ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

15-17 June 2026, Belgium

Over three days, the Mind, Art, Knowledge symposium brought together artistic researchers, philosophers, and psychologists from across 42 institutions to explore how artistic practices yield knowledge and understanding. The programme included 10 keynote lectures, 20 short papers, 13 poster presentations, an exhibition of the work of 7 artists, and a closing roundtable discussion with the keynote speakers. The symposium took place across two fantastic venues – The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and Cinematek (The Royal Film Archive of Belgium) – the combination of which was appropriate for the diverse disciplinary perspectives of the symposium’s speakers. Although it is not possible to summarize all of the rich avenues of inquiry opened up at the symposium, certain key questions did emerge around the following themes: similarities and differences between understanding yielded by artistic creation vs artistic appreciation, the relationship between aesthetic experience and understanding, what empirical evidence might be adduced to support aesthetic cognitivism (with a particular emphasis on predictive processing approaches), and the ways in which artistic practice, philosophy, and the psychological sciences might serve complementary roles in developing accounts of the relationship between art and knowledge.

Hans Maes (Vice-Dean Research, LUCA School of Arts/ KU Leuven; ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ President) opens the symposium

The organising team (Maarten Coëgnarts, Hans Maes, Ted Nannicelli, Tomas Vandecasteele) are extremely grateful for the support of all of our sponsors, including LUCA School of Arts, KU Leuven, Film EU, FWO (Research Foundation Flanders), The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image, and, of course, the British Society for Aesthetics. The Mind, Art, Knowledge symposium adhered to both the BPA/SWIP Good Practice Scheme and the BPA Environment/Travel Guidelines Scheme. 40% of the keynote lectures were given by women;  50% of the short papers were given by women; 46% of the poster presentations were given by women; and women constituted 57% of the artists featured at the exhibition. Overall, there were 27 male registered attendees and 25 female registered attendees. Information about the event, including photographs, participants, and paper abstracts, can be found at .