Influence of appreciation experience to interest in pieces and parts of artwork

Abstract

For estimating the influence of individual's appreciation experience to the behavior to artwork, we conducted one questionnaire survey and two experiments. In the questionnaires, the depth of concern and knowledge about fine art of each subject were measured. The subjects were resultantly classified to high, middle, and low experience in appreciations of variety of artwork. In the first experiment, eye movements of the subjects while appreciating an abstract artwork were observed. Eyes of experienced viewer moved more widely and captured many characteristic objects of the work, exploring and finding a pattern on the work. In the second experiment, the number of artwork photographs picked by each subject was counted. The high and low experienced subjects picked many pieces from the 46 candidates, whereas the ones of middle experience took time in wondering about their own preference. These results imply the experiences in viewing artwork makes an attention to the meaning of artwork, and that two patterns of preference may occur, i.e., with and without semantic understanding of artwork.