Musical epiphanies and their experiential qualities : between revelation and awe

Can feelings of sublimity influence our musical taste ? In this talk, I will present qualitative data on musical epiphanies. We asked people to write an autobiographical report about an encounter with unfamiliar music that changed their taste. A particular focus will lie on how people describe their experience in terms of feelings and responses, the metaphors they use and whether this could be conceptualized within the framework of the sublime

SublimAE (the Sublime and Aesthetic Experiences) seminar, in connection with SublimAE ANR project, will focus on the interdisciplinary study of Aesthetic Experiences with an eye to the sublime by bringing together philosophy, psychology, and social sciences. We will explore, on the one hand, how the experience of the sublime connects to other similar or contrast experiences (the beautiful, terrible beauty, awe, wonder, the uncanny, …), and, on the other hand, the impact these experiences, and more specifically aesthetic ones, have on our representation of the self. The seminar will feature presentations by members of the project, as well as by invited speakers. 

Contact : Margherita Arcangeli, Jérôme Dokic
For the full programme click here.