Abstract Extensive research has been undertaken on the evolution of the design of monumental staircases in European palace architecture, as well as the viceregal residences built in Spain’s imperial territories. Despite the significant evidence on the visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic dimensions and variables of these architectural spaces, these closely related aspects remain to be studied in depth. The aim of this study is to analyse the visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic dimensions of the principal staircases of three palaces: the Alcázar, the Royal Palace in Madrid, and the Viceregal Palaces of Naples and Mexico City, the Palazzo Reale and Palacio Nacional. To assess the impact of the sensory factors of these three spaces digital twins were created for each case, using photogrammetry and manual CAD reconstructions, and these were analysed using simulations created with the DIAlux and Odeon specialised software. To attain a comprehensive understanding of how each of the three spaces were lit, different dates and times of the day were considered. Regarding their acoustic dimensions the analysis focuses on how the siting of trumpeters and drummers would have affected the perception of these spaces. In each case the analysis of quantitative data on the illuminance and acoustics of the selected staircases is cross-referenced with descriptions provided in historical sources in order to corroborate the accuracy of the interpretation.
Tactile exploration has been proposed to offer a more intimate and active way of engaging with art than visual exploration alone. This study investigated the added value of touch by comparing aesthetic evaluation, feelings of intimacy, and embodied experience across three conditions: visual-only exploration, guided tactile exploration, and free tactile exploration. Using a between-subjects design, participants interacted with a series of artworks under one of the three conditions. Results showed that tactile exploration did not enhance overall aesthetic experience compared to visual exploration. Prior experience with tactile art and other individual differences had limited effects. Instead, aesthetic evaluations were most strongly predicted by the inherent properties of the artworks themselves, regardless of the mode of exploration. Contrary to expectations, reported intimacy and embodied engagement did not significantly differ across conditions, though substantial variability between individuals was observed. Interestingly, connectedness was found to influence aesthetic evaluations regardless of the exploration condition. Within the free tactile condition, participants who spent more time exploring an artwork rated it as more beautiful, although this effect did not extend to ratings of pleasure or interest. Additionally, no consistent relationships were found between specific tactile features and aesthetic responses. These findings suggest that the value of multisensory art experiences lies less in the sensory modality of engagement and more in individual subjective differences and the tactile properties of the artwork.
This exploratory study demonstrates how to assess whether individual differences in visuo-tactile preferences are better predicted by predefined personal categories or by the bottom-up perspective offered by Q-methodology. Preferences were assessed using Reactive Objects (ROs), three-dimensional artefacts that exhibit autonomous behaviour when handled. As a predefined personality trait, we examined alexithymia, which reflects difficulties in recognising and describing emotions. Participants' evaluations of ROs were captured along two dimensions: preference (choice between variable levels, e.g., red vs. green) and dominance (relative importance of variables in aesthetic judgements, e.g., colour vs. shape). Q-methodology was applied to identify emergent factors in aesthetic judgements. Results revealed a clear distinction between preference and dominance but showed no significant relationship between alexithymia and the Q-factors. These findings suggest that predefined traits such as alexithymia may not predict visuo-tactile preferences for ROs. Instead, Q-methodology provided richer insights into individual differences, underscoring the value of post-hoc data analysis. Given the small sample size (N = 22; 17 females, 5 males; M age = 23 years, SD = 3.5, range = 18-34), the study's contribution is primarily methodological. Future research should further explore the complex interplay between personality traits and visuo-tactile judgements of reactive artefacts.
Art is generally associated with visual and auditory senses, but other sensory modalities must also be considered. This study focused on the sense of touch as it enables people to directly `touch' objects and thereby develop a more detailed and realistic understanding of art. This study focused on the exploration of overall shapes by touch, aiming to clarify the features of haptic sense to inform future research of haptic beauty. To achieve these objectives, we investigated the visuo-haptic aesthetic appraisal of 3D object exploration. We first created 12 objects via a 3D printer and asked 34 participants to rate each object's aesthetic emotions via visual and haptic senses. We used an aesthetic value scale to examine the influence of participants' characteristics and compared the evaluation scores between visual and haptic conditions. The results partially supported our hypotheses that (1) emotions are influenced by haptic appreciation and (2) that haptic appreciation is related to `aha' experience. Overall, participants rated items related to `aha' experiences higher during haptic appreciation, while rating `feeling of sacredness' lower. Furthermore, individuals with high aesthetic value scores were more likely to experience realistic appreciation and `aha' moments, which were characteristics of haptic appreciation. This indicated that haptic appreciation reduced sense of sacredness and sublimity of the objects; however, it enabled a more realistic appreciation and had characteristics that accompanied `aha' experiences. Although our study does not clarify all aspects of haptic beauty, its results provide insight and future ideas to examine haptic aesthetics.
