My aim in this project is to study the phenomenon of art appreciation within the framework of nomothetic approaches that are implicit in art studies, both experimental and humanistic. Drawing on my previous research, I will bring in converging methodologies from analytic and empirical aesthetics, art theory, anthropology and cognitive psychology and try and provide an integrative framework for studying the cognitive structure of art appreciation. While recent research massively addresses this question, one still needs to concentrate the data reported across studies around a core conceptual framework. What are the cognitive processes that shape an episode of art appreciation? In trying to answer this question, I will assign a central role to forms of artistic and creative practices that lie outside the canon of fine arts (e.g. indigenous art), in an attempt to challenge and displace the predominance of speculative metaphysical systems in the discussion of aesthetic and art appreciation.

A full-length study is available here.