Ass.-Prof. Matthew Pelowski, PhD
Winter term 2024
200143 SE Vertiefungsseminar: Geist und Gehirn - Fundamental Topics in Cognitive Science
540012 SE DissertantInnen-Seminar - Perception and Neuroaesthetics
Summer term 2024
200252 SE Vertiefungsseminar: Geist und Gehirn - Fundamental Topics in Cognitive Science + Colloquium
540012 SE DissertantInnen-Seminar - Perception and Neuroaesthetics
Winter term 2023
540012 SE DissertantInnen-Seminar - Neuroaesthetics: beauty, attraction, and the arts







Weingarden, L. S., Pelowski, M., & Kühnapfel, C. (2024). Embodying the photographic image: Charles Marville’s Old Paris and New Paris series. In C. Vial Kayser (Ed.), Art as Experience of the Living Body: An East/West dialogue (1 ed., pp. 261-291). Vernon Press.













How do we best combat prejudice and discrimination against refugees, asylum seekers & migrants with the arts? INTRODUCING A DECOLONIAL APPROACH TO EMPIRICAL AESTHETICS

Srestha Chakraborty (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

10 Jul 202413 Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Finding creativity, (re)defining oneself: Improving Parkinson’s disease patients‘ wellbeing via meaningful, creative arts-based interventions

Paula Angermair (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Finding meaning in our mortality through ‘meaningless’ encounters with abstract art

Christina Makri (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Meaning makes the difference: distinguishing art-experiences in the brain

Theresa Demmer (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Meaning makes the difference: distinguishing art-experiences that make you feel better from those that also make you a better person.

Stephanie Miller (Speaker), Katherine Cotter (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Jul 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Reading Emotions in Art: Do autistic traits influence how we perceive emotions through art?

Young Ah Kim (Speaker), Elif Gülen (Contributor), Kamilla Lauer (Contributor), Theresa Demmer (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor), Giorgia Silani (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

17 May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Across minds and masterpieces: A multi-brain approach to identifying ‘universal resonance’ to art

Theresa Demmer (Speaker), Young Ah Kim (Contributor), Julia Schabasser (Contributor), Tao Liu (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Art in urban spaces: Assessing the psychological and societal effects of two public art exhibitions in Berlin

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), MacKenzie Trupp (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor)

May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Extraordinary tools: A (brief) discussion of the multifaceted impact of aesthetics, creativity, arts (on the brain…)

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


The prospect and promise of neuromodulation in creativity research

Franz Schmid (Speaker), Paula Angermair (Contributor), Blanca Thea Maria Spee (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Julia Sophia Crone (Contributor)

May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


While viewing the artwork, I felt... Using network and latent profile analyses to identify and characterize supraordinate varieties of art-experience.

Stephanie Miller (Speaker), Katherine Cotter (Contributor), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

May 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Classifying Art-Experiences: a new approach to exploring variance in the impact of arts engagement.

Stephanie Miller (Speaker), Katherine Cotter (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Mar 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


How do we experience art? Using network and latent profile analyses to identify and characterize varieties of art-experience.

Stephanie Miller (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Feb 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Move me, astonish me, make me shudder, rage, ...or don't: Capturing and Applying our nuanced (but also shared?) ways of engaging Art

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

Feb 2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


A Journey to a matched control condition for art-based beauty appreciation for highly sensitive people

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), Aleksandra Igdalova (Contributor), Blanca Thea Maria Spee (Contributor), Eftychia Stamkou (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Corinna Greven (Contributor)

2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Art as a predictor of Neurodegenerative disease?

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


The evidence base and the suggested mechanisms for the well-being impacts of engaging visual art—A systematic review

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), Claire Howlin (Contributor), Anna Fekete (Contributor), Julian Kutsche (Contributor), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


The Power of the Arts and Culture for People’s Well-being and Inclusion

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


Unlocking the transformative power of arts—The ARTIS Lab

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2024

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Empirically and theoretically capturing and Latent Profile Modelling of our shared ways of responding to art

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

Oct 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


The (brain of the) Artist is present: Comparing brain synchrony and the transformative potential of performance art in an art vs. non-art context

Theresa Demmer (Speaker), Max Schuber (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

26 Aug 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


What did the art mean? A case study of an installation by artist Anselm Kiefer.

