Psychophysics for perception of (in)determinate art

The question of how humans perceive art and how the sensory percept is endowed with aesthetics by the human brain has continued to fascinate psychologists and artists alike. It seems, for example, rather easy for us to classify a work of art as either "abstract" or "representational". The artist Robert Pepperell recently has produced a series of paintings that seek to defy this classification: his goal was to convey "indeterminancy" in these paintings - scenes that at first glance look like they contain an object or belong to a certain genre but that upon closer examination escape a definite determination of their contents. Here, we report results from several psychophysical experiments using these artworks as stimuli, which seek to shed light on the perceptual processing of the degree of abstraction in images. More specifically, the task in these experiments was to categorize a briefly shown image as "abstract" or "representational". Stimuli included Pepperell‘s paintings each of which was paired with a similar representational work of art from several periods and several artistic genres. The results provide insights into the visual processes determining our perception of art and can also function as a "objective" validation for the intentions of the artist

Connecting Art and the Brain: An Artist's Perspective on Visual Indeterminacy

In this article I will discuss the intersection between art and neuroscience from the perspective of a practicing artist. I have collaborated on several scientific studies into the effects of art on the brain and behavior, looking in particular at the phenomenon of “visual indeterminacy.” This is a perceptual state in which subjects fail to recognize objects from visual cues. I will look at the background to this phenomenon, and show how various artists have exploited its effect through the history of art. My own attempts to create indeterminate images will be discussed, including some of the technical problems I faced in trying to manipulate the viewer's perceptual state through paintings. Visual indeterminacy is not widely studied in neuroscience, although references to it can be found in the literature on visual agnosia and object recognition. I will briefly review some of this work and show how my attempts to understand the science behind visual indeterminacy led me to collaborate with psychophysicists and neuroscientists. After reviewing this work, I will discuss the conclusions I have drawn from its findings and consider the problem of how best to integrate neuroscientific methods with artistic knowledge to create truly interdisciplinary approach

Frühe Prozesse der Kunstwahrnehmung

Auf dem Hintergrund des mikrogenetischen Ansatzes wurde der zeitliche Verlauf der beiden Variablen Stil und Inhalt bei der Wahrnehmung von Kunstwerken untersucht. Zusätzlich wurde untersucht, ob die Expertise eines Betrachters einen Einfluss auf die zeitliche Verarbeitung der beiden Variablen ausübt. Als Reizmaterial dienten Reproduktionen von Kunstwerken von vier Malern, die in vier Inhaltskategorien unterteilt wurden, wodurch vier unterschiedliche Bildpaare gebildet werden konnten: gleicher Stil/gleicher Inhalt, gleicher Stil/unterschiedlicher Inhalt, unterschiedlicher Stil/gleicher Inhalt sowie unterschiedlicher Stil/unterschiedlicher Inhalt. Diese Kombinationen wurden in Experiment 1 Kunstlaien zu vier Präsentationszeiten von 11, 56, 202 und 3000 ms vorgegeben. In Experiment 2 wurden die selben Bildpaare Studenten der Kunstgeschichte (Experten) für 11 und 56 ms präsentiert. Die Aufgabe der Versuchspersonen war, über die Bildpaare ein Ähnlichkeitsurteil zu fällen, wobei sie sich nach eigenen Kriterien am Stil und/oder am Inhalt der Reize orientieren konnten. Die Ergebnisse aus den Experimenten zeigen, dass unabhängig von der Expertise des Betrachters, der Inhalt bei Bildern gegenständlicher Kunst zeitlich früher zur Bildung eines Ähnlichkeitsurteils herangezogen wird, als die stilistischen Merkmale.The present diploma thesis employed the microgenetic approach to investigate the time course of the processing of style and content in representational arts. Furthermore, the influence of expertise of the test persons on the temporal processing of style and content was examined. Stimuli consisted of reproductions of paintings by four artists (style) divided into four categories of content. On the basis of these two conditions four different pairs of pictures were created: same style/same content, same style/other content, other style/same content and other style/other content. In Experiment 1 the pairs of pictures were shown to probands without expertise in the arts (non-experts). The presentation times varied between 11, 56, 202 and 3000 ms. In Experiment 2 the same stimulus material was presented to students of Art History (experts) for exposure durations of 11 and 56 ms. In all experiments similarity ratings for each pair of pictures were collected. The participants received no specific information, thus they could base their similarity judgments individually on the style and/or on the content of the paintings. The results demonstrate that the onset of the processing of content of representational art precedes the processing of style. Processing of content prior to processing of style is independent of the expertise of the perceiver