Genoa Events

Call for abstracts: The Aesthetics and the Atmospheres of the Five Senses

A conference at the University of Genoa, 7–8 July 2025

From antiquity to modern aesthetics, the arts have been predominantly associated with sight and hearing. Yet artistic practices across cultures and media have long engaged the full spectrum of the senses. In recent years, aesthetic theory has begun to pay closer attention to how art can be tasted, touched, smelled, or felt bodily – inviting reflection on how each sense contributes to aesthetic experience, and how atmospheres shape and are shaped by these engagements.

This event seeks to investigate the connections between the arts, the five senses, and the atmospheres artworks generate. What does it mean for an artwork to sound a certain way, or to smell evocatively, or to feel warm or rough to the touch? How do these sensory modes interact with aesthetic categories such as beauty, expressiveness, or formal structure? And how do they contribute to the atmospheric qualities of artworks and environments?

The conference will run over two days, without parallel sessions. There will be no conference fees. It will be possible to apply for bursaries.

We welcome papers from scholars working on perception, atmospheres, aesthetics, and the arts. Contributions may focus on a single sense, or on comparative or cross-modal analysis, or on broader conceptual issues.

Research questions for papers may include but are not limited to:

• How do different art forms engage specific senses – e.g., olfactory art, sound art, haptic sculpture, or culinary performance?

• What kind of aesthetic properties are perceived through touch, smell, or taste? Are they comparable to those perceived visually or aurally?

• How do individual senses shape the atmospheric character of artworks or environments?

• Should aesthetic theory move beyond the canonical “five senses”? What about balance, thermal perception, or visceral sensation?

• What is the role of the body in sensing aesthetic properties? How do kinaesthesia, proprioception, or interoception figure in artistic experience?

• Are there distinct forms of aesthetic judgment or appreciation associated with each sense?

• How do cultural or historical contexts shape the aesthetic value attributed to different senses?

• In what ways can artworks be multisensory, and how do such experiences differ from single-sense experiences?

• How do sensory experiences contribute to the immersive, affective, or expressive power of art?

• Can atmospheres themselves be considered aesthetic objects? How are they perceived, and how do they relate to sensory modalities?
  
  

Keynotes:

Adam Andrzejewski (University of Warsaw) – Taste

Chiara Brozzo (University of Birmingham) – Smell

René Jagnow (University of Georgia) – Vision

Jason Leddington (Bucknell University) – Hearing

Luca Marchetti and Camilla Palazzolo (University of Genoa) – Touch

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Please submit proposals by writing to: pea@unige.it

Submissions should be done as PDF files prepared for blind review.

Please submit abstracts between 500 and 1000 words (references excluded), together with a title and 3 keywords.

The deadline for receipt is May 4, 2025.

Speakers will be notified of decisions by May 18, 2025.

Organised by

PRIN-PNRR Project “Atmospheres (ATMOS): What They Are and How They Are Grasped”

&

PEA – The Philosophy of Experiential Artifacts (ERCStg 2021 G.A. n. 101040535)