Haptic Aesthetics and Bodily Properties of Ori Gersht’s Digital Art: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Marta Calbi¹  Hava Aldouby²  Ori Gersht³  Nunzio Langiulli¹  Vittorio Gallese¹  Maria Alessandra Umiltà⁴ 

[1] Unit of Neuroscience, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma;Department of Literature, The Open University of Israel;Department of Photography, University for the Creative Arts, United Kingdom;Department of Art History Columbia University, Columbia University, United States;Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma

关键词: aesthetics;    digital art;    sensorimotor;    behavioral;    eye-tracking;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02520

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Experimental aesthetics has shed light on the involvement of pre-motor areas in the perception of abstract art. However, the contribution of texture perception to aesthetic experience is still understudied. We hypothesized that digital screen-based art, despite its immateriality, might suggest potential sensorimotor stimulation. Original born-digital works of art were selected and manipulated by the artist himself. Five behavioral parameters: Beauty, Liking, Touch, Proximity, and Movement, were investigated under four experimental conditions: Resolution (high/low), and Magnitude (Entire image/detail). These were expected to modulate the quantity of material and textural information afforded by the image. While the Detail condition afforded less content-related information, our results show that it augmented the image’s haptic appeal. High Resolution improved the haptic and aesthetic properties of the images. Furthermore, aesthetic ratings positively correlated with sensorimotor ratings. Our results demonstrate a strict relation between the aesthetic and sensorimotor/haptic qualities of the images, empirically establishing a relationship between beholders’ bodily involvement and their aesthetic judgment of visual works of art. In addition, we found that beholders’ oculomotor behavior is selectively modulated by the perceptual manipulations being performed. The eye-tracking results indicate that the observation of the Entire, original images is the only condition in which the latency of the first fixation is shorter when participants gaze to the left side of the images. These results thus demonstrate the existence of a left-side bias during the observation of digital works of art, in particular, while participants are observing their original version.

【 授权许可】

CC BY