Slobodan Marković

THE AESTHETIC DIMENSION OF THE PERCEPTION OF PAINTINGS

Laboratory of Experimental Psychology University of Belgrade, Serbia

Beautiful = Pleasant Ugly = Unpleasant

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE

Continuous dimension

Renoir DubuffetModigliani

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE

Continuous dimension

Beautiful = Pleasant Ugly = Unpleasant

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

Exceptional state of mind

Aesthetic experience No aesthetic experience

Czikszentmihalyi (1990): Flow

Telegan i Atkinson (1974): Absorption

Kabat-Zinn (1998): Mindfulness

Kubovy (1999): Pleasures of the mind

FASCINATION: Focus on objectTRANCENDENCE: Virtual realityMENTAL PLEASURE: Extraordinary experience

Exceptional state of mind

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

Botticelli

Aesthetic objects

All objects can be aesthetic: artistic pieces, natural scenes …

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

Aesthetic objects

All objects can be aesthetic: artistic pieces, natural scenes …

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

Aesthetic experience is invariant in the different emotional states

Leonardo Durer van Dongen

Aesthetic objects

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

Corinth Lempicka Rousseau Klimt

Gogi Gvido Reni GizaStuck

AESTHETIC PREFERENCEEXPERIENCE

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.

REGULARITY regular arranged precise

AROUSAL impressive stronginteresting

HEDONIC TONE pleasant beautiful healthy

RELAXATION

calming warm serene

SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENTS OF PAINTINGS

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

Descriptors of aesthetic experience

EXPERIMENT

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)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

FASCINATING

IRRESISTIBLE

UNIQUE

ETERNAL

PROFOUND

EXCEPTIONAL

UNIVERSAL

UNSPEAKABLE

I would like to have this painting

Ancient Figural

AbstractStylized

RESULTS

Principle component analysis

String out matrix (Osgood , May & Miron, 1975)

Stimulus 2

Scales

Subj

ect s

Stimulus 1

Scales

Subj

ect s

Stimulus 3

Scales

Subj

ect s

Stimulus 1

Scales

Subj

ect s

Scales

Subj

ect s

Scales

Subj

ect s

Stimulus 2

Stimulus 3

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

AE: Average judgments on 9 scales (exceptional, fascinating, irresistible …)

Predictors: Four dimensions of subjective judgments

RESULTS

Regression analysis

REGULARITY regular arranged precise

AROUSAL impressive stronginteresting

HEDONIC TONE pleasant beautiful healthy

RELAXATION

calming warm serene

Multiple regression coefficient: r2 = 391 not significant

Partial contributions:

RESULTS

Regression analysis

HEDONIC TONE

AROUSAL

REGULARITY

RELAXATION

Multiple regression coefficient: r2 = 391 not significant

Partial contributions:

r2 = .227, p < .05

RESULTS

Regression analysis

t p

.536 2.218 .045

HEDONIC TONE

AROUSAL

REGULARITY

RELAXATION

AROUSAL

impressive stronginteresting

HEDONIC TONE

pleasant beautiful healthy

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

exceptionalfascinatingirresistible

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

1. The aesthetic experience is a unique and relatively independent phenomenon:

a) Internally, it is not dividable into componentsb) 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

Escher

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

AESTHETIC FASCINATION

Witkin

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

AESTHETIC FASCINATION

Witkin

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

AESTHETIC FASCINATION

AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

AESTHETIC FASCINATION

Selection of representative paintings

Ancient Figural Stylized Abstract

21 paintings 21 paintings 21 paintings 21 paintings

Paired similarity-dissimilarity ratings of paintings within each given category

Multi-dimensional Scaling of ratings

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

- 2,0 - 1,0 0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0- 1,5

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

Selection of representative paintings

MDS: 3-D space

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

Selection of representative paintings

A3

A1

A6

A4

A2

A5

X

Y

Z

+ -

B3

B1

B6

B4

B2

B5

X

Y

Z

+ -

C3

C1

C6

C4

C2

C5

X

Y

Z

+ -

D3

D1

D6

D4

D2

D5

X

Y

Z

+ -