Alice Chirico on Neuroaesthetics, VR, and Transformative Experiences

Alice Chirico, a researcher in psychology at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, discusses the intersection of neuroscience and art. She explains that neuroaesthetics aims to understand brain function, not define beauty, and emphasizes the natural synergy between science and art. Chirico's work focuses on complex experiences elicited by art and virtual reality (VR), particularly transformative experiences—profound, irreversible shifts in perception. She highlights the Transformative Experience Design framework proposed by Prof. Gaggioli in 2015. VR is used as a tool to study and induce aesthetic experiences like the sublime, which can have therapeutic effects. Chirico is involved in the PROMETHEUS project, funded by Fondazione Cariplo, which uses theatrical sublime experiences to motivate at-risk middle school students. The project involves an interdisciplinary team including educators, teachers, directors, actors, philosophers, philologists, and psychologists, with partners Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (coordinator), Università Statale di Milano, and Fondazione Sicomoro. Challenges include interdisciplinary communication and engaging students. The project aims to create a reproducible methodology and build a network for adoption in learning contexts.