https://www.marjansharifi.com/home daily 1.0 2025-09-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1591790004546-O6CAAPS7414K3ZSRDV0R/20140301_Trade-151_0124-copy.jpg Marjan Sharifi - Hi. I am a cognitive scientist and interdisciplinary scholar who investigates how artistic practices and interactive technologies shape our cognitive processes and emotions. In particular, I am interested in examining how art and technology can transform our feelings of intimacy and empathy as well as impact our creative thoughts and mind-wandering experiences. I share my insights through various outlets: as a research scientist at UC Berkeley working with Dacher Keltner, lecturing in universities in California and Europe, giving workshops, curating exhibitions, writing articles, and as a consultant to tech developers, designers and artists. Recently I was awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship from the European Commission. My research project is a collaborative effort between the ENS in Paris and UC Berkeley where I will investigate the possibility to reverse engineer creative thinking by guiding where and how people mind wander. You can also read my non-academic insights into AI-human alignment research on my substack: today is not tomorrow. https://www.marjansharifi.com/general-5 daily 0.75 2023-11-29 https://www.marjansharifi.com/bio-1 daily 0.75 2025-12-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/b90d93fa-b1e1-4bb4-90b4-cae16fc8f49d/Kaiser-Sharifi+xmas+family+2023.jpg Bio She currently resides in California with her husband and their two small children. https://www.marjansharifi.com/mindanddesign daily 0.75 2024-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592229746275-FG5JZAD6QHSK9XF9Q47W/image-asset.jpeg Mind + Design - Designing Mind-Wandering A central theme in my work is the reciprocal relationship between our thoughts and our environment; how do embodied experiences alter our mind-wandering experiences? I examine the link between mind-wandering and creative thinking and how design elements in the built and digital space can mediate where our minds wander, and what they wonder about. Designing Mind-Wandering https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592227378717-7SSB9Q9OOHEIKFTJVK34/image-asset.jpeg Mind + Design - Digitalizing Intimacy Having empathy, feeling close and intimate, are some of the fundamental tenets of humanity. Digital technology is challenging our very notion of what it means to be intimate, what it means to feel close, not only spatially, but also mentally at the psychic level. I explore how intimacy can be reimagined through the prism of current and future technologies. Digitalizing Intimacy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1596556535698-LSIDKAD3YNOEI8K9EDYO/image-asset.jpeg Mind + Design - Creating Madness What does it mean to function normally? How do we delineate between madness and normalcy and what does this delineation say about the social structures we live in? To explore the concept of madness, I draw from the mechanistic and cultural discourses of “breaking down.” In particular the analogies between organisms and machines as a paradigm to examine cognitive (dis)order. As well as how artists transform and incorporate these breakdowns, failures, and feelings of madness into their creative practices. Creating Madness https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/02b749b0-225c-4240-a993-d2c0b23bd889/generative+creativity.jpg Mind + Design - Generative Creativity How are creative ideas inspired? Given the rise in using machine learning in artistic practices and design, what is the role of authorship when considering the generation of a creative idea? Accordingly, this seminar was focused on the investigation into the generation of creative thought and the notion of authorship and the role perspective taking has on creative generation. Perspective taking encompassed both the human taking perspective of the algorithm and vice versa. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/ae8903ec-d47b-49f6-937f-1a6f4eba0009/IMG_9190.jpg Mind + Design - Embodied Design How do spaces we interact in resonate with how we feel, how we think? The theories of embodied cognition argue for an expansion of the notion of “mind” which at the very least includes the body, and more often includes the spaces we interact in. It is a powerful idea to consider that the way we experience the world can be altered by the spaces we inhabit. That there is a resonance between the design of the space and our thoughts, feelings and dreams. Can we consider designing a space which makes us more empathetic? Can virtual spaces mediate a transition to a “post-body” realm? This seminar is a space to ask these questions about how spaces come to design us, and then in turn how we can use design to alter our percepts. We examined topics such as the science and philosophy of embodied cognition. Explored how embodiment is implemented in art and design by experiencing artistic experiments which play with our percepts (James Turrell talk by Dr. Sharifi). We also considered the field of architecture and its role in influencing our emotions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592235920766-Q5ZA92F3U7CVYXVELTJ3/IMG_2077.jpg Mind + Design - Exploring the X Collaborating and perspective taking is an essential part of developing my mind + design approach. From working directly in the studios of artists, engaging with AI scientists, giving workshops and lectures to interdisciplinary audiences, I learned how to apply insights from the cognitive sciences to various art and design disciplines. The current manuscript I am working on, Exploring the X, is inspired from these intersectional knowledge transfers I have created between the arts and sciences. In particular, how to explore cognitive and emotional processes through artistic research. Exploring the X https://www.marjansharifi.com/mindwandering daily 0.75 2024-01-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592244484833-E3NAYZ007KQMUFMA1T7R/2020_06_15_20_07_14_Metacognitive_Home_Decor_Strategies_Anan_Lee_%EC%95%84%EB%82%9C%EB%A6%AC.jpg Designing Mind Wandering Metacognitive Home Decor Strategies, by courtesy of artist Anan Lee Single-channel video, 6’25, 2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592245303323-VRKX4KWY15LVZ771UCJN/2020_06_15_20_20_57_Fabian_Terler_SUBSURFACE_BASTARDS.jpg Designing Mind Wandering Subsurface Bastards, by courtesy of artist Fabian Terler Single-channel video, 7’40, 2018 https://www.marjansharifi.com/digitalizing-intimacy daily 0.75 2020-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592318525064-5D07D6T2IAUJH4109BV0/IMG_6225.jpg Digitalizing Intimacy Intimacy Workshop invited by Bjørn Melhus at Kunsthochschule Kassel https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592318524766-IHFDYXT1EK8V08JYN89B/IMG_6227.jpg Digitalizing Intimacy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592318524631-Z98WVMINXQ5O82AS1UPP/IMG_6236.jpg Digitalizing Intimacy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592318523836-DDPWXKYJ3WX7ANYO9WK5/IMG_6206.jpg Digitalizing Intimacy https://www.marjansharifi.com/exploring-the-x daily 0.75 2026-03-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592319841036-FX311A9P1NMDJC3PB7XP/IMG_2512+%281%29.jpg Exploring the X Yutaka Makino Experimental Art Studio, Berlin 2020 https://www.marjansharifi.com/creating-madness daily 0.75 2023-11-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592322375898-XI9BMTTSW7Z3NMT7LHX9/madness+idea+image+3.jpg Creating Madness - Creating Madness: mind, machine and culture The aim of this course is to investigate how the construct of madness has been conceived from both within and outside the psyche. Together we will explore how mental illness is articulated at the mechanistic level in the cognitive sciences and cybernetics, as well as through cultural discourses in the arts and humanities. More seminar details https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592406572597-8KIMVL6B8DC9J0TXCT61/Madness+Symposium+%281%29.jpg Creating Madness - Creating (More) Madness A follow-up seminar to the initial “Creating Madness” seminar which focused on examining the production of subjectivity and its role in creating madness. Accordingly, there was a focus on two main themes: altered states of mind and embodied practices. Seminar details https://www.marjansharifi.com/talks-seminars daily 0.75 2025-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592408737716-YC2L7B8XV2BCQOU72DVV/csm_Mindwandering_c2e52f3c69.jpg Talks + Seminars - Mindwandering, Boredom and the Arts Through an interdisciplinary methodology inspired by the cognitive sciences, this course examined the development of one of the most fascinating emotional states: boredom. Students were guided through a series of experiments and discussions to explore how to be inspired by boredom, to inspire mind-wanderings, and celebrate the “not being in the moment.” This course was designed with digital designers and experimental film makers in mind to consider how introspection (tuning in) could induce creative outputs (i.e. interactive designs in VR/AR environments, digital interface design, and film production). Taught at Berlin University of the Arts (2017) and adapted for architecture students at Southern California Institute of