Similarity of gaze patterns across physical and virtual versions of an installation artwork

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.

Skills Development through Virtual Art-Based Learning: Learning Outcomes of an Advanced Training Program for Project Managers

With regard to emerging requirements of the professional field, uncertainty competence is a skill to be cultivated and integrated into project management education and training. Art-based learning seems to be a promising approach because the artistic mindset is a suitable model for coping with uncertainty. However, it is widely unclear to what extent art-based learning’s experiential nature will result in soft skills development under the restrictions of distance education. The present quantitative study explores whether—in a virtual learning environment—art-based executive training has a measurable effect on uncertainty competence. Data collection and analysis applied a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. Participants in the experimental group completed a month-long virtual training program based on visual arts. Contrary to its objective, the program did not cause meaningful changes in uncertainty competence or perceived stress but had a significant effect on participants’ attentiveness and presence. Participants achieved a higher level of mindfulness in dealing with complexity. The results imply that—even in virtual settings—art-based approaches enhance terms of perceptive capacity and social presence but need to be long-term, related to participants’ individual work-context, and disturb participants’ routines to have an effect on uncertainty competence.