Stephanie Miller (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

26 Aug 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Entrances In: Priming Strategies to Enhance the Well-being Impact of Art Viewing at the National Gallery, London.

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), R. Landau (Contributor), K. Templer-Lewis (Contributor), Aleksandra Igdalova (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor), Giacomo Bignardi (Contributor), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor), Rebecca Chamberlain (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

3 Aug 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Art as intervention: On the effects of a street-level gallery exhibition on neighbourhood connectedness, satisfaction, and psychological wellbeing

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), Giulia Cabbai (Contributor), Jesse Prinz (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor)

Aug 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


How do we move in front of art? Classifying visitor movement types in relation to emotion and evaluations in a gallery-like setting

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Loveability as an Holistic Approach to Placemaking: the Connection between Uplifting Experiences and Creative Cultural Spaces for Psycho-Spatial Wellbeing

Mizan Rambhoros (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

28 Jul 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


What is the evidence that art viewing can impact well-being?

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

19 Jul 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Societal value of Arts and Culture and the impact on Well-being, Mental Health and Inclusion for all

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

Jun 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


The ARTIS Lab

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

Apr 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public



Is it the Prime or the Provenance? Investigating art experience with AI and human-generated art using fNIRS

Theresa Rahel Demmer (Speaker), Nina Fasan (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

3 Feb 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Welcome to Hell - the influence of gallery lighting on aesthetic experience of The Last Judgement by H. Bosch

Stephanie Miller (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Feb 2023

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science



Welcome to Hell - the influence of intentionally designed gallery lighting on aesthetic experience of The Last Judgement by H.Bosch

Stephanie Miller (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Sep 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Who benefits from art and how: The role of pleasure, meaning and aesthetic responsiveness in art interventions

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

31 Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Unlocking the Muse: Insights Into If, When, and Why Artistic Creativity Might Emerge, Change, or be Applied as Arts-Based Intervention in People with Parkinson's Disease

Blanca Thea Maria Spee (Speaker), Thieme Stap (Contributor), Julia Sophia Crone (Contributor), Jan-Jurjen Koksma (Speaker), Marjan Meinders (Contributor), Sirwan Darweesh (Contributor), Bastiaan R. Bloem (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

27 Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science



Can you feel the difference? – A fNIRS study exploring emotional experience and perceived intentionality in AI and human generated art

Theresa Demmer (Speaker), Nina Fasan (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Cross-cultural comparison of emotion recognition in abstract drawings

Rebecca Chamberlain (Speaker), Margot Dehove (Contributor), Jan Mikuni (Contributor), Takumi Tanaka (Contributor), Tomohiro Ishizu (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), Helmut Leder (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Empirical aesthetics for installation art: The role of the body in the experience of Tomás Saraceno’s installation artwork “In Orbit”

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


How do we move in front of art; How does this impact art experience? A study of mobile eye-and movement- tracking, emotion, and evaluations in an ecologically-valid gallery setting

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker), Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Only one Monet in-person and online: How does an online art intervention compare to an in-gallery art intervention for anxiety and mood?

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), laura ehrlich (Contributor), Anna Fekete (Contributor), Eva Specker (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Using eye tracking to understand the relationship between visual complexity of geometrical organizations, perceptual fluency, and aesthetic preferences

Dilara Beder (Speaker), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Çağrı Imamoğlu (Contributor)

Aug 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science



Emotion sharing and empathy through art: A study of artist and viewer connections in behaviour and brain using fNIRS hyperscanning

Theresa Demmer (Speaker), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Jul 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Attractiveness of variety (with lighting)

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

Mar 2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


AON Working Table on Aesthetic Cognitivism

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


ARTIS Project: Tracking the ability of visual art as a vehicle for transforming attitudes, behaviours, health

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


The power of the arts for people’s wellbeing

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2022

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


“critical respondent” dialogue with Alexander Damianisch

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

28 Oct 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public



Assessing transformations through art?

