Prominent Guest in the ArtLab
On October 15, Timon Gremmels (4th from right), Minister of Science for the State of Hesse, visited the MPIEA, accompanied by David Dilmaghani, Head of the Minister’s Office (4th from left), and Ulrike Mattig, Head of the Department for Non-University Research Institutions (5th from left). They were welcomed by the two directors Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann (3rd from right) and Fredrik Ullén (2nd from right), Research Group Leader Daniela Sammler (right), Head of Administration Maja Fricke (left), Research Coordinator Keyvan Sarkhosh (third from left) and Mi Anh Duong-Sir, Consultant to the Executive Board (third from left) in the ArtLab, the “heart” of the Institute. Photo: Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics / F. Bernoully
On October 15, Timon Gremmels, Hessian Minister for Science and Research, Art and Culture, visited the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main. The Minister of State used his visit to get a first-hand impression of how research at the MPIEA combines science and art in a unique way.
The guest and his companions, David Dilmaghani, Head of the Minister’s Office, and Ulrike Mattig, Head of the Department for Non-University Research Institutions and National Research Funding, were welcomed by the Institute’s two directors, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann and Fredrik Ullén, in the ArtLab, the “heart of the Institute.” Also present were Research Group Leader Daniela Sammler, Head of Administration Maja Fricke, Research Coordinator Keyvan Sarkhosh and Mi Anh Duong-Sir, Consultant to the Executive Board. In her role as managing director, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann emphasized that the ArtLab is practically unique in its combination of concert hall and research laboratory, with only one exception—the LIVELab at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada—and offers ideal conditions for research into the experience and performance of concerts and other performative arts. Among other things, physiological measurements are taken and subjective self-reports are collected from the study participants— despite the many limitations of being housed in an office complex as an interim.
Together with Fredrik Ullén and Daniela Sammler, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann then gave a presentation to Minister Gremmels on the various research methods used at the Institute: Online surveys, EEG measurements, or measurements with MRI scanners are carried out, but music historical and comparative cultural approaches also play an important role. The numerous artistic collaborations—with various cultural institutions in Frankfurt such as the Alte Oper or the Museum Angewandte Kunst, as well as with contemporary artists as part of the Institute’s own artist-in-residence program INHABIT—were also highlighted.
The Minister of Science had a first-hand experience when Director Fredrik Ullén, who is also a renowned concert pianist, sat down at the Steinway grand piano on the ArtLab stage and played Frédéric Chopin’s Étude Op. 25, No. 1 in A-flat major. Since the grand piano in the ArtLab has recording and playback capabilities, the guest was then able to sit down at the keys himself and feel just like a concert pianist while the grand piano played back the exact recording of Ullén’s performance. “This is an incredibly exciting institute, not least because it brings together two of my areas of interest: research and music,” said the minister responsible for science and the arts in the State of Hesse, summing up his impressions of the visit.
