A bird’s eye view. Immersive virtual environments and the challenge of inter-specific empathy

Conférence d'Andrea Pinotti (résident 2017-2018 de l'IEA de Paris) dans le cadre du colloque "Being Moved: Art, film, narrative and the body-brain" à la Berlin School of Mind and Brain

Présentation du colloque

“In order to understand the meaning of artistic products, we have to forget them for a time, to turn aside from them and have recourse to the ordinary forces and conditions of experience that we do not usually regard as aesthetic.” (John Dewey, 1934, p. 4).
Humans are not satisfied with the prosaic daily relation they entertain with the world. They are constantly relating to and projecting towards the Other, what is missing, what is elsewhere in space and time. Humans re-create the world by imagining it, remembering it, narrating it, representing it, and transfiguring it, by creating fictional worlds. The creation of cultural artifacts such as images and narratives are specific features of the human species. Why do humans create fiction? What are the distinctive features making the human world of fiction special?
This international conference will bring together scholars working in the fields of Aesthetics, Archeology, Film theory, Narratology, Cognitive Science and Neuroscience to address the aesthetic quality of human nature, its natural creative inclination and the relation between art and socio-cultural identity. We will explore the connections among imagination, memory, bodily performativity, motor resonance, empathy and emotions. We will discuss their roles in the creation and expression of fictional worlds as well as in aesthetic experience.

Plus d'informations (site de la Berlin School of Mind and Brain)