Why is science beautiful?
Many aspects of science are considered beautiful: theories; models; experiments; images; explanations. But what is the role and function of beauty in science? What does it say about the world and about us?
How do we choose between theories of the world?
How do we choose between rival scientific theories when the data fits both? What is the role of the scientist making such choices, and what non-empirical factors can and do they use?
​In what ways are experiments similar to artworks?
​In what ways are experiments similar to artworks? Can the experiment be appreciated aesthetically, and if so, how? Find out in my new book, The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments co-edited with Alice Murphy.

WHAT'S NEW?

I recently organised the Future of Art Conference, sponsored by the British Society for Aesthetics and held at Newnham College, Cambridge. Find out more about the goals and findings here.
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Is AI art really art? Will it signify the end of art? Can it ever be good and valuable? In this new work  I explore how our moral stance towards artistic exploitation, data bias and environmental cost can prevent us from wanting to engage and find value in AI generated art. By drawing on the moralism literature in philosophy of art, and the argument from the imaginative resistance, I argue that there are circumstances under which we could overcome our imaginative resistance and find value in pieces generated with AI.
Read here
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I recently received the 2024 Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize for my article “What Is a Beautiful Experiment?”. from the American Philosophical Association

UPCOMING TALKS.

I will be Keynote Speaker at the Open Minds, October 2025 at the University of Manchester where I will speak about the Aesthetics of Scientific Practice

I will be Keynote Speaker for the 15th International Illustration Research Symposium at Koc University, Turkey in September where i will speak about the Aesthetic Sensibility in Scientific Images: from Hooke to NASA

I will be Keynote Speaker for the Creative Imagination from Art to Science Conference at the University of Geneva where I will speak about the Role of AI in Scientific Discovery 

I will speak at the Energy, Sustainability and AI, Rosalind Franklin STEM Conference at Newnham College, University of Cambridge in April about the importance of developing an Integrated Environmental AI Ethics Framework

© Milena Ivanova 2024