about

XSCAPE (Material Minds) is a 6-year, 10M Euro, project investigating the various ways the material structures of our settlements, buildings, roads, and artefacts (from pottery to smartphones) actively change patterns of thought and attention, thereby shaping the modern mind.

Spanning multiple centres in the UK and Europe and bringing together an unusual mix of disciplines and approaches, the project seeks to put theoretical, practical, and computational flesh onto the idea that the modern mind is in many ways our own invention – the product of a staged series of changes to our self-created environments.

During the course of the project, we will conduct multiple field studies, explore archaeological sites and and historical records, and observe the many ways human agents interact with their material worlds. We will also build a platform for computer simulations using the ‘active inference’ (predictive processing) framework – a neurocomputational model that offers a principled account of the ways perception, thought,  and action are co-constructed within a material setting.

Two of the project teams are from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas Spain. They are led by Luis M. Martinéz (Vision Science) and Felipe Criado-Boado (Archaeology), who is also responsible for coordinating the project. The other two teams are located at the University of Sussex, Great Britain, under the leadership of Andy Clark (Philosophy and Informatics), and at the CAU (Germany) under Prof. Johannes Müller (Archaeology).

The work is supported by of European Research Council, Synergy Grant (XSCAPE) ERC-2020-SyG 951631

XSCAPE at sussex.

The overall project investigates the various ways the material structures of our settlements, buildings, roads, and artefacts (from pottery to smartphones) actively change patterns of thought and attention, thereby shaping the modern mind. At Sussex, bridging Informatics and Philosophy, we will use the emerging computational neuroscience paradigm known as predictive processing as a principled means of linking perception, attention, and actions (including eye-movements) with cognitive change and learning. This will deliver insights into the fundamental principles that may be guiding materiality-driven cognitive change. We aim to implement and analyse a series of single and multi-agent simulation studies as part of this project. The simulations will use the ‘active inference’ paradigm as a platform to examine (at multiple scales of space and time) the complex interactions between learning, attention, and the material environment.

2024

June 7th 2024

XSCAPE 1st Annual Workshop: Material Engagement Theory and Active Inference, Brighton, United Kingdom

2023

Constructing cultural landscapes: Active Inference for the Social Sciences

Date: July 7th 2023

Program: https://coda.io/@active-inference-institute/active-inference-social-science-aii-2023

SYNERGY retreat 2023

Date: May 2023

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

SYNERGY workshop 2023

Date: February 2023

Brighton, United Kingdom

talking xscape.

2024

*Focus on material culture


February 19th

Scientist - Active Inference, AI in the classroom - YouTube, https://youtu.be/9txUwVtAOBk?si=DnvLVtL-YMHdCfg4

*March 17th

Converging Dialogues Podcast Recorded Interview by Host, Xavier A. Bonilla, Psy.D. via Zoom

March 21st

LAVNCH [CODE] DeCoded, 30-Minute Video Interview by Megan Dutta via Socialive

*March 30th

ITSP Magazine’s Audio Signals Podcast, 45-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Hosts, Marco Ciappelli and Sean Martin via StreamYard

April 19th

Philosophy Talk | San Francisco, CA, Recorded Interview by Hosts, Josh Landy and Ray Briggs via Zoom

*April 20th

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast, Recorded Interview by Host, Sean Carroll via Zencastr

*April 27th

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk Into a Bar Podcast, Recorded Podcast Interview by Hosts, Randy Knie and Kyle Whitaker via Zoom

*April 28th

The Avid Reader Show, 1-Hour Podcast Interview by Host, Sam Hankin via Zoom

April 28th

Future Learning Design - Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/episode/6QlGSFAY6peXJbBCIDfeaV?si=4bd087de48c9426aI

April 22nd 

Active Inference Institute - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/live/viJt9sFqWdg?si=mlYogREN1gaxHnM5

May 4th

Waterstones Brighton public/University book launch event for The Experience Machine

May 6th

West Portal Books X Wonderfest | San Francisco, CA, Virtual Solo Author Presentation, Moderated by Tucker Hiatt, followed by Audience Q&A via Zoom

May 10th

Literati Bookstore At Home with Literati Series | Ann Arbor, MI, Virtual In-Conversation with Casey Schwartz, followed by Audience Q&A via Zoom

June 1st

The Jordan Harbinger Show Podcast, 1.5 Hour Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Jordan Harbinger via Squadcast

*June 2nd

The Intentional Clinician Podcast, 50-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Paul Krauss via Zoom

*June 5th

Making Sense Podcast, Recorded Interview by Host, Sam Harris via Squadcast

June 12th

Something You Should Know Podcast, 30-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Mike Carruthers via Zencastr

2023

January 23rd

"Physics of Creation - Can the Free Energy Principle ground the construction of physical statespaces ?", Research conference, in the [Active Inference Institute](activeinference.org/) Livestream. [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IPx38SHGqw)

March 24th

"Embodied Normativity", with Manon JOB and Mahault ALBARRACIN, Research conference, in the [Embodied Intelligence Conference 2023](https://embodied-intelligence.org/).

