Ongoing Projects
We have an active, diverse, and (some might say, overly) ambitious collection of activities at any given time.
We are always seeking out the spontaneous, the serendipitous, and the collaborative opportunity for research and have a strong track record in seeking (EU, US, and other international) funding.
Funded Programs
Societal Challenges and the Arts
EU Horizon 2020
Many believe and also would like the arts to be transformative, but how do we actualize this? This project, started in 2020, represents a first-of-its-kind consortium of nine research institutions in the social sciences, Art History, Philosophy, Art education, and Cultural Policy, coordinated by our team. We have the aim to build a systematic program that: Integrates state-of-the-art empirical approaches to investigate specific experiences with art; Connect these to changes at individual (neurocognitive, emotional, health) and societal levels; Capture these in leading museums and urban centers across Europe…
“Unlocking the Muse“–Artistic Creativity and Parkinson’s Disease
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) #ConnectingMinds Consortium Project with Radboud UMC, Donders Institute Centre of Expertise for Parkinson & Movement Disorders (ParC)
Despite a range of motor, cognitive, and perceptual symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), the fastest growing neurological disorder, an emerging collection of case evidence also suggests potential for a burst of artistic interest and often positive alterations in produced art among patients - as well as uptake among those who previous had no connection to art making. This connection could provide a wealth of opportunities for understanding PD and neurodegeneration, for early detection, arts based therapy, and may provide a unique window into the neurophysiological basis for creativity. However, this topic is also in need of systematic, empirical, transdisciplinary study…
Art Experience in the Post-Digital Age {original | digital | virtual}
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) PI project with Donau Uni. Krems, Belvedere Research Center
We are in the era of the post-digital age, where technology is ubiquitous in the human experience. This is also increasingly true for arts institutions. Digitalization and digital modalities (VR, AR) are emerging as tools for curatorial practice and offer unique applications for delivering the arts throughout society. However, to understand and apply such technology we need to understand its limitations and opportunities…
Emotion Communication Across Autistic and Non Autistic People, brains, and bodies through artistic drawing
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) PI Project
Can visual art be a way for people to communicate with, and to connect to, other people? Can it be a way for autistic and non-autistic individuals to better understand the emotions of each other? Can we trace such connections through our artworks, our bodies, and our brains? In this project, we will answer these questions through studies where autistic and non-autistic people express and perceive emotions through abstract drawings, in comparison to facial expressions and language, and using fNIRS hyperscanning…
FALCO: Fighting Addictions, improving Lives: Comprehensive drug rehabilitation with music
EU Horizon Europe: HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03
One million people are high-risk opioid users in Europe, alongside millions using other illicit substances. Substance Abuse Disorders (SUDs) carry heavy consequences for physical and mental health, are tied to preventable diseases, and to disability or adjusted life years lost. In this new project, lead by NORCE in Bergen Norway, with ARTIS Lab as a workpackage leader for policy and dissemination activities, and 20 partners in 7 countries across Europe, FALCO brings together world-leading experts in research on music therapy, addiction treatment, neuroscience, as well as health policy , to create robust evidence for music-based therapy…
Live Love - Aesthetic and psychospatial connections to cities for wellbeing
EU Horizon Marie Sklodowski-Curie MSCA-PF project, Mizan Rambhoros, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, SA; Department of Geography, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Have you wondered what that 'warm and fuzzy' feeling is that you get in some cities? What is it about that feeling that some cities possess and others not? How do we experience this feeling in specific city places or just the urban environment in general? In this project, we explore this feature as an aspect of “loveability” - a somewhat elusive and enigmatic phenomenon that needs to be better understood but which may offer a unique interdisciplinary answer to enriching quality of life in European cities through creative cultural spaces -comparing Barcelona to our local testbed of Vienna (the most 'liveable' city in the world…
Beautifully Sensitive: Art and Beauty Appreciation Intervention for Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Well-being
OEAD Österreichische Austauschdienst-GmbH, Marietta Blau-Stipendium, MacKenzie Trupp, with Radboud UMC
The industrialized world is increasingly stimulating. Bright 24-hour lights, constant traffic noise, busy crowds, and an inundation of media conflict are now the norm rather than the exception. For approximately 20% of the population with a naturally amplified high trait Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) such constant stimulation makes them more prone to overstimulation, negative environments, and stress-related problems such as burnout, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and poor emotion regulation skills. At the same time, differential susceptibility theory suggests that individuals high in SPS also benefit more from positive environments and interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate psychological symptoms. In this program, we aim to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that helps individuals appreciate beauty in their environment...
The Psycho-Ludic Approach: Exploring play for a viable future
National Research Partner-FWF Arts-Based Research PEEK (PI: Univ. Prof. Dr. phil. Margarete Jahrmann, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
The current global crises demonstrate that human strategies based on exploitation have come to an end. These strategies, now leading to failure, are reflected in games and their mechanics: it's all about winning, accruing possessions, conquering new worlds. Using methods of artistic research, experimental psychology, and neuroscience in a combination that we term the PSYCHO-LUDIC APPROACH, we will investigate alternative motivations for game-playing, how we can learn from these about possible future forms of society, and whether, by using new game mechanisms in experimental, playful contexts we may unlock better means of mediating reflection, thoughts, and action...
Your Emotional City (Deine Emotionale Stadt)
International Research Partner-Berlin University Alliance (BUA) – Exploration Projects Global Health: “Exploring and Designing Urban Density. Neurourbanism as a Novel Approach in Global Mental Health” (PIs Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain)
Urbanization is a global phenomenon and poses pressing health challenges as urban dwellers carry a high risk for mental ill-health. Social stress due to built or population density might play a major role here, yet interactions with other environmental and health risk factors are still poorly understood. “Your Emotional City” is a joint project of Interdisziplinäres Forum Neurourbanistik e. V., Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Futurium – House of the Futures. Funded by the Berlin University Alliance as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. Using a specially designed app and a citizen science/ecological momemtary assessment framework, we track individuals’ wellbeing and emotional/aesthetic responses to the city throughout their day, geolocating this to their position…