To Touch or not to Touch: Multimodal Integration in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Artworks in an Art Gallery

Abstract

[eng] The present research explores the visual-tactile experience in the aesthetic appraisal of artworks in an art gallery. We examined the effects of order (direct and reverse) and multisensory (visual and tactile) vs. unisensory (visual) engagement with sculptures upon their aesthetic appraisals (valence, arousal, and liking). Our results show that, instead of being enhanced, visitors’ ratings on aesthetic judgments were lower in the multimodal condition. Additionally, order also influenced appraisals, and the two experimental manipulations interacted significantly: artworks were rated lower when touched than when only viewed in the reverse condition. In line with the principles of situated cognition and Leder, Belke, Oeberst, and Augustin’s (2004) model of aesthetic appreciation of art, our several interpretations point to a complex, dynamic and multidimensional interplay of the subject, object, and context in the aesthetic appreciation of art. We, therefore, conclude that aesthetic experience of art is not in the eye nor the hand of the beholder, but in her actual embodied mind.