Ways of Imitation

Florencia, 12, 13 y 14 de noviembre de 2015. Las revistas Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell’estetico y Nouvelle revue d’esthétique organizan un congreso internacional sobre el debate contemporáneo acerca de la noción de mimesis. Cuenta con el apoyo de la Universidad de Florencia y las Sociedades italiana y francesa de estética. Fecha límite de envíos: 1 de abril de 2015.

Call for contributions – International Conference Ways of Imitation

Florence University

Deadline for applications/ April 1st, 2015

Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell’estetico and Nouvelle revue d’esthétique organize the International Conference Ways of Imitation. With the support of the University of Florence, Società Italiana di Estetica e Société Française d’Esthétique, the conference will take place in Florence from the 12th to the 14th of November 2015, and will be concerned with the contemporary debate over the notion of mimesis.

Starting from the ancient Greece, from Pindar and Plato, to mention but a few examples, the notion of mimesis – “imitation”, “representation”, “emulation” – has been playing a crucial role in the history of aesthetics and in the theory of arts. But mimetic processes apply not only to the aesthetic and artistic field: as is today widely accepted by anthropologists and as Aristotle himself had already claimed in his Poetics, to imitate is an anthropological constant, instinctive to humans from childhood onward; furthermore, mimetic processes (in the form of “mimicry” and “camouflage”) are common among nonhuman animals, to escape predators by resembling the environment or individuals belonging to other species.

The main aim of the international conference Ways of Imitation is to revive and renew the international debate around the notion of “mimesis” adopting a strictly interdisciplinary approach. Through an intense exchange of ideas and perspectives – historical, neuro-scientific, anthropological, evolutionary perspectives – we intend to provide a substantial rethink and to shed new light on the notion of “mimesis”, a notion of great significance for a broad spectrum of disciplines, from anthropology to philosophy, from history of art to neurosciences and evolutionary biology. Among the questions and issues that will be debated: What are the neurobiological underpinnings of mimetic processes, both in human and in nonhuman animals? Which role do mimetic processes play in the ontogenetic development and in the evolutionary history of our species, Homo sapiens? Why has the notion of “mimesis” so deeply characterised the history of aesthetic theory and art theory, especially in the Western tradition?

The congress will be structured into four (4) thematic sessions, respectively devoted to/

The notion of mimesis in the Classical Antiquity;
The role of mimesis in aesthetics and art theory;
The anthropological value of mimetic processes;
Neurobiology of mimesis (mirror neurons and mimetic processes)

Each thematic session will include a 40 minutes-talk by an invited speaker, followed by four (4) shorter communications, selected through a call for contributions. Italian, English and French will be the official languages of the conference.

The four keynote speakers have already confirmed their participation: Andrea Capra (Università di Milano), Vittorio Gallese (Università di Parma), Carole Talon-Hugon (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis), Christoph Wulf (Freie Universität Berlin).

Proposals should include a title, an abstract of approximately 250 words (1,500 characters including spaces) and a short biography of the author. They should be sent by email before April 1st 2015 to:

Lorenzo Bartalesi (lorenzo.bartalesi@unifi.it) Mariagrazia Portera (mariagrazia.portera@unifi.it)

The proposals will then be sent anonymously to a selection committee. A reply will be sent before July 1st 2015. Selected participants will then receive information about the registration procedure.

Organising Committee/

Fabrizio Desideri (Università di Firenze)
Carole Talon-Hugon (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis)

With the participation of/

Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia – Università degli studi di Firenze www.letterefilosofia.unifi.it/
Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell’estetico www.fupress.net/index.php/aisthesis

Nouvelle revue d’esthétique www.s-f-e.org/revue/
Société Française d’Esthétique www.s-f-e.org
Società Italiana di Estetica www.siestetica.it/