Longing for beauty is something we all do. In our collaboration with the Neuköllner Oper, we had the wonderful opportunity to reason about how beauty relates to the research we do in the lab while sitting in a beautiful rebuilt oriental garden in the Gärten der Welt and listening to enchanting music. We were invited to participate in the “Wunderkammer“ to discuss and experience different aspects of the concept of beauty. Prof. Rasha Abdel Rahman shared a neurocognitive perspective on perception and beauty and succeeded in making the audience share the wonder about how human brains perceive the world which motivates us to do our research every day. Together with Bernhard Glocksin from Neuköllner Oper, Prof. Walter Sommerfeld from the University of Marburg, and the musicians Luise Enzian, Tehila Nini-Goldstein, and Kaan Bulak, she discussed how beauty can be part of human relationships with each other, society and nature. Above all, we were honoured to be part of this extraordinary blend of archaeology, history, psychology, and music.
For more information on the Wunderkammer project and upcoming events visit the Neuköllner Oper.