scholarly journals The Art of Feeling Different: Measuring and Exploring the Diversity of Emotions Experienced During a Museum Visit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Rodriguez ◽  
Anna Fekete ◽  
Paul Silvia ◽  
Katherine N. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time ◽  
Emotional Balance

The aesthetic experience of a collection of works—such as a sculpture garden, a neighborhood filled with street art, or an afternoon spent wandering in a museum—is not simply the sum of experiences of the individual works. In the present research, we explored visit-level aesthetic experiences in a field study of 298 visitors to a museum of modern and contemporary art. In particular, we focused on emotional diversity: the richness, complexity, and heterogeneity of the emotions that people experienced during their visit. After their visit, participants reported the degree to which they experienced, if at all, 10 emotions, for which we calculated diversity metrics reflecting their emotional variety (the number of emotions experienced) and emotional balance (the relative evenness between emotions or dominance of a single emotion) during the visit. Overall, the sample reported a rich aesthetic experience, but there was wide and predictable variability. Among other findings, emotional variety was higher for people with greater openness to experience and among first-time visitors to the museum; emotional balance was higher among people high in openness to experience and people with greater interest in art. The concept of diversity—the richness and complexity of someone’s emotional experience of the arts—appears promising for understanding holistic aesthetic experiences, such as entire museum visits rather than single works, as well as for many other questions in empirical aesthetics.

Abstracts from the 5th Visual Science of Art Conference (VSAC)

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus-Christian Carbon ◽  
Joerg Fingerhut
Keyword(s):  
Alphabetical Order ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Visual Science ◽  
Historically Situated ◽  
Sensory Responses ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
First Time

This special issue of Art & Perception for the first time comprises the abstracts of talks and posters presented at a Visual Science of Art Conference (VSAC). This year’s, 5th installment of VSAC took place in Berlin, August 25th-27th, with 117 contributions selected for presentation and more than 250 participants. This issue includes an editorial by Claus-Christian Carbon and Joerg Fingerhut that introduces the contributions and discussions at the conference. The abstracts of the keynotes presented by Jesse Prinz and Irving Biederman are then followed by those of the peer reviewed presentations: talks/symposia (in order of presentation) and posters (in alphabetical order). The talks are clustered around central topics in the sciences of the arts, such as aesthetic universals vs. cross-cultural differences, some works are focusing on physiological measures in the aesthetic sciences, or on visual statistics of art images, others address the important issue of ecological valid testing of aesthetic experiences. The contributions to this year’s VSAC demonstrated a clear broadening of topics at the intersection of the visual sciences and the arts. Many presentations went beyond the focus on immediate sensory responses to artworks and simple evaluative states in order to also discuss the typical richness and elaborative quality of art experience that psychologists, philosophers, art historians, sociologists, and others recognize as an intellectually engaged, historically situated, and culturally varied phenomenon. The reprint of these abstracts therefore also aims to represent a cross-section of current research and debates in the field.

The Role of Attention, Executive Processes, and Memory in Aesthetic Experience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Mullennix
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Imaging Research ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
And Control

When considering the cognitive processes involved in aesthetic experiences, one approach is to focus on the different components in the cognitive system. In this chapter, research on the roles of dual-mode processing, cognitive effort and control, and memory in the aesthetic experience are reviewed. Automatic and controlled processes, respectively, appear to be engaged at different times when viewing art, with one’s goal (e.g., forming a quick impression of art or closely evaluating an artwork) determining how those processes are utilized. Shifts in cognitive control affect how art is processed, as well as attention and memory load demands at the time art is being viewed. Memory comes into play when considering how knowledge about art and expertise is used. Overall, the growing literature on cognitive processing of art and related brain imaging research is producing numerous exciting findings of interest both to the researcher and to persons working in the arts.

scholarly journals The Biological Basis of Mathematical Beauty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semir Zeki ◽  
Oliver Y. Chén ◽  
John Paul Romaya
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Mathematical Culture ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Biological Basis ◽  
Mathematical Beauty ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Biological Category

AbstractThrough our past studies of the neurobiology of beauty, we have come to divide aesthetic experiences into two broad categories: biological and artifactual. The aesthetic experience of biological beauty is dictated by inherited brain concepts, which are resistant to change even in spite of extensive experience. The experience of artifactual beauty on the other hand is determined by post-natally acquired concepts, which are modifiable throughout life by exposure to different experiences (Zeki, 2009). Hence, in terms of aesthetic rating, biological beauty (in which we include the experience of beautiful faces or human bodies) is characterized by less variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic origins and cultural backgrounds or the same individual at different times. Artifactual beauty (in which we include the aesthetic experience of human artifacts such as buildings and cars) is characterized by greater variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic and cultural groupings and by the same individual at different times. In this paper, we present results to show that the experience of mathematical beauty (Zeki et al 2014), even though it constitutes an extreme example of beauty that is dependent upon (mathematical) culture and learning, belongs to the biological category and obeys one of its characteristics, namely a lesser variability in terms of the aesthetic ratings given to mathematical formulae experienced as beautiful.

The Aesthetic Triad

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Oshin Vartanian ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Large Scale Systems ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Meaning System ◽  
The Brain

Following the rapid growth of neuroaesthetics, there was a need to systematize and organize the findings into a coherent and testable framework. With the “aesthetic triad,” the authors presented a model according to which aesthetic experience was viewed as the emergent property of the interaction of three large-scale systems in the brain: sensory-motor, emotion-valuation, and knowledge-meaning. Features that distinguished this model from others was that it was meant to apply to all aesthetic episodes (e.g., art, faces, architecture, etc.) and it acknowledged explicitly that a large variety of aesthetic experiences can emerge as a function of the specific ways in which these systems interact in the course of their emergence. To probe the model, the contribution of the knowledge-meaning system is likely of greatest interest, at least in part because that system encapsulates a large breadth of factors ranging from the personal to the cultural.