Joerg Fingerhut (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

Sep 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Can a brief interaction with online, digital art make you feel better? A comparative study of the impact of online art and culture presentations on mood, state-anxiety, loneliness, and subjective wellbeing

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), Giacomo Bignardi (Contributor), Eva Specker (Contributor), Kirren Kartar Kaur Chana (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Sep 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Delivering Art interventions for Wellbeing Online

MacKenzie Trupp (Speaker), Giacomo Bignardi (Contributor), Kirren Kartar Kaur Chana (Contributor), Eva Specker (Contributor) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Sep 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


How do we move in front of art; How does this impact art experience? A study of mobile eye- and movement-tracking, emotion, and evaluations in an ecologically-valid gallery setting

Corinna Kühnapfel (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Sep 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


The arts and AI

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

25 May 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


Embodied and extended sensing, Co-corporeality Seminar

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

22 Apr 2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


From the Prairie to Japan—artist to Cognitive Neuroscientist: Navigating the ins and outs of a (traditional?) career path in academics

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public



What can art do? Empirical investigations into the depth, scope, and implications of our shared art experiences

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2021

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Back behind the Brillo Box: From can we study ‘Art,’ to what can, could, and might art do?

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2020

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


What can art do? Empirical investigations into our shared art experiences

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

2020

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Public


Can you really feel what I do? Behavioral and brain studies on empathic and emotional connections between viewers and artists

Matthew Pelowski (Invited speaker)

Dec 2019

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


How can engagement in the arts effect our emotional lives?

Eva Specker (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Oct 2019

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science



From conception to reception – How artistic intentions transform to viewers’ emotions in contemporary art.

Patrick Markey (Speaker), Jane Boddy (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor), Eva Specker (Contributor), Felix Haiduk (Contributor), Beatrice Immelmann (Contributor), Paula Ibanez de Aldecoa de Elera (Contributor) & Hillary Jean-Joseph (Contributor)

30 Aug 2018

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Can causative brain manipulation really improve ability to produce art?

Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

Aug 2018

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Do you feel like I do? Spontaneous and deliberate emotion sharing and understanding between artists and perceivers of Installation art

Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

Aug 2018

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Is red warm for everyone? Assessing the agreement on aesthetic effects of artworks

Eva Specker (Speaker) & Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

Aug 2018

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


New Directions in Empirical Aesthetics. 実験美学の新たな方向性

Helmut Leder (Keynote speaker), Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker), Raphael Rosenberg (Keynote speaker), Hideaki Kawabata (Keynote speaker), Eva Specker (Keynote speaker), Hanna Brinkmann (Keynote speaker) & Patrick Markey (Keynote speaker)

7 Mar 20178 Mar 2017

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


All liberals like abstract art except for me

Jon O. Lauring (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor), Michael Forster (Speaker), Ron Kupers (Contributor) & Helmut Leder (Contributor)

30 Aug 2016

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science



All liberals like abstract art except for me

Matthew Pelowski (Contributor)

2016

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


Baumgarten Award presentation

Matthew Pelowski (Keynote speaker)

2016

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


But what does the brain do to our experience of art? A new integrated model of aesthetic experience

Matthew Pelowski (Speaker)

2016

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionOther


Edmund de Belamy and the art of transmitting emotions - exploring perception and emotion sharing in AI generated art using fNIRS

Theresa Demmer (Speaker), Nina Fasan (Contributor), Corinna Kühnapfel (Contributor), Matthew Pelowski (Contributor) & Joerg Fingerhut (Contributor)

Aug 0002

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science


Vienna Cognitive Science Hub

Kolingasse 14-16
1090 Wien

T: +43-1-4277-47112

matthew.pelowski@univie.ac.at