March 16th

"Creating material and cultural landscapes - A constraints ontology for multiscale socio-historical dynamics", Research conference, in the [Kiel Conference 2023: Scales of Social, Environmental, and Cultural Change in Past Societies](https://www.kielconference.uni-kiel.de/).

March

Preventive Mental Health Care: A Complex Systems Framework for Ambient Smart Environments (March 2023) The Computational Approach to Neuro-Phenomenology Lorentz Center, University of Leiden

March 17th

Converging Dialogues Podcast, Recorded Interview by Host, Xavier A. Bonilla, Psy.D. via Zoom

March 21st

LAVNCH [CODE] DeCoded, 30-Minute Video Interview by Megan Dutta via Socialive

March 30th

ITSP Magazine’s Audio Signals Podcast, 45-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Hosts, Marco Ciappelli and Sean Martin via StreamYard

 

April

Ambient Smart Environments: What are they and what can they do? (April 2023) Workshop on Human Agency and Self within 21st Century Cognitive Ecology Lisbon Mind & Reasoning Group, New University of Lisbon.

April 19th

Philosophy Talk | San Francisco, CA, Recorded Interview by Hosts, Josh Landy and Ray Briggs via Zoom

 

April 20th

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast, Recorded Interview by Host, Sean Carroll via Zencastr

 

April 27th

A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk Into a Bar Podcast, Recorded Podcast Interview by Hosts, Randy Knie and Kyle Whitaker via Zoom

 

April 28th,

The Avid Reader Show, 1-Hour Podcast Interview by Host, Sam Hankin via Zoom

May 3rd

Pulse 2.0, Email Interview with Amit D. Chowdhry

 

May 9th

Nautilus Magazine, Interview with George Musser Jr via Zoom


May 3rd

Pulse 2.0, Email Interview with Amit D. Chowdhry

*May 9th

Nautilus Magazine, Interview with George Musser Jr via Zoom

May 4th

Waterstones Brighton public/University book  launch event for The Experience Machine

May 6th

West Portal Books X Wonderfest | San Francisco, CA, Virtual Solo Author Presentation, Moderated by Tucker Hiatt, followed by Audience Q&A via Zoom

 

May 10th

Literati Bookstore At Home with Literati Series | Ann Arbor, MI, Virtual In-Conversation with Casey Schwartz, followed by Audience Q&A via Zoom

June 

Distributed Metacognitive Control: Ambient Smart Environments and the Case for Disruption (June 2023) Mathematics and Philosophy of Situated Agency, University of Oulu, Finland. 

June 1st

The Jordan Harbinger Show Podcast, 1.5 Hour Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Jordan Harbinger via Squadcast

 

June 2nd

The Intentional Clinician Podcast, 50-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Paul Krauss via Zoom

 

June 5th

Making Sense Podcast, Recorded Interview by Host, Sam Harris via Squadcast

 

June 12th

Something You Should Know Podcast, 30-Minute Recorded Podcast Interview by Host, Mike Carruthers via Zencastr

2022

April

Third-Wave Artificial Empathy: An Active Inference Approach to Affective Computing. (April 2022) Applied Active Inference Symposium: Spotlight on Robotics. Active Inference Institute. 

April

How Predictive Processing can Help us Understand Technology and Mental Health (April 2022) The Emergence Salon. Public Engagement Event, Brighton.

October

What’s the Value of Dangerous Sport? (October 2022) Philosophy Society. University of Sussex.

November

Ambient Smart Environments: What are they and what can they do? (November 2022)

Materiality and Mind Workshop. University of Sussex.

publication key.

The Acquisition of Culturally Patterned Attention Styles Under Active Inference

Front. Neurorobot., 05 October 2021 | Volume 15 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2021.729665

Abstract

This paper presents an active inference based simulation study of visual foraging. The goal of the simulation is to show the effect of the acquisition of culturally patterned attention styles on cognitive task performance, under active inference. We show how cultural artefacts like antique vase decorations drive cognitive functions such as perception, action and learning, as well as task performance in a simple visual discrimination task. We thus describe a new active inference based research pipeline that future work may employ to inquire on deep guiding principles determining the manner in which material culture drives human thought, by building and rebuilding our patterns of attention.

publication list.

