Perception, action, and emotions in aesthetic experience: an interdisciplinary approach applied to environmental sustainability

The present work describes an interdisciplinary project aimed at investigating how theories and empirical research methods of cognitive science can be applied to environmental sustainability. The theoretical framework of this thesis encompasses three fundamental research areas: Affordances, Empirical Aesthetics, and Sustainability. Study 1 attempts to connect research on affordances with knowledge on empirical aesthetics, intertwining our readiness for action with the effects of beauty on perception. Study 2 investigates aesthetic emotions and their variation in relation to individual motivations, analyzing the effects of experiencing a music concert across different modalities (live, in virtual reality, or in 2D) by participants who have different preferences and expectations. Study 3 gets to the heart of the matter, trying to work out empirically whether the aesthetic experience of art made from reuse of waste material may influence pro-environmental intentions and behavior, considering the role affective and cognitive mechanisms, and how they relate to individual traits. This work was carried out at the University of Vienna, during a 6-month visiting period abroad. Study 4 and 5 were conducted at the Greenhouses of Giardini Margherita, headquarters of Kilowatt, partner company of the present PON doctoral program. The former addresses the sustainability of space by investigating how communication through specific landmarks affects users' knowledge and behavior. Study 5, in turn, investigates the specific role that descriptive information can play in both our aesthetic experience and pro-environmental intentions, when applied to different types of art made from the reuse of waste material. All in all, the present PhD project tries to bridge domains that are typically far apart, and to apply cognitive science methods to aesthetics and ecology. Beyond the limitations of such research, the challenge as well as the originality of the present work lies in its interdisciplinarity, and in its applicative perspective on environmental sustainability.