Postural and emotional impact of Carsten Höller's Artwork "Light Corner"

Abstract

This study is an in situ experiment carried out at the Grand Palais in Paris during the exhibition "Dynamo" in 2013. Visitors of the exhibition were asked to stand in quiet stance in the middle of Carsten Höller's "Light Corner" (2001). This artwork, one of the first of the Dynamo exhibition, was a room (three walls, the fourth side being the entrance) covered with light bulbs flickering while speakers displayed sound vibrations at similar fast-paced rhythms, inducing visuo-auditory hallucinations. Inasmuch as many visitors naturally closed their eyes when the artwork was turned on, we measured the impact of being within the artwork with closed eyes (i.e., experiencing light and color through eyelids, heat sensations, and sounds) on postural control and on subjective appreciation of the artwork (ratings and free reports). Overall, the 18 participants showed very diverse appreciation (from extremely low to extremely high). The main results of our study show that the mean power frequency of the body sway increased, and that such frequency was negatively correlated with the subjective appreciation of the artwork: participants who disliked the artwork more, and participants who spontaneously referred to the violence of the artwork, showed higher frequencies. Thus, our study shows that this artwork impacted in parallel body control and emotions, leaving the causal links between the two to be explored in future studies.