PEA International Summer School: "Experiential Artifacts: Art, Technology, and Experience"

Dove e quando

Aula Mazzini, Via Balbi 5, Genova

August 31–September 4, 2026

 

The Summer School brings together aesthetics, philosophy of technology, and philosophy of mind to investigate the relationships among art, technology, and experience. It explores the proposal that artworks may be understood as artifacts whose function is to generate distinctive forms of experience.

The Summer School is organized by the PEA Team, with partial financial support from the Società Italiana di Estetica (SIE).


Monday, August 31

Introduction

14h00–15h30
Enrico Terrone (Università di Genova), When Technology Meets Experience

15h30–16h00
COFFEE BREAK

16h00–17h30
Workshop orientation
Luca Marchetti, Francesco Pierini, and Nick Young (Università di Genova)

Tuesday, September 1

Art and Technology

9h30–11h00
Wybo Houkes (Eindhoven University of Technology), Technical Artifacts: Functions, Intentions, and Kindhood

11h00–11h30
COFFEE BREAK

11h30–13h00
Simon Evnine (University of Miami), Artifacts and Idealism

13h00–14h30
LUNCH BREAK

14h30–17h30
Workshop: Art and Technology
Discussion of the topics of the morning lectures and development of participants’ handouts.

Wednesday, September 2

Art and Philosophy of Mind

9h30–11h00
Anna Giustina (Universitat de València), The Aesthetics of Consciousness

11h00–11h30
COFFEE BREAK

11h30–13h00
Elisa Caldarola (Università di Torino), Artistic Experience and Mental Abilities

13h00–14h30
LUNCH BREAK

14h30–17h30
Workshop: Art and Philosophy of Mind
Discussion of the topics of the morning lectures and preparation of participants’ presentations.

Thursday, September 3

Experiential Artifacts and Aesthetic Experience

9h30–11h00
María José Alcaraz León (Universidad de Murcia), Artistic Value and the Grammar of Experiential Artifacts

11h00–11h30
COFFEE BREAK

11h30–13h00
Derek Matravers (The Open University), The Experience Generated by Artefacts: An Alternative View

13h00–14h30
LUNCH BREAK

Student Presentations: First Session

14h30–15h00
Nick Wiggershaus (University of Vienna), Lessons from Computational Artworks: Both Technical and Experiential Functions?

15h00–15h30
Lorenzo Zanaboni (University of Florence), Authorial and Non-Authorial Objections to Experiential Artifacts

15h30–16h00
Julian Saccone (University of Miami), Experience-Recipes and Experience-Machines

COFFEE BREAK

16h30–17h00
Matilde Sciortino (École normale supérieure, PSL University), Reconsidering the Medium-Specificity Thesis

17h00–17h30
Alper Güngör (McGill University), Toward an Aesthetics of Cumulative Artifacts

Friday, September 4

9h30–13h00
Student Presentations: Second Session

9h30–10h00
Ludovica Brandi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Reading, Seeing, Feeling: The Ekphrastic Text as a Multimodal Experiential Artifact

10h00–10h30
Claudia Cano (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris), Interest-Eliciting Artifacts and the Design of Epistemic Engagement

10h30–11h00
Edgard Darrobers (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Being Moved by Works of Art

COFFEE BREAK

11h30–12h00
Natxo Navarro Renalias (University of Murcia), What is Appreciated in Everyday Practices? Between Artifacts and Actions

12h00–12h30
Tyler Olds (City University of New York, Graduate Center), The Point of Fashion

12h30–13h00
Feiya Zhang (Simon Fraser University), Liubai (“Leaving Blank”) in Chinese Landscape Painting

13h00–14h30
LUNCH BREAK

Student Presentations: Third Session

14h30–15h00
Logan Wigglesworth (Auburn University), Credit for Insight

15h00–15h30
Lola Martínez-Pons Ortuño (University of Murcia), Literary Entities as Experiential Artifacts: What Does Imagination Have to Do with It?

15h30–16h00
Siying Jiao (University of York), Perfumery Expressiveness

16h00–16h30
COFFEE BREAK

16h30–17h30
CONCLUDING REMARKS
 

Participants

Ludovica Brandi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Claudia Cano (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)

Edgard Darrobers (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)

Alper Güngör (McGill University)

Siying Jiao (University of York)

Lola Martínez-Pons Ortuño (university of Murcia)

Natxo Navarro Renalias (University of Murcia)

Tyler Olds (City University of New York, Graduate Center)

Julian Saccone (University of Miami)

Matilde Sciortino (École normale supérieure, PSL University)

Nick Wiggershaus (University of Vienna)

Logan Wigglesworth (Auburn University)

Wenyu Yang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Lorenzo Zanaboni (University of Florence)

Feiya Zhang (Simon Fraser University)

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