Abstract Human binocular vision takes in about a half-space, at least along the horizontal. How to depict that? It is not possible with linear perspective. In photography one uses the ‘angle-true’ fish-eye lens, known as the ‘Postel projection’ in the arts and ‘Riemann normal coordinates’ in geometry. We show examples of artists (intuitively) using an even more extreme mapping, perhaps preferred because it strongly emphasises the centre of interest. ‘Sun dogs’ are an atmospherical optics phenomenon that allows a quantitative study. We identify a number of artworks that yield a fresh angle on the topic. They are (geometrically) very similar, but reveal an extreme boosting of central content. If the Postel is considered ‘veridical’ (its contender, linear perspective, is out) then the artistically preferred rendering is highly nonveridical. Yet one can hardly complain that the paintings fail to suggest a powerful and visually effective presentation of actuality. One needs some rethinking of representational optics here. It might be useful in other (also technical) contexts too.
Abstract This study explores the intersection of visual art and music, focusing on masks as a profound artistic element. It addresses three core objectives: how viewers interpret artistic masks, how classical music featuring masks corresponds with visual mask imagery, and how listeners express their responses through self-drawn masks inspired by Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (No. 7). Thirty-one adults without formal training in art or music participated in three phases: mask viewing, art–music pairing, and audiographic mask drawing. The viewing phase revealed diverse and often speculative interpretations of unseen elements. Some participants’ music–mask pairings diverged significantly from the researcher’s, highlighting subjective and varied interpretive strategies. Drawings evoked by Schönberg’s piece predominantly expressed repulsion and negative emotion. Overall, the study highlights the educational value of integrating visual and musical art forms, showing how crossmodal engagement can foster emotional insight, creative expression, and interpretive openness in diverse learning contexts.
Abstract This article investigates the pivotal role of cinematographers’ embodied camera movements in shaping viewers’ experiences in film, a subject generally overlooked by cinema research. It draws from accounts of practicing professional cinematographers on the one hand, and the embodied mind theory with ecological cognitive psychology as the broader disciplinary context on the other. From the perspective thus defined, it examines how a cinematographer’s embodied engagement in the process of moving the camera may elicit the illusion of self-movement in viewers. We trust that the enactive simulation approach to the cinematographer’s creative work is a step forward in explaining how their immediate, moment-by-moment living by the protagonists’ socio-emotional situatedness intertwines with lifelong professional expertise.
This paper presents a study of the hue shift from green-blue to blue color used on the effigy censers from the Maya site of Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) over time. These censers were discovered in the main ceremonial center of the Group of the Cross dating from 200 to 850 C.E. The continuous manufacturing of the effigy censers along Palenque's history allows a diachronic analysis of color, helping to identify materials selection and the color making. The significance of these colors lies not only in their material composition, but also in their symbolism within the Maya culture, as blue-green and blue hues were perceived as different shades of the same color. An interdisciplinary methodology was employed, based on color vision science and archaeometry to analyze a group of effigy censers from used to describe and compare the hues among the effigy censers. For identifying the composition of the material and its application on the censers, microscopic analysis and portable non-destructive contemporary Maya language. It was concluded that there is a material hue change from blue-green at early times to dark blue on the latest objects. This variation was intentional, as detected by the composition of the color materials, but also related to the vision and symbolic meaning of these colors.