Architecture (2018) Detailed course description for Berlin University of the Arts How I apply mind-wandering to design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592408866905-A8MQND7TRUL7KOXT1NBS/Edge_flyer_Final_Web-1.jpg Talks + Seminars - Examining the Edge: peripheries in the mind and the city “Living on the edge” – when we think of spaces we tend to think of the space within, leaving the edges, the peripheries, where instability festers and sprawls out, for the rebellious, the adventurous. In cities, living at the periphery signifies both being an insider, a city dweller, but also an outsider; not fitting inside for various economic, social or other reasons and therefore resigned to the edge - or on the opposite, explicitly choosen to live there. For the brain, the edge represents the grey matter – the cortex – where higher mental processing takes place. This mental space is susceptible to being molded dynamically by inner thoughts and external stimuli. Accordingly, within this seminar students were guided to think about the peripheries both from the perspective of the tangible and intangible, and thus exploring the intersection between mind and space. This seminar culminated in a “Habitability Salon” and exhibition at the Schloss Biesdorf, Berlin. Also a co-edited publication with Prof. Nina Fischer bringing together the Mindwandering and Examining the Edge seminars at the Berlin University of the Arts. Exhibition at Schloss Biesdorf Examining the Edge/Mindwandering Publication (PDF) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592408946772-O2HYOLLZZ2J7PFNSY0RY/Madness+Symposium+%281%29.jpg Talks + Seminars Creating Madness Following requests from several students at Berlin University of the Arts, I decided to develop an interdisciplinary seminar “Creating Madness” which brought together my expertise from empirically examining narcissism during my PhD together with the literature and practices from cybernetics and the arts respectively. “Creating Madness: in minds, machines and culture” was the first part of this year long exploration into examining the construct of madness through the narratives of culture, technology and the cognitive sciences. It continued onto the the second term with “Creating (More) Madness” where we explored themes related to altered states of mind and embodied practices. As part of the seminar, I organized a symposium to showcase the artworks of the students and give them the opportunity to engage in critical discussion with the public. More detailed course information and Madness explorations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592490992815-IMBQQYK0911XF5CZXLN2/IMG_0165+%281%29.jpg Talks + Seminars https://www.marjansharifi.com/phd daily 0.75 2020-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1596559890352-DAOJG89PL4A8E2CYQSL3/2020_06_18_17_05_40_Where_the_Narcissistic_Mind_Wanders_Increased_Self_Related_Thoughts_are_More_Po.jpg PhD Read more here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/1592492959253-7JOPE2BKH77O2UGE18ZE/2020_06_18_17_06_44_Social_decision_making_in_narcissism_Reduced_generosity_and_increased_retaliati.jpg PhD Read more here https://www.marjansharifi.com/teachingstatement daily 0.75 2020-08-04 https://www.marjansharifi.com/imagining-mind-wandering daily 0.75 2025-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/20bce39d-1ca4-4f9d-a046-b447d1c8050a/muju_higher.jpg Postdoc Project Do you ever wonder where your creative ideas came from or how to harness them? Through targeting our mind wanders this intervention study aims to entice creative thoughts through targeted prompts and regular engagement with artworks. Imagine the possibility to train your ability to not only generate, but also engage with your creative ideas with the possibility of manifesting them into something more tangible and shared. These are just some of the aims of my research project at UC Berkeley’s Social Interaction Lab run by the PI Dacher Keltner. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edfbb44559cd9129deafe8c/41671e1f-6aae-438c-9389-6ecf03a94b72/Screen+Shot+2023-07-21+at+10.13.23+AM.png Postdoc Project - NEWS I will use this page as a space to update the progress of my project, inclusive of any related activities which might be of interest. WE ARE LOOKING FOR PARTICIPANTS FOR OUR STUDY: Interested in participating in my intervention study? By participating you will have the chance to engage with your mind-wanders and explore your own creative thinking processes. It is a three week commitment with about 30 minutes of participation per day (Mon - Friday). If you are interested in joining, please email me at: marjan_sharifi at berkeley.edu