VSAC 2019 · East meets West [symposium]

Eline Van Geert & Joerg Fingerhut
Visual Science of Art Conference 2019 · August 22, 2019 · Leuven, Belgium

This symposium will focus on cross-cultural comparison between art forms and aesthetics in Eastern and Western parts of the world. This involves rather diverse research questions, but as common factor the idea to go beyond a narrow, Western-oriented perspective by including research with non-Western participants, research on non-Western art, or non-Western elements in art, … “Eastern” includes the Far East (China, Japan), but also the Near East (North of Africa, e.g., Morocco or Algeria, the Arabic world, Islamic art). In this way, we hand a broader perspective on art and aesthetics.

Speakers

• Marcos Nadal: Cross-cultural empirical aesthetics
• Eline Van Geert: Aesthetic preferences for neatly organized compositions in Dutch- and Chinese-speaking samples: A cross-cultural comparison
• Ruth Loos: Visual engagement via the written word: Arabic typography, calligraphy and calligraffiti
• Yan Bao: Cultural influence on the aesthetic appreciation of Eastern and Western visual art
• Matthew Pelowski: Zones of silence, zones of freedom, and transformative experience: A cross-cultural consideration of Japanese and Western reactions to voids or aniconism in visual art