How Do We Move in Front of Art? How Does This Relate to Art Experience?
- Author(s)
- Corinna Kühnapfel, Joerg Fingerhut, Hanna Brinkmann, Victoria Ganster, Takumi Tanaka, Eva Specker, Jan Mikuni, Florian Güldenpfennig, Andreas Gartus, Raphael Rosenberg, Matthew Pelowski
- Abstract
Embodied cognition claims that how we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should, therefore, also be central for engaging art. However, little attention has been paid to the actual ways viewers move in front of art and how this impacts experiences. We aim to close this gap, using a new paradigm in a gallery-like setting in which we tracked movements of participants that engaged an abstract artwork. Guided by a literature review, we relate objective movement factors and subjective body awareness to mobile viewing behavior, art experience, and expertise. We also—for the first time—define shared movement patterns employing principal component/cluster analysis and relate these to experience outcomes, noting, for example, that moving more/more dynamically related to more reported insight. As a proof-of-concept paper, we hope to support a more embodied, enactive understanding of art engagements, and provide practical guidelines for future research.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, Department of Art History
- External organisation(s)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Keio University, Technische Universität Wien, Universität Wien
- Journal
- Empirical Studies of the Arts
- Volume
- 42
- Pages
- 86-146
- No. of pages
- 61
- ISSN
- 0276-2374
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374231160000
- Publication date
- 03-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501011 Cognitive psychology, 604019 Art history
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Music, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, Literature and Literary Theory
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/how-do-we-move-in-front-of-art-how-does-this-relate-to-art-experience(472d399f-7917-4dea-abd9-be40fdbb2363).html