objects and guiding our exploration. Related to this, I look into the ways artworks transform us, by defending an Affective Aesthetic Cognitivism that builds on the idea that what aesthetic emotions afford are expansive cognitive operations. So far, I only presented on this in workshops and conferences, but it will become an important theoretical element of the book in “Aesthetics and Emotions” as well. Successful artworks are special in that they are extraordinary objects that afford a multiplicity or novelty of perspectives that can explain the expansive effect they have on us.

Recently I brought all the above together to an exploration of our modern mind with a focus on mental health. The focus here will be on how Urban Density impacts our well-being and how and Urban Mind Science could look like (the very idea of this is found in this position paper).

While they aim at a systematic embedding and criticize other theories in the field, I also listed some art, architecture, and ideas here that I am working on and that are more often than not driven by concert objects, artworks. These are more like blog entries and constitute a collection of stuff I work on.