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Does Gallery Lighting Really Have an Impact on Appreciation of Art? An Ecologically Valid Study of Lighting Changes and the Assessment and Emotional Experience With Representational and Abstract Paintings.

ABSTRACT: We report two studies considering the potential for gallery lighting conditions to modulate appraisals and emotional experience with works of visual art. As recently documented in a number of papers, art appreciation represents a complex blend of formal artwork factors, personalities and backgrounds of viewers, and multiple aspects of context regarding where and how art is experienced. Among the latter, lighting would be expected to play a fundamental role. However, surprisingly, this has received little empirical assessment, with almost no ecologically valid gallery analyses and no between-participant designs which would minimize awareness of lighting changes themselves. Here, we employed a controlled paradigm using a spontaneous art viewing context, a gallery-like setting, and a proprietary lighting system which allowed the minute adjustment of lighting intensity/temperature (CCT). Participants viewed a selection of original representational and abstract art under three different CCT conditions (Study 1), modulated between participants, and then reported on their artwork appraisal and emotional experience. The selected lighting temperatures were chosen based on an initial investigation of existing art museums within the Vienna area, addressing how these institutions themselves light their art-a question which, also somewhat surprisingly, has not often been considered. We also allowed the same participants to set the light temperature themselves in order to test hypotheses regarding what might be an 'ideal' lighting condition for art. In Study 2, we explored the question of whether artworks made by an artist to match specific lighting conditions show a resulting connection to the ratings of viewers when shown in the same or different light. Results showed almost no effects from lighting changes in both studies. Viewers' self-set light temperature (mean = 3777 K) did roughly coincide with the suggested most enjoyable conditions for everyday living and some past research on art viewing, but again showed wide interpersonal variance. Results, and a general review of lighting factors are considered in order to provide art researchers and curators with a tool for conducting future study.

SUBMITTER: Pelowski M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6788350 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Does Gallery Lighting Really Have an Impact on Appreciation of Art? An Ecologically Valid Study of Lighting Changes and the Assessment and Emotional Experience With Representational and Abstract Paintings.

Pelowski Matthew M Graser Andrea A Specker Eva E Forster Michael M von Hinüber Josefine J Leder Helmut H

Frontiers in psychology 20191004

We report two studies considering the potential for gallery lighting conditions to modulate appraisals and emotional experience with works of visual art. As recently documented in a number of papers, art appreciation represents a complex blend of formal artwork factors, personalities and backgrounds of viewers, and multiple aspects of context regarding where and how art is experienced. Among the latter, lighting would be expected to play a fundamental role. However, surprisingly, this has receiv ...[more]

PMID: 31636577

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Project description:Motion can be perceived in static images, such as photos and figurative paintings, representing realistic subjects in motion, with or without directional information (e.g., motion blur or speed lines). Motion impression can be achieved even in non-realistic static images such as motion illusions and abstract paintings. It has been shown that visual motion processing affects the diameter of the pupil, responding differently to real, illusory, and implied motion in photographs (IM). It has been suggested that these different effects might be due to top-down modulations from different cortical areas underlying their processing. It is worthwhile to investigate pupillary response to figurative paintings, since they require an even higher level of interpretation than photos representing the same kind of subjects, given the complexity of cognitive processes involved in the aesthetic experience. Also, pupil responses to abstract paintings allows to study the effect of IM perception in representations devoid of real-life motion cues. We measured pupil responses to IM in figurative and abstract artworks depicting static and dynamic scenes, as rated by a large group of individuals not participating in the following experiment. Since the pupillary response is modulated by the subjective image interpretation, a motion rating test has been used to correct individual pupil data according to whether participants actually perceived the presence of motion in the paintings. Pupil responses to movies showing figurative and abstract subjects, and to motion illusions were also measured, to compare real and illusory motion with painted IM. Movies, both figurative and abstract, elicit the largest pupillary dilation of all static stimuli, whereas motion illusions cause the smallest pupil size, as previously shown. Interestingly, pupil responses to IM depend on the paintings' style. Figurative paintings depicting moving subjects cause more dilation than those representing static figures, and pupil size increases with the strength of IM, as already found with realistic photos. The opposite effect is obtained with abstract artworks. Abstract paintings depicting motion produce less dilation than those depicting stillness. In any case, these results reflect the individual subjective perception of dynamism, as the very same paintings can induce opposite responses in observer which interpreted it as static or dynamic. Overall, our data show that pupil size depends on high-level interpretation of motion in paintings, even when they do not represent real-world scenes. Our findings further suggest that the pupil is modulated by multiple top-down cortical mechanisms, involving the processing of motion, attention, memory, imagination, and other cognitive functions necessary for enjoying a complete aesthetic experience.

Dataset Information

Does Gallery Lighting Really Have an Impact on Appreciation of Art? An Ecologically Valid Study of Lighting Changes and the Assessment and Emotional Experience With Representational and Abstract Paintings.

Publications

Does Gallery Lighting Really Have an Impact on Appreciation of Art? An Ecologically Valid Study of Lighting Changes and the Assessment and Emotional Experience With Representational and Abstract Paintings.

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