Did federalism impact the capacity for public health policy response to COVID-19? The case of Germany

Over the course of the pandemic, Germany’s strong federal system required explicit coordination and cooperation between the federal and state governments. Before any substantial outbreak struck Germany in March, the German strategy to combat the disease was to contact trace and rely on state and local governments to stop the spread. As cases rose and the country moved into the first wave time period, COVID-19 restrictions primarily came from the national government as consented to by the states. For each new mandate released, the wording was unanimously agreed upon by all 16 federal state leaders and Chancellor Merkel. When cases started to recede and the country moved into the recovery phase, individual states became the main deciding actors for loosening and re-tightening the restrictions

Satori, koan and aesthetic experience: Exploring the “realization of emptiness” in Buddhist enlightenment via an empirical study of modern art

We compare the cognitive basis of satori, or the “realization of emptiness” at the heart of Zen Buddhist enlightenment, and with the mechanism whereby satori is most often evoked – a pedagogical relationship between master and student called “koan” – to modern artworks and the conception of aesthetic experience, noting structural and psychological similarity. Based on our previous work on this topic in art-perception (Pelowski & Akiba, 2011), we offer a cognitive model for satori’s consideration. We then discuss empirical evidence for art-induced satori, noting a correlation with a progression of cognitive and emotional factors suggesting a movement through all posited model stages and a major distinction from non-satori outcomes. We also note a positive correlation between satori and hedonic evaluations of beauty, art potency and importance, understanding of art and artist’s intention, change in subject self image and a fundamental shift in meaning analysis from a mimetic to an experience-based interpretation. This study, through the exploration of the underlying satori mechanism made explicit in the Zen koan and duplicated in modern art, suggests a universal nature to and means of exploring the insight underlying the satori phenomenon and opens a new avenue for cross-disciplinary/cross-cultural study of enlightenment

The role of the body in the experience of installation art: a case study of visitors' bodily, emotional, and transformative experiences in Tomás Saraceno's “in orbit”

Installation art, with its immersive and participatory character, has been argued to require the use and awareness of the body, which potentially constitute key parts of the artwork's experience and appreciation. Heightened body awareness is even argued to be a key to particularly profound emotional or even transformative states, which have been frequently ascribed to this genre. However, the body in the experience of installation art has rarely been empirically considered. To address this gap, we investigated the body's role in the experience of Tomás Saraceno's in orbit installation. Based on a list of self-report items created from a review of the theoretical literature, we—for the first time—captured (quantitatively and qualitatively): what kind of subjective bodily experiences visitors (N = 230) reported, how these items grouped into clusters (using network science), and how these relate to emotion, art appraisal, and transformative outcomes. Network analysis of the items determined four communities related to “interoception,” “presence,” “disturbance,” and “proprioception.” Proprioception (e.g., awareness of balance/movement/weight) turned out to be a significant determinant of art appreciation in our study, and, together with “disturbing” body experiences (feeling awkward/watched/chills), coincided with transformation. We also assessed individual differences in body awareness yet did not find that these moderate those relationships. We suggest future research on installation art based on a more unified assessment of the role of the body in embodied-enactive aesthetics and its relation to the intensity and impact of art experience in general.Peer Reviewe

Images Influencing Images: How Pictorial Context Affects the Emotional Interpretation of Art Photographs

Images are never seen in isolation. Instead, they are perceived within a spatial and temporal tapestry of neighboring images. What impact do other images have on our emotional response toward a particular image? Answers to this basic question have vital implications for a range of fields—especially for visual communication and for curating art, where resources are invested in arranging images within a visual context. Previous studies have provided mixed results, suggesting that juxtaposed images may lead to contrast or assimilation processes increasing and decreasing our liking of an image. But how specific image features in neighboring images (image’s ambiguity or formal similarities between images) modulate our affective interpretation of an image has almost never been explored. In Study 1, we compared the emotion perceived in art photographs (“target” images) when displayed on their own versus when displayed in juxtaposition with negatively or positively valenced nonart (“context”) images. Additionally, we analyzed the influence of the artwork’s perceived ambiguity. In Study 2, we examined the effect of the perceiver’s expertise and the formal similarity between the images on the rated valence of the target image. Our results show that the emotion perceived in the artwork contrasted away from or assimilated toward the valence perceived in the context image depending on which evaluative dimension was activated. Moreover, the influence of negative contextual material on the target image’s valence was more pronounced. We conclude by saying that the evaluative dimension is part of the pictorial context that influences the affective interpretation of an image

How Would Children Register Their Own Births? Insights from a Survey of Students Regarding Birth Registration Knowledge and Policy Suggestions in Kenya

