written by Corinna Kühnapfel

Second-year PhD student Corinna Kühnapfel of the ARTIS team at the University of Vienna was invited as a speaker for the workshop “What is Proprioceptive Art?” which will take place from March 9-11 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

In her talk, she will speak about her PhD topic “The Role of the Body in Art Experience” with a focus on installation art, an art form specifically noted to evoke and require use of the body. Both, this art form, as well as the kind of bodily experiences it evokes have been underconsidered in empirical aesthetics research. Therefore, by presenting an upcoming study, she will outline why and how an empirical study of installation will be fruitful for the field in general, as well as with regards to the ARTIS project by exploring the role of the body as a modality for self-reflection, as well as for potentially unlocking more ‘profound’, awe-inspiring, or even transformative experiences.

The workshop “What is Proprioceptive Art?” is planned to be the kick-off event of an interdisciplinary research project, which poses a radical question: Could there be works of art that are (either primarily or predominantly) proprioceptive in nature: i.e., that have the perception of one’s own bodily movement, position in space, balance, muscle tension, pain, temperature, energy and stress levels, etc., at their core?

Bringing together experts of different disciplines – especially philosophy of art, aesthetics, and art history – the workshop is meant to connect researchers joined by an interest in the phenomenon of proprioception and its relevancy in the art world.

More information about the research project, workshop, registration, speaker and abstracts, can be found under this link: https://proprioceptive.art/