New Design University

Embodied cognition claims that how we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should, therefore, also be central for engaging art. However, little attention has been paid to the actual ways viewers move in front of art and how this impacts experiences. We aim to close this gap, using a new paradigm in a gallery-like setting in which we tracked movements of participants that engaged an abstract artwork. Guided by a literature review, we relate objective movement factors and subjective body awareness to mobile viewing behavior, art experience, and expertise. We also—for the first time—define shared movement patterns employing principal component/cluster analysis and relate these to experience outcomes, noting, for example, that moving more/more dynamically related to more reported insight. As a proof-of-concept paper, we hope to support a more embodied, enactive understanding of art engagements, and provide practical guidelines for future research.

Embodied cognition claims that the way we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should therefore also be central for understanding the experience of viewing and evaluating art. However, in both laboratory and in more ecologically-valid gallery studies, little attention has been paid to the actual ways viewers move in front of art—where they stand, how they approach or shift positions—and how this impacts their experiences. This paper aims to close this gap by demonstrating a new paradigm in a gallery-like setting, in which we tracked movements of participants that engaged an abstract artwork via infrared cameras. We also captured their viewing behavior via mobile eye tracking and collected self-reported art appraisals, cognitive and emotional phenomenal factors, as well as subjective awareness of their bodies and physical engagement. Via correlational analysis, based on a theoretical review of past literature and arguments regarding compelling movement aspects, we consider the relation of a broad range of objective and subjective movement aspects to reported art experiences. We also—for the first time—define basic, shared patterns of global movement that could be related to different art appraisals and emotional experiences employing a bottom-up statistical analysis using principal component and cluster analyses. As a proof-of-concept paper we identify the importance and explanatory advantages of our approach both for a more embodied, enactive understanding of art engagements, and as a practical guideline for future empirical aesthetics, art, and museum research.

It is assumed that to appreciate a knowledge contribution in research-through-design, we all agree on what the act of designing is and should deliver in research. However, just from a glance at contributions in an HCI context, this is far from the case. The course is based on the book: Drifting by intention – four epistemic traditions in constructive design research authored by the instructors. It unpacks different ways of knowing in practice-based design and provides operational models and hands-on exercises applied on participants cases to help plan and articulate the contribution of design in each participant's individual research project.