The project of a conference on Beauty and Change started in 2022 following an agreement between the Giorgio Amendola Foundation and the BraIn Plasticity and Behaviour Changes (BIP) research group at the Department of Psychology, University of Turin. The aim for both partners was to develop research activities, initiatives of scientific and cultural dissemination, and scientifically-informed projects of urban regeneration around themes of common interest. The choice of the conference theme stemmed from an understanding of the crucial value of beauty and art as vehicles for personal and social transformation and as means of support in times of change and uncertainty. While the BIP research group has been exploring these issues for years in the field of cognitive neuroscience, the Giorgio Amendola Foundation regularly translates them into practice in artistic and cultural events and in projects of urban regeneration.
The First International Conference on Beauty and Change was held in 2022 and explored the relationships between aesthetic appreciation and individual and social change through the lenses of different disciplines including neuroscience, experimental and clinical psychology, philosophy, and educational science. Following the great success of the first conference, the Giorgio Amendola Foundation and the BIP research group have decided to turn the conference into an annual event, providing a platform for cutting-edge research in the field. Since then, the conference has grown into one of the leading forums for interdisciplinary research in aesthetics, attracting around 60 speakers and 150 participants each year from diverse disciplines and helping to establish new, innovative strands of research in the field.
The Fourth International Conference on Beauty and Change will be held on 16-18 October 2025. It will be devoted to the theme “Aesthetic Experience and the Drive for Knowledge” and will gather leading scholars from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to reflect on how our engagement with the arts and our aesthetic experiences influence, interact with, or emerge from our drive to explore and understand the world. Details about the conference can be found on this page.