  1. Clark, A. (2022). Extending the predictive mind. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2022.2122523

  2. Clark, A. (2024a). Hacking the predictive mind. Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 26(8), 677. https://doi.org/10.3390/e26080677

  3. Clark, A. (2024b). Mind Unlimited? In Extreme Philosophy (pp. 123–137). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003311065-9

  4. Clark, A. (2024c). The experience machine: How our minds predict and shape reality. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&citation_for_view=JLYTMxgAAAAJ:kF1pexMAQbMC

  5. Clark, A., & Constant, A. (2024). The strangest particles in the world. 48, 169–171. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&citation_for_view=JLYTMxgAAAAJ:UmS_249rOGwC

  6. Constant, A. (2024). A Bayesian model of legal syllogistic reasoning. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 32(2), 441–462. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-023-09357-8

  7. Constant, A., Clark, A., Kirchhoff, M., & Friston, K. J. (2022). Extended active inference: constructing predictive cognition beyond skulls. Mind & Language, 37(3), 373–394.

  8. Constant, A., Desirèe Di Paolo, L., Guénin-Carlut, A., M Martinez, L., Criado-Boado, F., Müeller, J., & Clark, A. (2024). A computational approach to selective attention in embodied approaches to cognitive archaeology. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 21(219), 20240508. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2024.0508

  9. Constant, A., Friston, K. J., & Clark, A. (2024). Cultivating creativity: predictive brains and the enlightened room problem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 379(1895), 20220415. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0415

  10. Constant, A., Tschantz, A. D. D., Millidge, B., Criado-Boado, F., Martinez, L. M., Müeller, J., & Clark, A. (2021). The acquisition of culturally patterned attention styles under active inference. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 15, 729665. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2021.729665

  11. Di Paolo, L. D., White, B., Guénin--Carlut, A., Constant, A., & Clark, A. (2024). Active inference goes to school. The importance of active learning in the age of large language models. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/zwa83

  12. Di Paolo, L. D., White, B., Guénin-Carlut, A., Constant, A., & Clark, A. (2025). Material culture both reflects and causes human cognitive evolution. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 48, e7. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X2400092X

  13. Guénin--Carlut, A., White, B., & Sganzerla, L. (2023). The cognitive archeology of sociocultural lifeforms. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/qxszh

  14. Linson, A., Schulkin, J., & Clark, A. (2022). The fast and the curious: Creative improvisation as action-oriented abduction. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&citation_for_view=JLYTMxgAAAAJ:OBSaB-F7qqsC

  15. Miller, M., Clark, A., & Schlicht, T. (2022). Editorial: Predictive processing and consciousness. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 13(4), 797–808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-022-00666-6

  16. Miller, M., White, B., & Scrivner, C. (2024). Surfing uncertainty with screams: predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 379(1895), 20220425. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0425

  17. Nave, K., Deane, G., Miller, M., & Clark, A. (2022). Expecting some action: Predictive Processing and the construction of conscious experience. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 13(4), 1019–1037. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-022-00644-y

  18. Patchitt, J., Garkinkel, S., Strawson, W. H., Miller, M., Tsakiris, M., Clarke, A., & Critchley, H. D. (2024). Tactile false feedback biases emotional ratings through interoceptive embodiment. In Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4748974/v1

  19. Pezzulo, G., Parr, T., Cisek, P., Clark, A., & Friston, K. (2024). Generating meaning: active inference and the scope and limits of passive AI. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(2), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.002

  20. Safron, A., Hipólito, I., & Clark, A. (2023). Editorial: Bio A.I. - from embodied cognition to enactive robotics. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 17, 1301993. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2023.1301993

  21. White, B., Clark, A., Guènin-Carlut, A., Constant, A., & Di Paolo, L. D. (2025). Shifting boundaries, extended minds: ambient technology and extended allostatic control. Synthese, 205(2), 81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-04924-9

  22. White, B., Clark, A., & Miller, M. (2024). Digital Being: social media and the predictive mind. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2024(1), niae008. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niae008

  23. White, B., & Hipólito, I. (2023). Preventive mental health care: A complex systems framework for Ambient Smart Environments. In PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/etsu4

  24. White, B., & Miller, M. (2023). Free-energy minimising agents and beneficial A.i.: Ambient smart environments, allostasis, and metacognitive control. In PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/k34ac

events past and future.

