Feel free to distribute this announcement to anyone who might be interested.
You are hereby invited to the fourth seminar in
our fourth interdisciplinary series on
<http://ecco.vub.ac.be>Evolution, Complexity and
Cognition (ECCO).
When?
Tomorrow Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007, 2-4 pm.
Where?
The seminar room is B 0.036 (building B, level 0,
close to the human sciences computer rooms), on
the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Coffee and drinks are
available. Free entrance: everybody welcome!
Evolutionary Psychology of Well-being and Beauty
in the Built Environment
Dr. Yannick Joye
(BEDR & ECCO, VUB)
Abstract
In his presentation Yannick Joye will discuss
whether and which specific constraints can be
deduced from habitat theory and applied to
architectural design. The starting point is that,
as a result of evolution in natural environments,
humans have become aesthetically attracted to
specific natural contents, and to particular
landscape configurations. Importantly, these
features are also found to have positive effects
on human functioning and can reduce stress.
However, opportunities for contact with these
elements are reduced in modern urban life. It
will be argued how this evolution can have
subtle, but nontrivial adverse effects on
psychological and physiological wellbeing.
Yannick Joye will tentatively propose that these
effects can be countered to a certain extent by
integrating key-features of natural contents and
structural landscape features in the built
environment. Several practical proposals will be
discussed, ranging from literal imitations of
natural objects, to the use of natural form
primitives (e.g. curvature, fractal geometry) in
an architectural context (i.e. biomorphic and
fractal architecture). Also new lines of research
that build upon the evolutionary framework will
be touched upon.
Bio
Yannick Joye obtained his doctoral degree in 2007
at the University of Ghent (Philosophy
Department). In addition to his PhD thesis, he
has published
<http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=50&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=safari&q=author%3A%22yannick+Joye%22+&btnG=Search>several
papers on the evolutionary psychology of forms in
architecture and their implications for human
well-being, as well as speculations on the role
of complex systems (fractals, chaos, etc.) in
generating esthetically pleasing forms. Currently
he is working as a part-time doctor-assistent at
the VUB (Department of Business Economics and
Strategic Management), where he inquires the
field of consumer behaviour from an evolutionary
psychological perspective.
Upcoming Seminars
Thu, 6 dec: Clément Vidal: Approaches to the
fine-tuning problem in cosmology: an overview.
More information about the ECCO seminars
See http://ecco.vub.ac.be/drupal/?q=node/28 for the full program.
--
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
"... a wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention" - Herbert A. Simon
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Simon>
