On September 7-11, 2011, the Young Academy at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina held an interdisciplinary conference on “Body Images in Art and Science” at the Rondo Convention Center in Pontresina (Switzerland). The Schering Stiftung supported the conference as an interdisciplinary dialogue platform on body images in art and science.

The conference on “Body Images in Art and Science” aims to bring together insights from the various disciplines and to examine them in an interdisciplinary manner, in order to identify concrete discursive overlaps and possibilities for connection. By establishing a dialogue between art and science, it also seeks to foster productive conversations around the body images in both fields. Since the late 20th century, the body discourse has become a topic in many areas of research. It has virtually become a fashionable subject in the humanities and social sciences, and has recently also moved center stage in the cognitive and neurosciences. In the process, we can see a marked departure from Cartesian dualism and towards the notion that physical experience organizes our thinking and helps us develop our cognitive faculties as well as an awareness of self.

In addition to internationally renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines, speakers include famous personalities such as baritone Wolfgang Brendel, conductor Peter Gülke, writer Hans Pleschinski, actor Jens Wawrczeck and Harald Schmid, multiple European champion and Olympic medal winner in track and field. Initiated by the AG Klang(welten) of the YoungAcademy, the conference is organized and directed by PD Dr. Wolf Gerhard Schmidt (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) and Dr. Simone Schütz-Bosbach (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig).

The Schering Stiftung sponsors the conference on “Body Images,” because it is a project that explores issues at the intersection of art and science and inspires an interdisciplinary dialogue.

The full conference program is available here.

For more information about the YoungAcademy, please click here.