Birth registration and obtaining physical birth certificates impose major challenges in developing countries, with impact on child and community health, education, planning, and all levels of development. However despite initiatives, universal registration is elusive, leading to calls for new approaches to understanding the decisions of parents. In this paper, we report results of a survey of students in grades six to eight (age ~12-16) in an under-registered area of Kenya regarding their own understanding of registration issues and their suggestions for improvement. These students were selected because they themselves were also nearing the age for high school enrollment/entrance examinations, which specifically requires possession of a birth certificate. This assessment was also a companion to our previous representative survey of adults in the same Kenyan region, allowing for parent-child comparison. Results supported previous research, showing that only 43% had birth certificates. At the same time, despite these low totals, students were themselves quite aware of registration factors and purposes. The students also made quite prescient sources for understanding their households\u27 motivations, with many of their suggestions-for focus on communication of pragmatic benefits, or automatic measures shifting responsibility from parents-mirroring our own previous suggestions, and showing a level of pragmatism not witnessed when surveying their parents. This paper therefore adds evidence to the discussion of registration policy planning. More generally, it also builds on an important trend regarding the treatment of children as stakeholders and important sources of information, and raising an intriguing new avenue for future research

Capturing Aesthetic Experiences With Installation Art: An Empirical Assessment of Emotion, Evaluations, and Mobile Eye Tracking in Olafur Eliasson’s “Baroque, Baroque!”

Installation art is one of the most important and provocative developments in the visual arts during the last half century and has become a key focus of artists and of contemporary museums. It is also seen as particularly challenging or even disliked by many viewers, and—due to its unique in situ, immersive setting—is equally regarded as difficult or even beyond the grasp of present methods in empirical aesthetic psychology. In this paper, we introduce an exploratory study with installation art, utilizing a collection of techniques to capture the eclectic, the embodied, and often the emotionally-charged viewing experience. We present results from an investigation of two pieces, both part of Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition “Baroque, Baroque” held at the Belvedere museum in Vienna. These were assessed by pre- and post-viewing questionnaires focusing on emotion, meaning-making, and appraisals, in tandem with mobile eye tracking to consider viewers’ attention to both installed artworks and/or to the museum environment. The data showed differences in participants’ emotional states, appraisals, and visual exploration, which together paint a picture of the aesthetic reactions to the works. These differences also showed how viewers’ appraisal strategies, meaning making, and physical actions facilitated relatively more or less deep engagement with, and enjoyment of, the art. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for museum studies, art education, and theory in empirical aesthetics

Embodied viewing and Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: a multi-disciplinary experiment in eye-tracking and motion capture

This paper presents a cross-disciplinary project based on an experiment in eye-tracking and motion capture (Sainsbury’s Centre for Visual Arts), which aimed to study viewers’ movements around an iconic sculpture: Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The experiment studies how viewers respond to this three-dimensional artwork not only by looking at it but also through their own bodily reactions to it, such as by unconsciously mimicking a represented attitude or gesture. We compared two groups of viewers: classically trained dancers and non-dancers. Our hypothesis was that the skills and embodied experiences of the dancers would alter the ways in which they engage bodily with the work compared to the non-dancers. Our underlying research question was: how are vision and the body interlinked in esthetic and kinesthetic experience? This paper does not give results, which are forthcoming. It focuses on methodology and provides a commentary on the design and development of the interdisciplinary collaboration behind the project. It explores an interdisciplinary collaboration that bridges the humanities and experimental sciences and asks how being confronted with unfamiliar methodologies forces researchers in a given field to critically self-examine the limits and presuppositions of their practices

Tears and Transformation: Feeling like crying as an indicator of insight or ‘aesthetic’ experience with art

This paper explores a fundamental similarity between cognitive models for crying and conceptions of insight, enlightenment or, in the context of art, aesthetic experience. All of which center on a process of initial discrepancy, followed by schema change, and conclude in a personal adjustment or a transformation of one’s image of the self. Because tears are argued to mark one of the only physical indicators of this cognitive outcome, and because the process is particularly salient in examples with art, I argue that crying may provide an intriguing marker for empirical study of perceiving art. To explore this parallel, I offer a review of crying theory as well as of tearful cases with art, pointing out the key cognitive elements. I then introduce an expanded crying model, based upon our recent model of art experience which does consider insight and adjustment or application of the self. I also consider multiple emotional and evaluative factors, which may co-vary with crying response. This theoretical discussion is then applied in three exploratory, survey-based studies, conducted within U.K., Japan and U.S. museums, and including what is claimed to be the 20th century’s most tear-inducing abstract paintings. Results showed—with cross-cultural consistency—significant correlation between feeling like crying and a collection of responses posited to indicate a full progression to aesthetic experience. This also found correlation to positive assessment of artwork goodness, beauty, understanding of meaning, and to final reported self reflection and epiphany. I argue that, beyond the question of why we may cry, by considering implications of what tears may indicate for information processing, feeling like crying may be a compelling basis for identifying outcomes of perceptual (art) experience