  • Andy Clark

    Principal investigator | Andy.Clark@sussex.ac.uk
    Andy Clark is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is the author of several books including The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality (Penguin Random House, 2023), Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind (Oxford University Press, 2016), Mindware (Oxford University Press, Second Edition 2014), Supersizing the Mind (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Being There: Putting Brain, Body And World Together Again (MIT Press, 1997). Academic interests include artificial intelligence, embodied and extended cognition, robotics, human-technology systems, and computational neuroscience. From 2017-2021 he was PI on a European Research Council Advanced Grant: Expecting Ourselves: Embodied Prediction and the Construction of Conscious Experience. He is currently PI on an ERC Synergy Grant, XScape. Material Minds: Exploring the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts, and Embodied Visual Search.

  • Axel Constant

    Research Fellow | A.Constant@sussex.ac.uk
    Axel is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Engineering and Informatics of the University of Sussex (UK). His research focuses on Bayesian approaches to human cognition as applied to the study of Law, Psychiatry, Evolutionary Cognitive Anthropology, and Evolutionary Biology.

  • Laura Desirèe Di Paolo

    PhD student | lauradesiree.dipaolo@gmail.com
    Laura Desirèe Di Paolo is currently doing her PhD in Cognitive Sciences at the University of Sussex. She has already earned a PhD in Philosophy of Mind and Biology at Sapienza, University of Rome, and has worked as Postdoctoral researcher at the German Primate Center (Deutsche PrimatenZentrum) and at the Lichtemberg-Kolleg Institute in Göttingen, Germany. As Editor-in-Chief, she published the volume Evolution of Primate Social Cognition (Springer, 2018), along with paleoanthropologist Fabio Di Vincenzo and primatologist Francesca De Petrillo. Her interests lie in Social Learning and Cognition in Primates, Early Homo, and Children. Right now, she is looking at the design of objects, and their role in transmitting mental models and learning mechanisms, with a particular emphasis on “educational” (schools and learning devices), and on “archeological” artefacts, within the ERC Synergy Grant, XScape. Material Minds: Exploring the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts, and Embodied Visual Search.

  • Avel Guénin—Carlut

    PhD student | A.Guenin-Carlut@sussex.ac.uk
    Avel GUÉNIN--CARLUT is currently a PhD student in cognitive science under the supervision of Andy CLARK. Their research focuses on the relation between cognition and cultural evolution, as well as the formalisation of the "unfolding" of physical possibilities in evolution and cognition and its link to consciousness / sentience. Their work in the XSCAPE project leverages the computational phenomenology of human agents, as described by Active Inference. They aim to build from it a detailed conceptual and mathematical framework enabling the inference of the socio-cognitive landscapes of past societies from archeological and historical evidence. In particular, their research suggests the necessity of reframing the target of cognitive archeology as the socio-cultural constraints enacted by past societies and their intrinsic self-productive "flow", rather than the grist and mills of individual minds.

  • Ben White

    PhD student | B.White@sussex.ac.uk Ben White is currently a second-year PhD candidate in philosophy and doctoral tutor at the University of Sussex. Supervised by Professor Andy Clark and Dr. Beatrice Fazi, my research project applies cutting-edge theoretical frameworks from cognitive science and neuroscience to philosophical questions about technology. I investigate how different forms of technology, including ambient smart technology and virtual reality, could impact how we think and feel, and ask questions about the best way to design and implement such technologies to promote their full potential and to support human emotional and psychological health. Specifically, the frameworks that I use to ground my research are the Free Energy Principle, Predictive Processing, and 4E cognitive science. My work at Sussex is funded the Leverhulme Trust’s ‘be.AI: biomimetic embodied AI’ research program. This Leverhulme funded, highly interdisciplinary research team is based in the School of Engineering and Informatics and investigates how intelligent behaviour arises from the interaction between embodied cognitive systems and their environments. As part of this team, I work closely with other doctoral students from a range of disciplines including neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and the humanities. 

  • Karl Friston

    Collaborator | University College London
    Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia. Mathematical contributions include variational Laplacian procedures and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion.

  • Anil Seth

    Collaborator | University of Sussex
    I am Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where I am also Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. I am also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness, and of the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme: From Sensation and Perception to Awareness. I was recently an Engagement Fellow with the Wellcome Trust

  • Maxwell J.D. Ramstead

    Collaborator | University College London
    I'm the Senior Director of Research at VERSES and affiliated with the Spatial Web Foundation. My research focuses on the free-energy principle, multiscale active inference, and computational phenomenology. I now direct the VERSES Research Lab, which focuses on probabilistic model-based approaches to (artificial) intelligence (active inference, multi-agent modelling and group inference, computational phenomenology of XR experience, category theory, and AI ethics