Benedikte Kudahl defends her PhD thesis

Benedikte Kudahl. Photo: Nils Meilvang.
Benedikte Kudahl. Photo: Nils Meilvang.

Title

'Phenomenology of beauty - On the experience of beauty in visual art'.

Time and place

23 August 2023 at 1 pm (CEST).

The defence will take place in Auditorium 1, The Faculty Library, Gothersgade 140, 1353 Copenhagen.

After the defence there will be a reception at The Faculty Library.

Assessment committee

  • Associate Professor Katrine Zeuthen, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)

  • Associate Professor Ditte Alexandra Winther Lindqvist, Department of Educational Psychology, Aarhus University, Denmark

  • Professor James Morley, Department of Psychology, Ramapo College of New Jersey, United States

Supervisors

  • Associate Professor Tone Roald, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 

Abstract

What does it mean to see something beautiful? Phenomenological descriptions can help clarify the meaning of experience, and this is why this thesis aims to make the meaning of beauty explicit through a phenomenological description of how beauty appears. Benedikte Kudahl has tried to show how beauty appears by studying the experience of visual art. Her studies show that the affective dimension of beauty experience is connected to the temporal dimension. Beauty experience arises when art viewers immerse themselves in the artwork’s colors, light, and atmosphere and when a slight distance allows them to subtly reflect on the involvement with the artwork that just took place. That is, when subjects open up to the artwork, they open up to the immediate past. Moreover, when subjects perceive an artwork, they also perceive themselves. When they open themselves affectively to an artwork, they also open up to themselves.