Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik

Thinking Design

As part of World Design Capital Frankfurt Rhine-Main 2026, the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics is hosting a series of talks entitled Thinking Design, which focuses on design as a complex space of aesthetic and knowledge-forming practice. The series brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from philosophy, aesthetics, art, anthropology, information design, sound research, and critical design practice. It explores how design shapes perception, generates knowledge, and influences cultural and social processes.

Library Talks

Libraries are places of aesthetic experience: places to immerse oneself in texts and media and to browse the shelves—in search of happy coincidences, unexpected discoveries in the good company of related books. But libraries are also places of encounter, where people meet, physically or across the boundaries of place and time, amid a multitude of media that can be found there. They are meeting places for exchanging ideas about things that have been written, read, heard, thought, or seen. With this in mind, we will talk here in a cozy atmosphere about the thoughts on the shelves or the thoughts on the way there.

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.