This study explores the development of depicting facial expressions in historical paintings representing pivotal religious scenes: the Nativity (Birth of Christ) and the Pieta (Death of Christ). By examining artworks spanning the 11th to the 19th century, we assess how depictions evolve over time in terms of polarity, agreeability, and ambiguity of individual faces, and compared these with the perceived emotional intensity of the overall pictorial scene. A total of 56 paintings were randomly selected to be evaluated by 150 participants. Each participant categorised all visible faces into one of ten emotion categories-ranging from joy and love to sadness and anger-and then rated the painting's overall emotional intensity. We quantified the degree of viewer agreement (agreeability), calculated a polarity measure (positive versus negative emotion balance) and ambiguity (amount of chosen categories) at the face level. We also measured how participants perceived each painting's emotional intensity. Results showed that Pieta paintings were generally rated as both more emotionally intense and more uniform in their expressions than Nativity artworks. Moreover, Nativity paintings exhibited a gradual rise in their polarity over time, whereas Pieta scenes did not display a clear temporal trend. Furthermore, we found a clear relation between creation year and ambiguity in facial expression, but not with agreeability. The emotional intensity of the overall paintings also increased with the creation year. Together, these findings suggest empirical evidence for a historical change in the depiction of facial expression.
This paper explores the phenomenon of heautoscopy (a form of autoscopy), or illusory multisensory self-reduplication, in relation to the art of the Viennese modernist Egon Schiele. It employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying self-perception and corporeal awareness, drawing from the fields of cognitive neuropsychiatry and the philosophy of modern art. The study explores the characteristics of heautoscopy, connecting them to severe conditions involving the loss of self-identity in psychiatric disorders, and to Schiele's unprecedented double and triple self-portraiture. At the turn of the century, Schiele revolutionized this genre by introducing multiple selves to his canvases, interpreting this pathological theme explicitly. This paper draws on studies of anecdotal descriptions of heautoscopic experiences in autobiographical narratives and scientific literature, as well as on the work of art historians and Schiele's biographers. The decoding of these data leads to the identification and classification of persistent shared characteristics and patterns. Drawing connections between the two phenomena, this study aims to provide a comprehensive interpretation of analogous mechanisms of delusional thinking in psychopathology and modern art, offering a new perspective upon the pathology/ modernism equation debate, as well as highlighting valuable insights into cognitive neuropsychiatry and neuroaesthetics.
Previous research on creative drawing responses while listening to relatively long excerpts of music has been mostly qualitative. In this paper we introduce a protocol and two mathematical approaches for a quantitative categorization of drawing responses. A total of 58 undergraduate students of Musicology and History of Art were asked to visually represent some excerpts of contemporary music with specific geometrical features. Both groups of students differed in their musical training and previous exposition to contemporary music. The excerpts were taken from an experimental piece in which the composer developed several strategies for transferring the anamorphic pictorial technique into music; half of the participants were informed about his creative intentions. Results show that pitch-related qualities of several musical excerpts influenced the choice of geometrical categories. In addition, participants' prior background and awareness of the composer's intentions had an impact in their creative attitude and engagement with the drawing task. However, particular awareness about anamorphic transfers into music did not seem to have a clear impact on the participants' drawings.
This research investigates how rankings of curved versus sharp-angled line drawings are influenced by surrounding frames and evaluation criteria. We predicted that congruence among the curvature of a drawing, the curvature of its frame, and the evaluation criterion might increase participants' rankings of that stimulus. Participants ranked 26 sets of six stimuli (curved and sharp-angled versions of line drawings, presented unframed, within square frames, or within round frames) according to their curvature (Study 1), or their pleasantness and interestingness (Study 2). Framed stimuli were ranked as more pleasant, and more interesting, than unframed stimuli. Beyond this, rankings seemed to be somewhat sensitive to congruencies among the curvature of the drawing, the curvature of its frame, and the evaluation criterion. These effects also differed between different types of drawing. For contained drawings, which did not reach the boundaries of their frame area, curved stimuli tended to be ranked as more pleasant than sharp-angled stimuli, except when they were presented in a sharp-angled, and therefore incongruent, square frame. For truncated drawings, which did touch the boundaries of their frame area, sharp-angled stimuli were ranked as more pleasant than curved stimuli, except when they were presented in an incongruent round frame; sharp-angled stimuli were also ranked as more interesting than curved stimuli, and this did not seem to be moderated by framing. Overall, judgments were influenced by stimulus-and task-related factors, and by congruence among those factors.
