Corinna Kühnapfel

About Me


I am a PostDoc in the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Department of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany). I do research on art experiences and am interested in finding out when encounters with are moving, profound or even transformative. I conduct studies in art museums/galleries, in the lab, or with public art via behavioral or neurophysiological methods (e.g., fNIRS). My background is in Cognitive Science and Embodied Cognition.

From 2020-2023 I did my Ph.D. as part of the ARTIS project (Art and Research on Transformations in Individuals and Societies) at the Faculty of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology at the University of Vienna, supervised by Asst. Prof. Matthew Pelowski and Prof. Dr. Joerg Fingerhut.
The ARTIS project combines nine research institutions in psychology/neuroscience, art education, and societal partners with a specific focus on researching, applying, and communicating the efficacy of arts-based initiatives for societal challenges and health.
In my dissertation research, I investigated the role of the body in art experiences by specifically considering installation art as a form noted for its ability to evoke and require the use of the body, bodily movement in the art gallery, and the role of individual differences in body awareness for emotional experiences of art.

I am also a co-founder of EDGE e.V., a non-profit international association and community of artists and scientists who share a common fascination with or actively research, the realms of neuroscience. Through workshops and art exhibitions, we seek to foster collaboration between artists and scientists and to communicate neuroscience research to the public.

Previously, I worked as a student assistant at Schering Stiftung, the Association of Neuroaesthetics e.V., the Einstein Visiting Fellow group of Prof. Jesse Prinz “Consciousness, Emotions, Values,” and the Empirical Visual Aesthetics (EVA) lab.

For questions, collaborations, or exchanges, feel free to reach out via e-mail or find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Research Gate.