Poetic language differs from everyday communication because it often brings words together in unexpected or even contradictory ways. This talk draws on the aberrant salience account of creativity, which suggests that creative thinking involves noticing and connecting things that might seem unrelated. Poets use different kinds of connections between words—through sound (as in rhyme), meaning, and metaphor. I will explore how these connections shape the way we pay attention and create meaning when reading poetry, showing how poetry reveals the mind’s ability to find coherence in inconsistency.

TBD

This presentation examines how psychological and neuroscientific research connects epistemic emotions—such as curiosity, wonder, and surprise—to exploratory behaviour in the arts and aesthetic experience. It highlights how artistic engagement stimulates the human drive for knowledge, linking aesthetic experience to broader processes of understanding and meaning-making.

This presentation explores the concept of the epistemic arc as a framework for understanding how art—and increasingly, new media—engages our drive for knowledge and meaning. It contrasts the horizon-expanding dynamics of artistic experience with the often narrowing epistemic patterns found in contemporary media environments such as AI, memes, and social media. By examining how epistemic, aesthetic, and ethical values can be integrated into the architecture of emerging technologies, it highlights pathways toward fostering more open, curiosity-driven forms of knowledge in the age of intelligent media.

TBD