An Aesthetic Theory of Vandalism

1978 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon L. Allen ◽  
David B. Greenberger
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Previous Theory ◽  
Discriminative Stimuli ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Destructive Behavior ◽  
Initial Appearance ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Practical Implications

An aesthetic theory of vandalism is proposed. The theory posits that the variables accounting for the enjoyment associated with socially acceptable aesthetic experiences are similarly responsible for the pleasure associated with acts of destruction. Previous theory and research in aesthetics have identified many important factors, such as complexity, expectation, novelty, intensity, and patterning, which are responsible for the pleasure that accompanies an aesthetic experience. These same psychological processes are involved in the destruction of an object. Furthermore, aesthetic variables implicated in an object's initial appearance and in its appearance after being vandalized may serve as eliciting or discriminative stimuli for destructive behavior. Several studies provide support for hypotheses derived from the aesthetic theory of vandalism. In conclusion, we examine the theory's practical implications for reducing vandalism in the schools.

Cognitions in Consonance

1986 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Zusne
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual

A reconceptualization of some of the ideas associated with the aesthetic experience is proposed. The problems that arise in defining the terms ‘beautiful’ and ‘perfect’ may be overcome by substituting the term ‘fittingness.’ The core of the aesthetic experience is the experience of some degree of fit between the specimen (the aesthetic object or event) and the corresponding standard. The degree of fit determines the intensity of the experience. The essential element of the aesthetic experience is the process of collation between specimen and standard, but the nature of the experience must be sought in the realm of motivation. To every instance of an extrinsive motive that begins with a deficiency, stimulation, or conflict and ends in homeostasis, there corresponds an intrinsic motive that is self-reinforcing. Cognitive conflicts lead to cognitive dissonance, and cognitive equilibrium is achieved by various cognitive means. There is also a state of cognitive consonance, which is sought for its own sake. The aesthetic experience is the experience of cognitive reinforcement that occurs upon the realization that the aesthetic specimen approximates or fits the model of perfection currently held by the individual. This reinforcing experience of cognitive consonance is the core of the aesthetic experience. This view is compared with Berlyne's theory.

scholarly journals Associating With Art: A Network Model of Aesthetic Effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Specker ◽  
Eiko I. Fried ◽  
Raphael Rosenberg ◽  
Helmut Leder
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Active Interaction

In recent years, understanding psychological constructs as network processes has gained considerable traction in the social sciences. In this paper, we propose the aesthetic effects network (AEN) as a novel way to conceptualize aesthetic experience. The AEN represents an associative process where having one association leads to the next association, generating an overall aesthetic experience. In art theory, associations of this kind are referred to as aesthetic effects. The AEN provides an explicit account of a specific cognitive process involved in aesthetic experience. We first outline the AEN and discuss empirical results (Study 1, N=255) to explore what can be gained from this approach. Second, in Study 2 (N=133, pre-registered) we follow calls in the literature to substantiate network theories by using an experimental manipulation, and found evidence in favor of the AEN over other alternatives. The AEN provides a basis for future studies that can apply a network perspective to different aesthetic experiences and processes. This perspective takes a process-based approach to aesthetic experience, where aesthetic experience is represented as an active interaction between viewer and artwork. If we want to understand how people experience art, it is central to know why people have different experiences with the same artworks, and, also, why people have similar experiences when looking at different artworks. Our proposed network perspective offers a new way to approach and potentially answer these questions.

The Impact of the Social Context on Aesthetic Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Mastandrea
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Social ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
The Family ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact

Not only cognitive and affective processes determine an aesthetic experience; another important issue to consider has to do with the social context while experiencing the arts. Several studies have shown that the aesthetic impact of a work of art depends on, to an important extent, the different socio-demographic factors including age, class, social status, health, wealth, and so on. The concepts of cultural and social capital by Pierre Bourdieu and the production and consumption of artworks by Howard Becker are discussed. Another important aspect of the impact of the social context on aesthetic experience deals with early art experience in childhood within the family—considered as the first social group to which a person belongs.

Aesthetics of the Everyday

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crispin Sartwell
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Popular Art ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Everyday Aesthetics ◽  
Art Activities ◽  
Art As Experience ◽  
The Aesthetic

‘Everyday aesthetics’ refers to the possibility of aesthetic experience of non-art objects and events, as well as to a current movement within the field of philosophy of art which rejects or puts into question distinctions such as those between fine and popular art, art and craft, and aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences. The movement may be said to begin properly with Dewey's Art as Experience (1934), though it also has roots in continental philosophers such as Heidegger. The possibility of everyday aesthetics originates in two undoubted facts: firstly, that art emerges from a range of non-art activities and experiences, and, secondly, that the realm of the aesthetic extends well beyond the realm of what are commonly conceived to be the fine arts.

Aesthetics of Nature

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Budd
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetics Of Nature

The long period of stagnation into which the aesthetics of nature fell after Hegel's relegation of natural beauty to a status inferior to the beauty of art was ended by Ronald Hepburn's ground-breaking paper (1966). In this essay, which offers a diagnosis of the causes of philosophy's neglect of the aesthetics of nature, Hepburn describes a number of kinds of aesthetic experience of nature that exhibit a variety of features distinguishing the aesthetic experience of nature from that of art and endowing it with values different from those characteristic of the arts, thus making plain the harmful consequences of the neglect of natural beauty. The subtlety of Hepburn's thought precludes simple summary, and this article does no more than enumerate a few of his themes that have been taken up and developed in the now flourishing literature on the aesthetics of nature (although not always with the nuanced treatment accorded them by Hepburn).

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