Movies often require viewers to form complex spatial maps due to the constant movement of the camera. In the present study, we investigated the role of perceptual load (high vs low) and screen orientation (regular vs mirrored) on people's judgements of spatial relations in movie scenes. We manipulated perceptual load as the complexity of information in the background and screen orientation as the position of actors in the original video compared to a mirrored version, which flipped the actor positions 180 degrees on the horizontal axis halfway into the video. In Experiment 2, we introduced a cue (either on the actor or on the background) to draw attention to the spatial relations in the first half of the video, which represented the regular orientation. To explore these variables in a more controlled setting, we filmed simple activity videos in the laboratory in Experiment 3. Overall, the results indicated that preference for the most recent spatial orientation significantly decreased, and reaction times increased when actor positions reversed halfway into the scene. Also, high perceptual load or cues on actors increase the chance that the viewer might shift from the original spatial-temporal framework. The results suggest that continuity of actor positions appears to be the most crucial factor for forming and updating spatial representations in movie sequences. Nonetheless, scene background is also considered by the viewers as a part of the active mental model as a contextual cue to anchor actor positions.
In this paper, I compare perspective in my observational drawings to photographs that I took at the same time, and, where memory allows, discuss how both relate to the visual experiences. This comparison reveals several consistent trends, including systematic size differences for distant objects, differences in foreshortening, a dependence of object shape on canvas shape, and multiperspective composition. Many of these trends can be found in historical artworks as well. Some have been previously identified in the literature, but discussions often involve very incomplete information, for example, analysis of Renaissance perspective has involved considerable speculation about the artists’ subjects and thought processes, and unfounded assumptions about the “correctness” of linear perspective. In general, if a painting and a photograph of a scene differ in some aspect, it might be that the drawing does not match visual experience of that aspect, that the photograph does not, or both. Identifying such systematic differences offers avenues for future study of how pictures and visual experience relate, and what causes these differences.
Visual art has been created, enjoyed, and debated throughout history. The possibility of universal properties related to aesthetic experiences has a long history and more recent additions to the debate are results showing correlations between art aesthetics ratings and basic visual properties such as contrast and colour. However, since most research is based on group data (e.g., by using averaged ratings), the basic properties found to be universal may reflect either a group consensus or a group compromise, where no individual's preference matches the group preference. We asked raters to indicate both (1) if a painting was experienced as positive or negative and (2) if it was experienced as appealing or unappealing. Using a machine-learning cross-validation procedure, basic visual properties of the images were used to predict both individual and averaged ratings. Results show ratings for the experienced positivity and appeal of an artwork can be predicted at both an individual and a group (e.g., using averaged ratings) level. By estimating the relevance of each visual property (e.g., feature), based on both groups and individuals, it is shown that, while features relevant for positivity ratings show some consistency between individual and groups, this is not the case for features related to appeal ratings. Mean ratings can therefore suggest image properties as universally relevant without generalization to individuals.
Artistically, an important bipartition of hues is with respect to their warm-cool quality. What might this correspond to in colorimetric terms? Various interpretations have been suggested, mostly informally. We attempt to compare them quantitatively, using either diverse data available from the literature, or formal means. We conclude that it is not possible to differentiate between various ontologically distinct interpretations. The warm-cool axis is roughly aligned with the Orange-Teal axis of the color circle. Leeway is about two steps either way for a 24-step division. Within this margin, virtually all suggested meanings pertain. The dominance of this axis in nature is due to generic physical properties.
