IDEA Lectures with Ophelia Deroy
Shared Experiences: Does Art Create Common Ground?

Picture yourself at the Städel Museum, standing in front of Vermeer’s Geographer. Unsurpringly, you're not alone: Others stand nearby, quietly absorbing the same scene—the man deep in thought, the soft light spilling through the window, the delicate play with colors. You can’t be sure everyone shares your appreciation of  the painting, but you trust that, at the very least, you’ve all seen the same artwork—just as generations before you have. But is that really true? How much of the experience is genuinely shared, and why does it matter?

In this talk, I’ll connect two significant challenges—one philosophical, the other experimental. The philosophical question asks why the collective nature of aesthetic experiences matters. The experimental challenge is whether we can measure this shared experience. A third question then follows: Can we—and should we—enhance it? I’ll share insights from a collaborative study conducted in five museums across Europe and the U.S., using cutting-edge mobile eye-tracking technology to explore both individual and collective responses to art. The findings not only help us better understand how people engage with visual art but also offer a framework for extending these insights to other aesthetic experiences, complementing traditional methodologies.

The lecture will be held in English.

If you would like to join the event please contact  sek.musik@ae.mpg.de

Ophelia Deroy

Ophelia Deroy holds the Chair of Philosophy of Mind and Neuroscience at LMU Munich, where she leads the interdisciplinary research group MI3.

Previously the associate director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London, she has published widely on the philosophy and cognitive science of perception, focusing on multisensory interactions and the social dimensions of perception and applying these topics to aesthetics. Her work bridges academic research and the arts, with collaborations involving artists and institutions such as Tate Galleries, the Getty Museum, and Haus der Kunst.

IDEA Lectures

The IDEA Lectures (Interdisciplinary Debates on the Empirical Aesthetics of Music) aim at bringing together internationally well-known researchers who discuss questions that relate to the production and reception of music from various perspectives. Musicologists from all branches of their discipline take part as do musicians, psychologists, cognitive scientists, sociologists, philosophers and ethnologists.