THE AESTHETIC DIMENSION OF THE PERCEPTION OF PAINTINGS

THE AESTHETIC DIMENSION OF THE PERCEPTION OF PAINTINGS Slobodan Marković Laboratory of Experimental Psychology University of Belgrade, Serbia

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE Continuous dimension Beautiful = Pleasant Ugly = Unpleasant

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE Continuous dimension Beautiful = Pleasant Renoir Ugly = Unpleasant Modigliani Dubuffet

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Exceptional state of mind Aesthetic experience No aesthetic experience

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Exceptional state of mind Czikszentmihalyi (1990): Flow Telegan i Atkinson (1974): Absorption Kabat-Zinn (1998): Mindfulness Kubovy (1999): Pleasures of the mind FASCINATION: Focus on object TRANCENDENCE: Virtual reality MENTAL PLEASURE: Extraordinary experience

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Aesthetic objects All objects can be aesthetic: artistic pieces, natural scenes … Botticelli

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Aesthetic objects All objects can be aesthetic: artistic pieces, natural scenes …

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Aesthetic objects Aesthetic experience is invariant in the different emotional states Leonardo Durer van Dongen

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE EXPERIENCE Corinth Stuck Lempicka Gogi Rousseau Gvido Reni Klimt Giza

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This study investigated 1. the structure of aesthetic experience 2. the relationship of this structure and other dimensions of the subjective judgements of paintings.

SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENTS OF PAINTINGS Marković, S. & Radonjić, A. (2008). Implicit and explicit features of paintings. Spatial Vision, 21 (3 -5), 229 -259. HEDONIC TONE AROUSAL pleasant beautiful healthy REGULARITY regular arranged precise impressive strong interesting RELAXATION calming warm serene

EXPERIMENT Descriptors of aesthetic experience FASCINATING IRRESISTIBLE UNIQUE ETERNAL PROFOUND EXCEPTIONAL UNIVERSAL UNSPEAKABLE I would like to have this painting

METHOD Subjects: 26 students of Dept. of Psychology, Univ. of Belgrade Stimuli: 24 paintings used in previous study (Marković & Radonjić, 2008) Procedure: Paintings were judged on 9 unipolar scales (1 -7) FASCINATING 1234567 IRRESISTIBLE 1234567 UNIQUE 1234567 ETERNAL 1234567 PROFOUND 1234567 EXCEPTIONAL 1234567 UNIVERSAL 1234567 UNSPEAKABLE 1234567 I would like to have this painting 1234567

Ancient Figural Stylized Abstract

RESULTS Principle component analysis String out matrix (Osgood , May & Miron, 1975)

RESULTS Principle component analysis Principle component (60, 88%) 1. EXCEPTIONAL . 876 2. FASCINATING . 849 3. IRRESISTIBLE . 849 4. I would like to have this painting . 807 5. ETERNAL . 779 6. PROFOUND . 773 7. UNIQUE . 737 8. UNSPEAKABLE . 686 9. UNIVERSAL . 632

RESULTS Regression analysis AE: Average judgments on 9 scales (exceptional, fascinating, irresistible …) Predictors: Four dimensions of subjective judgments HEDONIC TONE AROUSAL pleasant beautiful healthy REGULARITY regular arranged precise impressive strong interesting RELAXATION calming warm serene

RESULTS Regression analysis Multiple regression coefficient: r 2 = 391 not significant Partial contributions: HEDONIC TONE AROUSAL REGULARITY RELAXATION

RESULTS Regression analysis Multiple regression coefficient: r 2 = 391 not significant Partial contributions: b t p AROUSAL . 536 2. 218 . 045 REGULARITY r 2 =. 227, p <. 05 HEDONIC TONE RELAXATION

RESULTS AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE exceptional fascinating irresistible AROUSAL impressive strong interesting HEDONIC TONE pleasant beautiful healthy

CONCLUSIONS 1. The aesthetic experience is a unique and relatively independent phenomenon: a) Internally, it is not dividable into components b) Externally, it is weakly correlated with the other subjective dimensions of paintings perception. 2. The aesthetic experience is closer to the Arousal, than to the Hedonic tone and the other subjective dimensions of paintings

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AESTHETIC FASCINATION

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AESTHETIC FASCINATION Escher

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AESTHETIC FASCINATION Witkin

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AESTHETIC FASCINATION Witkin

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AESTHETIC FASCINATION

Selection of representative paintings Marković, S. & Radonjić, A. (2008). Implicit and explicit features of paintings. Spatial Vision, 21 (3 -5), 229 -259. Ancient 21 paintings Figural 21 paintings Stylized 21 paintings Abstract 21 paintings Paired similarity-dissimilarity ratings of paintings within each given category Multi-dimensional Scaling of ratings

Selection of representative paintings Marković, S. & Radonjić, A. (2008). Implicit and explicit features of paintings. Spatial Vision, 21 (3 -5), 229 -259. 2, 0 1, 5 1, 0 0, 5 0, 0 - 0, 5 - 1, 0 - 1, 5 - 2, 0 - 1, 0 0, 0 1, 0 2, 0 3, 0

Selection of representative paintings Marković, S. & Radonjić, A. (2008). Implicit and explicit features of paintings. Spatial Vision, 21 (3 -5), 229 -259. MDS: 3 -D space

+ - X + - B 1 B 2 B 3 B 4 X A 1 A 2 Y Y A 3 A 4 Z Z A 5 A 6 B 5 B 6 + - D 1 D 2 D 3 D 4 D 5 D 6 X X C 1 C 2 Y Y C 3 C 4 Z Z C 5 C 6