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 on 17-19 October 2022 and explored the relationships between Beauty and Change through the lenses of different disciplines including neuroscience, experimental and clinical psychology, philosophy, and educational science. The Second International Conference on Beauty and Change was held on 2-4 November 2023 and was titled “Aesthetic Experience: Philosophical, Psychological and Neuroscientific Perspectives”. Following the great success of the first two conferences (more than 150 registered participants each year), the Giorgio Amendola Foundation and the BIP research group have decided to turn the conference into an annual event, establishing a stable forum for circulating cutting-edge research on relevant topics.
The Third International Conference on Beauty and Change will be held on 17-19 October 2024. It will be devoted to the theme “Aesthetics and Human Flourishing: Theories, Experiments and Applications” and will gather leading scholars from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to reflect on how our aesthetic experiences impact our wellbeing and our psychological functioning. Details on the conference can be found at this page