In an era shaped by ecosystemic crises, rapid technological transformation, hypercapitalism, and a socio-political condition marked by global uncertainty, anticipation is a central mode through which individuals, groups, and societies engage.
Anticipation operates through rhythm, rupture, experiences, expectations, relations, isolation, fear, hope, patterns, and deviations within the expanded aesthetic field. Anticipation is simultaneously produced and productive in itself, its possible effects are untamable and unpredictable, yet it is strategically mobilized across economic, socio-political, technological, cultural, and not least aesthetic spheres and practices.
Keynote speakers:
Professor Nanette Nielsen, Institutt for musikkvitenskap - RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion (IMV), Oslo University.
Associate Professor Mikkel Krause Frantzen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, Copenhagen University
Regitration is now open. Please register here.
Please note all A-sessions are held in the AIAS Auditorium (1632.201) and all B-sessions are held in room 212 (1632.212).
| MONDAY 18 MAY 2026 | |
| 11:00-12:00 | Coffee and registration |
| 12:00-12:30 | Welcome by organizers |
| 12:30-14:00 | Keynote lecture by Nanette Nielsen, Oslo University Anticipatory Aethetics and the Listening Body Moderated by Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen |
| 14:00-14:20 | Coffee Break |
| 14:20-15:50 | Parallel sessions 1A and 1B |
| 1A | Peter Edwards: Gardener of Time: An Aesthetics of Anticipation Christine Dysers: Musicking as Waking Dreamwork Erik Wallrup: The ear as organ of prediction Moderated by Søren Pold |
| 1B | Anna Enström: Atmospheric Anticipation: Air and the Reversal of the Possible and the Real Nicolò Pioli: Planning risks and protecting territory. On Gilbert Simondon’s concept of “anticipation image” (online) Moderated by Jacob Lund |
| 15:50-16:10 | Coffee Break |
| 16:10-17:40 | Parallel sessions 2A and 2B |
| 2A | Malthe Stavning Erslev: Calculating Anticipation: A practice-based approach to the attention mechanism Alessandra Vailati: Algorithmic Anticipation. Protention, Rhythm, and the Uncanny in S.S. Lacuna: Prologue Emanuele Andreoli/Mitra Azar: The Future-Anterior Temporality of Predictive AI and the Missing Half-Second: Toward a Right to Intermittence (online) Moderated by Lotte Philipsen |
| 2B | Solveig Daugaard: An assailable archive of anticipation. Amina Elmi’s Instagram intervention and the infrastructures of literary heritage. Marteinn Sindri Jónsson: Innviður // Infrastructures: Curating Anticipation Inna Gerasymenko: The Morphology of Anticipation: Rhythmic Grids and Semantic Haloes in Russian Formalism (online) Moderated by Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen |
| 17:30-19:00 | Welcome reception |
| TUESDAY 19 MAY 2026 | |
| 09:00-10.30 | Keynote lecture by Mikkel Krause Frantzen, University of Copenhagen Anticipating the (Anti)Apocalypse – Worst-Case Scenarios Between Science and Fiction Moderated by Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen |
| 10.30-10.50 | Coffee break |
| 10.50-12.20 | Parallel sessions 3A and 3B |
| 3A | Alessandro Bertinetto: Performing the Unforeseen: Improvisation, Habits, and Anticipation Pauline von Bonsdorff: Anticipation and imagination in early performative play Stefan Marco Schneider: Metaphoric Anticipation: How Imagery Scaffolds Aesthetic Movement Experience through Embodied Sense-Making Moderated by Peter Edwards |
| 3B | Jonathan Maskit: Anticipation, Dread and Mourning in Environmental Aesthetics Martta Heikkilä: The Forest and Politics of Image and Vision Aloisia Moser: Anticipation and Guessing Moderated by Marteinn Sindri Jónsson |
| 12:20-13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00-14:30 | Parallel sessions 4A and 4B |
| 4A | João Lemos: Kant, Expectations, and Bad Art Ole Skilleås: Anticipation and appreciation Sebastian Rozenberg: Sensus Statisticus: Anticipating Human Judgment in Aesthetic Datasets Moderated by Morten Kyndryp |
| 4B | Janne Vanhanen: Anticipation and obscurity: the case of noise music Anna Caterina Dalmasso: Crystal Balls. Predictive Media as Divinatory Apparatus Federica Cavaletti: “Our Time is Now": Reclaiming One’s Future, and its Emotional Correlates Moderated by Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen |
| 14:40-15:00 | Coffee break |
| 15:00-16:30 | Paper session 5A and 5B |
| 5A | Lotte Phillipsen: From archives to anticipation: how AI reshapes visual futures Søren Pold: Inside the Anticipatory Interface: Essayistic Experiments in Chatbot Self-Reflection Moderated by Malthe Stavning Erslev |
| 5B | Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen: Anticipation and hesitation in performance art as (im)material relation: The sublime wait. Anne Busk Bro: Art That Sticks: Affective Encounters and Sensory Spaces of Participatory Art Filip Šenk: The Broad Vision of Architecture Moderated by Maj Ørskov |
| 16:45-17:00 | Coffee Break |
| 17:00-18:00 | Annual General Meeting of the Nordic Society for Aesthetics |
| 18:30 | Conference Dinner at “Det glade Vanvid” |
| WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2026 | |
| 09:00-10:30 | Paper session 6A and 6B |
| 6A | Gabriella Daris: Instruction as Anticipatory Action: Yoko Ono and Paul Ricoeur Sarah Kolb: Rendezvous of Sunday, February 6, 1916. Anticipation as a Readymade Strategy Moderated by Erik Wallrup |
| 6B | Anna Talasniemi: Care, futures and sauna - Finnish sauna culture from the perspective of everyday aesthetics and everyday heritage Morales Maciel & Rostan Davyt: Imagination and Embodied Projection in Everyday Design Vincenzo Cerulli: Anticipation and Negativity: On the Uncontrollability of Filmmaking Practices (online) Moderated by Pauline von Bonsdorff |
| 10:30-10:45 | Coffee break |
| 10:45-12:15 | Performance lecture by Donatella Della Ratta: Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises that May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural. Response Daniela Agostinho Moderated by Maj Ørskov |
| 12:15-12:30 | Closing remarks and farewell by organizers |
| 12:30 | Lunch to grab |
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the conference organisers:
Maj Bjørn Ørskov (mbo@cc.au.dk), Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen (birgittestougaard@cc.au.dk) or Mette-Marie Zacher-Sørensen
