# ESA Annual Conference 2026 **European Society of Aesthetics Annual Conference** Accepted paper: **"What Makes a Typeface Beautiful?"** (Submission ID 9679). ## Key Dates | | | |---|---| | **Submission Deadline** | January 15, 2026 | | **Notification** | Accepted March 5, 2026 | | **Registration / Payment Deadline** | May 25, 2026 | | **Conference Dates** | June 8-10, 2026 | | **Location** | University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinmäki Campus (Main building C and Seminarium building S) | ## Submission Details ### Paper Submissions - **Paper outline:** 800-1200 words (NOT full paper) - **Abstract:** 300 words maximum - **Format:** Anonymous PDF for blind review - **Limit:** One submission per person - Full paper submissions will not be accepted ### Presentation Format - Individual paper slot: 45 minutes total - Presentation: 25 minutes - Discussion: 20 minutes - English preferred, other major European languages accepted ### How to Submit - Platform: EasyChair online submission system - First-time users must register with EasyChair ### Publication - Accepted papers eligible for inclusion in Proceedings of the ESA ## Fees | Category | Fee | |----------|-----| | Students/Unwaged | €50 | | Academics | €100 | ## Keynote Speakers - [[Diarmuid Costello]] (University of Warwick) - [[Monique Roelofs]] (University of Amsterdam) - [[Max Ryynänen]] (Aalto University) ## Links - [ESA Conferences page](https://www.eurosa.org/conferences/) - [ESA 2026 conference page](https://www.eurosa.org/conferences/#upcoming-conference) - [ESA Homepage](https://www.eurosa.org/) - [ESA membership page](https://www.eurosa.org/content_membership_how-to-become-a-member/) - [ESA list of members](https://www.eurosa.org/list-of-members/) - Contact: [email protected] ## Sources - [ESA Conferences page](https://www.eurosa.org/conferences/) (accessed 2026-01-09) - Gmail acceptance email from ESA26 <[email protected]>, "European Society for Aesthetics 2026 Conference Notification", March 5, 2026. - Gmail registration email from ESA26 <[email protected]>, "European Society for Aesthetics 2026 Conference Registration", April 8, 2026. ## Notes - ESA membership is free - Conference is in-person only - Registration and payment are open via the conference page - The conference programme was expected to be published by the end of March; presentation day/time still needs checking - Papers invited from all traditions and on any topic in philosophical aesthetics - Both systematic and historical presentations acceptable ## Previous ESA Submissions - 2026: Accepted, "What Makes a Typeface Beautiful?" (Submission ID 9679) ## Travel - Arrive at the venue the day before the conference: June 7, 2026. - Leave the day after the conference: June 11, 2026. - Flight-search task: [[Find good flights for ESA 2026 in Jyväskylä]] ## Potential Topics to Submit ### LLM Reasoning and the Aesthetics of Understanding (brainstormed 11 Jan 2026) **Core idea:** LLM reasoning outputs, even when simulating rather than performing inference, can facilitate genuine aesthetic experiences of understanding by making dependency relations explicit and manipulable. **Key moves:** - Draw on [[Schellekens]]'s [[Aesthetic Experience and Intellectual Pursuits]]: "coming-to-know" as aesthetic process - The "felt fit" of comprehension—coherence, unity, elegance—is available in LLM-assisted inquiry - Reframe debates from epistemology (do they really reason?) to aesthetics (what kind of cognitive surface do they produce?) **Vault resources:** - [[LLM Reasoning and Philosophy]] - analysis of chain-of-thought as simulated reasoning - [[LLMs are understanding generators, and understanding is beautiful]] - Substack draft with overlapping material - [[perception, priors, predictive processing]] - predictive processing background - Cochrane's [[The Aesthetic Value of the World]] - statistical complexity and beauty **Relation to other projects:** Overlaps with Substack Article 7 (Comprehension Engines) but with academic framing. Distinct from generative aesthetics paper (which is about appreciating LLMs as systems, not LLMs as instruments for understanding).