Images are powerful cultural agents that can inform, shape and change the attitudes and behaviours of viewers. The ways in which marginalised groups are depicted in photographs shape people's attitudes towards them. For example, viewing photojournalistic images portraying refugees in large rather than small groups results in the infrahumanisation of refugees. However, the impact of artworks vs photojournalistic images depicting refugees on their infrahumanisation remains a key and unexplored topic. In this pre-registered study, we investigated whether viewing different types of visual images (e.g., paintings vs photographs) of refugees using distinct visual framings (e.g., large or small groups) influences viewers' infrahumanisation of refugees and the intensity and valence of the viewers' felt emotions. Contrary to our predictions, no evidence was found for an effect of visual framing (large vs small groups) and different image types (paintings vs photos) portraying refugees on their infra-humanisation. Moreover, and in line with our predictions, photojournalistic images were evaluated as more emotionally intense than paintings, whereas paintings rather than photojournalistic images engaged more positive emotions, demonstrating that different types of images involve distinct affective responses. Furthermore, exploratory findings revealed that increased positive appraisals of photojournalistic images depicting small groups rather than large groups led to greater humanisation of refugees. This suggests that positive emotions can decrease the infrahumanisation of marginalized groups, particularly when these are evoked by photojournalistic images. Overall, these findings shed new light on the effects of audience exposure to different forms of visual representation and their social and emotional consequences.
The media occasionally reports instances where people mistake ordinary objects for art. This often happens in art galleries or museums and might suggest that people attribute meaning differently depending on whether the context is artistic or rooted in everyday life. In this manuscript, we investigate how people attribute meaning to seemingly nonsensical sentences and images when they believe they are made by poets or artists. We used a collection of sentences that conclude with semantically congruent and non-congruent words, and a collection of images where the object is either congruent or non-congruent with the background. We randomly assigned participants to the baseline and experimental (art) conditions, telling participants in the art condition that the sentences/images were created by artists. Studies 1 and 2 found that the art context increases the perceived meaningfulness of non-congruent sentences (“Most cats see well at court”), but not the congruent ones (“Most cats see well at night”), while Study 3 found a similar effect regarding non-congruent images (a lion in an office) and congruent images (a lion in a field). Additionally, we discuss how individual differences in aberrant salience and religiosity moderate the main effects of the art context on meaning-making. These results advance our theoretical understanding of how art contexts affect the interpretation of meaning and the importance of semantic non-congruency.
Abstract Numerous challenges that arise in the field of art history require recourse to expertise in perceptual psychology. In addition to explaining the meaning that people attach to individual works of art and their content, the effect that arises in the recipient is essential to deciding whether the work of art could adequately represent a statement. In addition, with in-depth knowledge of the human act of perception, it is easier to understand what people can and cannot process, when, and how. Art and perception have always formed a unity, as a work of art has no meaning without perception. Artists often acted as intuitive psychologists who understood very well how human perception works and how certain effects can be achieved. Accordingly, art history, which is dedicated to art from a historical perspective, requires precisely this expertise in a systematic manner to adequately depict, describe, and explain the dimension of perception. The following programmatic paper aims to make clear why both disciplines should work closely together and shows what such fruitful paths of joint work could look like.
Freestanding sculpture can be scored for abstraction using order scales such as the three-rank `realistic,' `mixed,' and `abstract.' Subjective but invaluable, the ranks support ordering but not arithmetic. Numeric limitations can be addressed via information-theoretic metrics that measure collective uncertainty about a sculpture; to this end 60 participants view 25 images of sculpture via an internet questionnaire. They (i) score each depicted object and (ii) type a caption stating what impression the object evokes. Captions for the image are simplified to their English simple subject, sorted into classification categories and counted. A metric converts an image's categories and counts into viewers' uncertainty. The investigation examines four-rank and five-rank scales plus metrics CC (category count), H (entropy) and EC- 2H (equalized category count). Medians of scores or uncertainties reduce variability as appropriate. Comparisons of scores vs uncertainties show the two generally correlate well. Results also highlight inherent design tradeoffs. Scale/metric pairings affect both ranks (which should be statistically distinct) and rank/uncertainty correlations. Two good combinations are [four-rank; median CC ] and [five-rank; median EC ]. Metric CC is easy to compute and correlates slightly better than EC , although the latter supports five evenly separated ranks. Shifting focus to image scatterplots, the pair [four-rank median score; CC ] yields a very strong correlation. Once uncertainties are linked to ranks to `calibrate' them, one gets a quantitative sense of the rank order scale. The augmented framework offers the speed and ease of scoring along with valid numeric estimates of uncertainty unavailable from ranks alone.
