Capturing Aesthetic Experiences With Installation Art: An Empirical Assessment of Emotion, Evaluations, and Mobile Eye Tracking in Olafur Eliasson’s “Baroque, Baroque!”

Frontiers in Psychology

Till Bieg¹  Matthew Pelowski²  Helmut Leder²  Elena Vaporova²  Eva Specker²  Pablo P. L. Tinio³  Vanessa Mitschke⁴  Gernot Gerger⁵  Agnes Husslein-Arco⁶ 

[1] Center for Technology Experience, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria;Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;Department of Educational Foundations, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, United States;Department of General Psychology II, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany;Department of Psychology, Webster Vienna Private University, Vienna, Austria;Museum Belvedere, Vienna, Austria;

关键词: museum study;    aesthetic emotion;    mobile eye-tracking;    installation art;    art perception;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01255

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Installation art is one of the most important and provocative developments in the visual arts during the last half century and has become a key focus of artists and of contemporary museums. It is also seen as particularly challenging or even disliked by many viewers, and—due to its unique in situ, immersive setting—is equally regarded as difficult or even beyond the grasp of present methods in empirical aesthetic psychology. In this paper, we introduce an exploratory study with installation art, utilizing a collection of techniques to capture the eclectic, the embodied, and often the emotionally-charged viewing experience. We present results from an investigation of two pieces, both part of Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition “Baroque, Baroque” held at the Belvedere museum in Vienna. These were assessed by pre- and post-viewing questionnaires focusing on emotion, meaning-making, and appraisals, in tandem with mobile eye tracking to consider viewers’ attention to both installed artworks and/or to the museum environment. The data showed differences in participants’ emotional states, appraisals, and visual exploration, which together paint a picture of the aesthetic reactions to the works. These differences also showed how viewers’ appraisal strategies, meaning making, and physical actions facilitated relatively more or less deep engagement with, and enjoyment of, the art. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for museum studies, art education, and theory in empirical aesthetics.

【 授权许可】

Unknown