Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik

Thinking Design x Christine Knoop

Empirical Aesthetics – Aesthetics from Below?

The Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt investigates how and why people experience art, thereby following (not exclusively, but to a considerable extent) an aesthetic “from below,” as Gustav Theodor Fechner coined it in the Vorschule der Ästhetik. This means that theoretical aesthetic concepts are derived from the actual aesthetic experiences of study participants. Of course, the risk of reducing aesthetic experience to mere measurements must always be critically considered; in addition, the insights gained must be discussed against the backdrop of the findings of philosophical aesthetics. The lecture explains the further development of Fechner's aesthetics “from below” at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics beyond classical laboratory approaches. Particular attention is paid to research approaches that capture aesthetic experience in both controlled and real, everyday situations. Finally, we discuss how the development of methods at the MPI Frankfurt can further strengthen it as a center of research and culture.

The lecture will be held in English.

Christine A. Knoop is a Senior Researcher at Department of Music of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt. Her research focuses on research methods in Empirical Aesthetics, phonological aspects at the interface of literary style and music (such as rhythm, speech melody, or poetic rhyme), the development of preferences and motivations for arts engagement, as well as on empirical approaches to historical reading research. She is currently editing an Oxford Handbook of systematic empirical research in the arts.

The venue is accessible.

The Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics investigates why and how people create art and how they perform, experience, and evaluate it. The Institute’s focus is on music, but we also engage with other performing arts such as dance and film.