Our Team

Ralf Cox, Ph.D. (P.I.)

Ralf is currently appointed at the Developmental Psychology group of the University of Groningen, but received his PhD at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. His research attention is on the complex dynamical systems and embodied embedded approach of human behavior and cognition, with special focus on the empirical investigation of art experiences.

Johan Wagemans, Ph.D.

Johan is head of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Brain and Cognition Unit at KU Leuven. He has been instrumental in promoting several kinds of arts-science collaborations (e.g., Parallellepipeda project, special issues of journals, Visual Science of Art Conference, Art & Perception journal) and is now leading a growing group of researchers studying the connection between visual perception and appreciation of visual art.

Ryan Wittingslow, Ph.D.

Ryan is an assistant professor in philosophy at the University of Groningen and, from mid-2022, a senior Humboldt fellow at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He also has devastating opinions about art.

Erik Rietveld, Ph.D.

Erik is Socrates Professor in Philosophy. His research develops on the philosophy of skilled action and the affordances of art. He investigates an enactive or embodied approach to visual art and architecture from an integrative perspective, relating complementary insights from phenomenology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. He is a co-founder of the award-winning artistic practice RAAAF, and a member of the Society of the Arts of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Pawel Pokutycki

Pawel Pokutycki explores through concept development and prototyping for interactive media the relationships of new media theory with political/social/cultural/environmental studies. He believes that we must work with the concept of the unknown, as in the Black Box Theory, to investigate aspects of humane technology and ethics in interaction design. iMEMA’s design will make use of a methodology of design based on his own, peculiar interpretation of the Black Box.

Janine Stubbe, Ph.D.

Janine is a human movement scientist employed as a professor of performing arts medicine at Codarts Rotterdam. Her main research topics are : 1) performing arts and sport related health issues (injuries, illnesses and mental problems) and 2) performance enhancement in performing arts and sport.

Rosemarie Samaritter, Ph.D.

As an associate professor of Arts Therapies, Rosemarie's research focuses on the role of the arts for (mental) health and aims to contribute to knowledge innovation in the education and practice of arts therapies. She is also a certified senior dance movement therapist and supervisor with many years of clinical experience.

Dimka Karastoyanova, Ph.D.

Dimka is a professor of Information Systems at the University of Groningen. Her main research focus is on finding the best ways to build complex and flexible software systems for different application fields. She also investigates approaches for developing software systems for data processing pipelines for the purposes of data processing, analysis, and scientific discovery.

Andrea Capiluppi, Ph.D.

Andrea is part of the Software Engineering and Architecture Group (SEARCH) group at the University of Groningen. His areas of expertise involve software development, reuse of architectures and components, open development approaches, Natural Language Processing for feature extraction, software maintenance and traceability.

Mirela Riveni, Ph.D.

Mirela is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Groningen, she has expertise in the topic of human computation and social computing from her previous PhD studies at the Distributed Systems Group at TU Wien. Her work includes mechanisms from network science, crowdsourcing, recommender systems and ML.

Barend van Heusden, Ph.D.

Barend holds the chair of Culture and Cognition, with special reference to the Arts, at the University of Groningen. He has published articles and books in the fields of semiotics and cognition, theory of Culture and Media, as well as arts and culture education.

Rix Groenboom, Ph.D.

Rix Groenboom works at the Digital Transformation research group, which focuses on supporting ICT providers and customers to deal innovatively with technological and societal challenges. His expertise concerns the specification, design and validation of complex software applications for both technical and administrative applications.

Nicole Ruta, Ph.D.

Nicole is dedicated to multidisciplinary research and over the past six years, she has worked with experts in the field of fine art, art history, computer graphics, engineering, and theology to investigate and shed light on the nature of human vision and the complexity of experiencing art.

Gemma Schino, M.Sc.

As a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Groningen, Gemma investigates art-elicited experiences as a multi-dimensional process. Her research interests focus on bodily sensations and subjective feelings evoked by visual and new media arts.

Lisa-Maria van Klaveren, M.Sc.

Lisa-Maria is a Ph.D. student at the Amsterdam UMC focusing on interprofessional learning and collaborative practice. She investigates the role of media and the development of embodied cognitive strategies working at the crossways of art, education and medicine.

Héctor Gallegos González, M.A.

Héctor is a Ph.D. student in the Culture and Cognition research group at the University of Groningen and a member of the School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN). Hector investigates artistic experiences and their connection to gender identity from a biopsychosocial perspective.