Keynote Speaker

Michael Sandle

Time, Transition and Memory

My talk will primarily be about my journey as a sculptor , draughtsman and printmaker from the early stages till the present. It will also entail how I go about my work i.e. preparatory aspects and the overall influence of time, transition and memory. I will also deal with the events that have shaped one of the more reoccurring themes of my work i.e. my observations bordering on obsession about war and my pessimistic Weltanschauung . My talk will be illustrated and will be extempore as I never use notes.

Keynote Speaker

Aaron Hertzmann

Toward a Theory of Perspective Perception in Pictures

I propose a new approach to understanding how human vision interprets 3D shape in realistic pictures, specifically focusing on perspective. I argue that most of human shape perception happens in single eye fixations, mostly in foveal vision, and that humans preserve surprisingly little 3D awareness over time. In pictures, this means that each individual eye fixation can have, to some extent, a separate perspective from the others. This theory integrates ideas from human vision science, art history, and computational photography, and suggests new ways to think about how pictures work, and how we can make pictures. In addition, I will briefly outline a more general theory around how picture perception works, accounting for phenomena like tone-mapping (which is present, in some form, in all realistic pictures) and various stylization techniques.

Keynote Speaker

Marina Iosifian

When Objects Become Art: The Power of Context

Defining art is challenging because it is a dynamic, evolving concept. Marcel Duchamp’s introduction of ready-mades—everyday objects presented as art—redefined what can be considered art and profoundly influenced contemporary practices. This shift blurred the boundaries between art and everyday life, a tension that many contemporary artists continue to explore. As a result, laypeople often struggle to distinguish whether something is an artwork or merely part of the environment. But how does simply recognizing something as art shape the way we cognitively engage with it? To address this question, I will first describe how the context of art influences our ability to interpret semantic non-congruency. I will focus on how an art context affects the perceived meaningfulness of non-congruent stimuli and semantic distance. These findings illustrate how the ability to associate remote concepts—a cornerstone of creativity—can be bolstered within an art context. Next, I will introduce evidence that an art context influences the upregulation of social cognition by increasing the motivation to attribute social meanings to ambiguous visual stimuli. Together, these findings offer insights into how art impacts cognition in everyday life.