KOSMOS Workshop
"Mind Wandering and Visual Mental Imagery in Music"
Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
May 16-19, 2018
Confirmed speakers
Prof. Rolf Inge Godøy (University of Oslo)
Prof. Jörg Fachner (Anglia Ruskin University)
Dr Ruth Herbert (University of Kent)
Dr Rebecca Schaefer (University of Leiden)
Dr Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music)
Dr Daniel Margulies (MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig)
Dr Sebastian Stober (University of Potsdam)
The KOSMOS Workshop will be led by Dr Mats Küssner (HU Berlin), Dr
Liila Taruffi (FU Berlin), Dr Georgina Floridou (University of
Sheffield), and Prof. Tuomas Eerola (Durham University).
Call for Posters
The ability to create a life in the mind is one of the most
fascinating human capacities, and of interest to scholars in the
cognitive sciences and humanities alike. Mind wandering is a very
frequent mental activity that is defined as a shift of our attention
away from the external perceptual environment towards
internally-oriented, self-generated thoughts. These thoughts naturally
flow over time and vary in their content dimensions (e.g., temporal
focus, valence, intentionality) and form (images, music, speech,
words). Mental images can create vivid experiences as our minds start
to wander, and play a major role in creative processes as well as the
perception of art. While researchers have investigated the
significance and nature of visual mental imagery in connection with
literature or visual arts, relatively little is known about the
mechanisms and functions underlying mind wandering and visual mental
imagery in music, even though recent evidence suggests that this is a
common phenomenon. The central research question of this KOSMOS
Workshop is thus what are the cognitive, affective, aesthetic, neural
and phenomenological dimensions of the link between mind wandering,
visual mental imagery and music.
Proposals for posters will be welcomed from researchers in any
discipline from the sciences, social sciences or humanities that may
be able to advance a comprehensive understanding of mind wandering and
visual mental imagery in music.
The following non-exhaustive list illustrates some of the issues to be
discussed at the workshop:
- What is the nature of the link between music listening and visual
mental imagery?
- What are the functional uses of mind wandering and visual mental
imagery in music (e.g., evocation of emotion, enhancing
creativity/creative problem solving)?
- How do structural properties of the music relate to contents of mind
wandering during music listening?
- To what extent does music-elicited mental visual imagery overlap
with perceptual processes in our brain (e.g., in the primary visual
cortex)?
- How do mind wandering and visual mental imagery affect emotional
responses to music (and vice versa)? What is the nature of these
mechanisms?
- To what extent do inter-individual differences in personality traits
play a role for mind wandering and visual mental imagery during music
listening?
- How does basic research on mind wandering and visual mental imagery
in music inform applications of music in health and wellbeing?
Submissions should be made electronically in Word or PDF format to
mats.kuessner@hu-berlin.de by 28 Feb 2018. Please provide your name,
postal and email addresses, and any institutional affiliation on the
first page. Start your abstract on the second page and write no more
than 250 words.
We aim to notify all applicants about the outcome of the reviewing
process by the end of March 2018.
Travel bursaries for early-career researchers
The format of the KOSMOS Workshop particularly welcomes the
participation of early-career researchers (MA/PhD students and
Post-Docs). We are able to provide a limited number of travel
bursaries to help cover some of the costs of attending the KOSMOS
Workshop. To be eligible for a travel bursary, you must be a full- or
part-time student or an unwaged delegate who has been accepted to
participate in the KOSMOS Workshop. To apply, please provide the
following information on a separate sheet of paper: name, affiliation,
contact address, email, status, country of residence and amount of
funding sought. Please explain why you are unable to obtain funding
from other sources and how attendance of this KOSMOS Workshop benefits
your future research. Please submit your application for a travel
bursary together with your proposal for a poster by 28 Feb 2018.
This KOSMOS Workshop is generously supported by
- Future Concept resources of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin through
the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and its
Federal States.
- The Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE)
- Guger technologies (g.tec)
