Corinna
Kühnapfel

I am a postdoctoral researcher working at the intersection of neuroaesthetics, empirical aesthetics, and neurourbanism. I investigate how art and places shape human experience, how they move us emotionally and physically, influence the way we think and perceive the world, and contribute to our wellbeing. Combining behavioural and neurophysiological methods, my research examines the interplay between bodily responses, emotions, cognition, and the environments in which aesthetic experiences unfold. I am currently affiliated with the Arts and Minds Lab, Chair of Philosophy of Cognition, Technische Universität Berlin, where I work in the ERC-funded project Affective Aesthetic Cognitivism and Wonder (AAC_Wonder), investigating how wonder deepens engagement with art and expands understanding. More broadly, I am driven by the question of when and how art experiences become moving, meaningful, or transformative.

Before that, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Platform Neurourbanism, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where I examined how public art and urban aesthetics shape people’s perception of the city and their sense of belonging.

My academic background is in Cognitive Science (B.Sc.) and Embodied Cognition (M.Sc.). I completed my PhD in 2023 at the University of Vienna as part of the ARTIS project (Art and Research on Transformations in Individuals and Societies). In my dissertation, I examined the role of the body in art experience, with a focus on installation art, bodily movement in the gallery, and interoception, grounded in embodied cognition and combining behavioral methods with neurophysiological techniques such as fNIRS and eye tracking.

I am a co-founder of EDGE e.V., a non-profit international association of artists and scientists exploring the intersections of art and neuroscience. Through workshops, exhibitions and public programs, EDGE brings the two fields together and shares neuroscience research with the public.