Taylor Enoch
I am a PhD candidate at UCL with research interests in aesthetics, neuroesthetics, and phenomenology; I am principally interested in the interdisciplinary study of aesthetic experience. My research is conducted in collaboration with Prof Semir Zeki, Professor Emeritus of Neuroesthetics at UCL.
I am a postgraduate research student and teaching assistant in philosophy at University College London (UCL), studying towards a PhD after award of the MPhil Stud, as well as the Graduate Research Excellence Scholarship for Cross-Disciplinary Training (RXD) and the Associate Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). I teach across departments on the UCL Aesthetics and UCL Neuroesthetics modules, among others, and I have worked with UCL Philosophy, UCL Biosciences, UCL Arts & Sciences, as well as UCL's associated Slade School of Fine Art and Bartlett School of Architecture. I am also an organiser for the London Aesthetics Forum (LAF), a member of the Neurohumanities Research Centre (NHRC), and a researcher at the UCL Laboratory of Neurobiology (Zeki Lab).
Interests
My research is in aesthetics and neuroesthetics, with a focus on the phenomenology of aesthetic experiences. My doctoral thesis is on methodology in aesthetics, and proposes a neuro-phenomenological approach based on a method of epoché (i.e. a "suspension" like in the "suspension of disbelief"); in summary, I argue that what makes an experience aesthetic is a distinct mode of perception, suspended and reduced only to perceptual phenomena, which I call the "aesthetic reduction".