Art & Perception

Kubovy, Michael

doi: 10.1163/22134913-20191138pmid: N/A

Some neuroaestheticians have adopted a strongly reductionistic view of the arts and sought to supplant scholarship about the arts with an understanding of their evolutionary and neuropsychological underpinnings. I use the work of several neuroaestheticians to provide examples of four problematic tendencies that beset this approach: (1) assume that a domain-general system encodes the affective value of works of art; (2) oversimplify or disregard art history and scholarship about the arts; (3) apply laboratory findings to explain unique works of art, and (4) use widespread preferences to account for works of art. I then diagnose the ailment underlying these tendencies: the denial of autonomous standing to the production and interpretation of the arts, and suggest remedies. I end with an example of research that shows how neuroscientific research can successfully addresses an important and long-standing aesthetic question.

Brinkmann, Hanna; Williams, Louis; Rosenberg, Raphael; McSorley, Eugene

doi: 10.1163/22134913-20191128pmid: N/A

Throughout the 20th century, there have been many different forms of abstract painting. While works by some artists, e.g., Piet Mondrian, are usually described as static, others are described as dynamic, such as Jackson Pollock’s ‘action paintings’. Art historians have assumed that beholders not only conceptualise such differences in depicted dynamics but also mirror these in their viewing behaviour. In an interdisciplinary eye-tracking study, we tested this concept through investigating both the localisation of fixations (polyfocal viewing) and the average duration of fixations as well as saccade velocity, duration and path curvature. We showed 30 different abstract paintings to 40 participants — 20 laypeople and 20 experts (art students) — and used self-reporting to investigate the perceived dynamism of each painting and its relationship with (a) the average number and duration of fixations, (b) the average number, duration and velocity of saccades as well as the amplitude and curvature area of saccade paths, and (c) pleasantness and familiarity ratings. We found that the average number of fixations and saccades, saccade velocity, and pleasantness ratings increase with an increase in perceived dynamism ratings. Meanwhile the saccade duration decreased with an increase in perceived dynamism. Additionally, the analysis showed that experts gave higher dynamic ratings compared to laypeople and were more familiar with the artworks. These results indicate that there is a correlation between perceived dynamism in abstract painting and viewing behaviour — something that has long been assumed by art historians but had never been empirically supported.

Erkelens, Casper J.

doi: 10.1163/22134913-20191131pmid: N/A

Perspective plays an important role in the creation and appreciation of depth on paper and canvas. Paintings of extant scenes are interesting objects for studying perspective, because such paintings provide insight into how painters apply different aspects of perspective in creating highly admired paintings. In this regard the paintings of the Piazza San Marco in Venice by Canaletto in the eighteenth century are of particular interest because of the Piazza’s extraordinary geometry, and the fact that Canaletto produced a number of paintings from similar but not identical viewing positions throughout his career. Canaletto is generally regarded as a great master of linear perspective. Analysis of nine paintings shows that Canaletto almost perfectly constructed perspective lines and vanishing points in his paintings. Accurate reconstruction is virtually impossible from observation alone because of the irregular quadrilateral shape of the Piazza. Use of constructive tools is discussed. The geometry of Piazza San Marco is misjudged in three paintings, questioning their authenticity. Sizes of buildings and human figures deviate from the rules of linear perspective in many of the analysed paintings. Shadows are stereotypical in all and even impossible in two of the analysed paintings. The precise perspective lines and vanishing points in combination with the variety of sizes for buildings and human figures may provide insight in the employed production method and the perceptual experience of a given scene.

Ostrofsky, Justin; Pletcher, Ryan; Smith, Jesse

doi: 10.1163/22134913-20191136pmid: N/A

Previous research has demonstrated that those more skilled in drawing tend to exhibit stronger local perceptual processing biases than those less skilled in drawing. However, due to the correlational nature of this research, it is unclear whether drawing performance is facilitated by biasing perception towards local visual information. In order to investigate this, we conducted an experiment where participants drew an aligned face or a horizontally-misaligned face. Previous perceptual research has demonstrated that aligned faces are processed holistically, whereas misaligned faces are processed locally. Thus, drawings of aligned faces are assumed to be guided by holistic processing, whereas drawings of misaligned faces are assumed to be guided by local processing. Drawings were objectively measured according to the relative spatial positioning of facial features. Relative to drawings of aligned faces, the accuracy of misaligned face drawings was either impaired (for drawings of the distance between the eyes and mouth) or was not affected (for drawings of the interocular distance, the distance between the nose and mouth, and the distance between the eyes and eyebrows). This pattern of drawing errors mirrored the effects of face inversion that has previously been reported, another manipulation that is thought to disrupt holistic processing. At least with respect to drawing the relative spatial positioning of facial features, we did not observe any evidence that supports the notion that biasing perceptual processing towards local visual information directly facilitates drawing performance.

Vissers, Nathalie; Moors, Pieter; Genin, Dominique; Wagemans, Johan

doi: 10.1163/22134913-20191139pmid: N/A

Artistic photography is an interesting, but often overlooked, medium within the field of empirical aesthetics. Grounded in an art–science collaboration with art photographer Dominique Genin, this project focused on the relationship between the complexity of a photograph and its aesthetic appeal (beauty, pleasantness, interest). An artistic series of 24 semi-abstract photographs that play with multiple layers, recognisability vs unrecognizability and complexity was specifically created and selected for the project. A large-scale online study with a broad range of individuals (n = 453, varying in age, gender and art expertise) was set up. Exploratory data-driven analyses revealed two clusters of individuals, who responded differently to the photographs. Despite the semi-abstract nature of the photographs, differences seemed to be driven more consistently by the ‘content’ of the photograph than by its complexity levels. No consistent differences were found between clusters in age, gender or art expertise. Together, these results highlight the importance of exploratory, data-driven work in empirical aesthetics to complement and nuance findings from hypotheses-driven studies, as they allow to go further than a priori assumptions, to explore underlying clusters of participants with different response patterns, and to point towards new venues for future research. Data and code for the analyses reported in this article can be found at https://osf.io/2fws6/.