This conference focuses on the changing relationship between art, aesthetics and society in the digital age. It aims to stimulate interaction between scholars and artists from different schools and backgrounds. Five internationally renowned keynote speakers approach the relationship between art, aesthetics and society from their own expertise. In addition, there are four parallel sessions in which academic and artistic researchers will present their research in relation to the conference theme.
The conference is organised by the Center for European Philosophy (University of Antwerp), the Dutch Association of Aesthetics (Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica), and LUCA School of Arts (KU Leuven), with financial support from the FWO Research Foundation Flanders.
The conference will take place on 18-19 September 2025.
Location: City Campus of Antwerp University, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen, room S.C.101 and S.C.102.
There is a registration fee of €50 (regular) / €25 (students and members of NGE). Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
To register, send an email to: ng.esthetica@gmail.com mentioning “Registration Conference NGE 2025”
Program overview day 1 (18 September)
- 9u Welcome address
- 9u30 Keynote 1 Lucie Chateau (Utrecht University):
“Anxious Aesthetics: Memes and Alienation in Digital Capitalism” - 10u30 Coffee break
- 11u Parallel Session 1: Aesthetic experience
- Daan Geysen ‘Algorithmic Steering on Platforms’
- Eef Schoolmeesters ‘A Blurred Frame: Experiencing Immersive Digital Art through Everyday Aesthetics’
- Kristof Timmerman ‘The blind. A lecture performance on immersion, disorientation and digital disappearance’
- Kristí Fekete ‘Garaboncias/Heteroglossia’
Parallel Session 2: Gaming
- Nele Van de Mosselaer, Kathleen Murphy-Hollies ‘Conspiracy Thinking and Virtual World Interpretation’
- Afra Willems ‘Imperial Engines: a Decolonial Analysis of Videogame Technology’
- Xiaoou Ji, Steven Malliet ‘Artificial Desire in the Digital Age’
- Bernadette Geiger ‘Between Real and Realistic’ - 13u Lunch
- 14u30 Keynote 2 Cristina Nan (Eindhoven University of Technology):
Title tba - 15u30 Coffee break
- 16u Keynote 3 David Claerbout
Title tba - 17u End of program day 1
- 18u Conference dinner (Antwerp)
Program overview day 2 (19 September)
- 9u Coffee
- 9u30 Keynote 4 Jörg Noller (University of Augsburg):
‘Experiencing the Digital Lifeworld’ - 10u30 Coffee break
- 11u Parallel Session 3: Emancipation, decolonization
- Frank Maet ‘Digital Art and the End of All Neo-Liberalism and Authoritarianism’
- Vinicius de Aguiar ‘Flusser, Opera, and the Emancipatory Potential of Technical Images’
- Lisa Ezrati ‘Virtual Museums in War Contexts Reconsidering Memory and Heritage’
- Virgilio Vasconcelos ‘Animating the Postdigital. Pharmacological Reflections on AI and Artistic Practice’
Parallel Session 4: Art Theory
- Errol Boon ‘One Last Miracle. On Creativity and Artificial Intelligence’
- Y.J. Erden ‘AI Art, Aesthetics (and Ethics) in a Digital Age’
- Alexandra Crouwers ‘Form Follows Machine, Digital Tools, Agency, and Authorship’
- Jacob Voorthuis ‘Aesthetic Judgment, an inferentialist reckoning’ - 13u Lunch
- 14u30 Keynote 5 Sanem Yazicioğlu (Istanbul University):
‘Art and Visibility: The In-Between Segments of New Reality’ - 15u30 Coffee break
- 16u Panel discussion and round-up
17u End of program day 2
Organizing committee
Prof. dr. Arthur Cools (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Prof. dr. Jacob Voorthuis (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, chair Dutch Association of Aesthetics)
Dr. Frank Maet (LUCA School of Arts, KULeuven)
Dr. Marlies De Munck (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Drs. Anthony Longo (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Drs. Alexandra Van Laeken (Universiteit Antwerpen / Universiteit Gent)
Scientific committee
Prof. dr. Arthur Cools (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Prof. dr. Geert Van Eekert (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Prof. dr. Jacob Voorthuis (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, chair Dutch Association of Aesthetics)
Dr. Frank Maet (LUCA School of Arts, KULeuven)
Prof. dr. Nele Van den Mosselaer (Tilburg University)
Prof. dr. Sanem Yazıcıoğlu (Istanbul University)
Dr. Marlies De Munck (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Drs. Anthony Longo (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Drs. Alexandra Van Laeken (Universiteit Antwerpen / Universiteit Gent)