Art Viewing and Aesthetic Development

Art Viewing and Aesthetic Development Martin Weingartner vsem@ec.tuwien.ac.at Electronic Commerce GroupVSEM – The Virtual 3D Social Experience Museum Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems Vienna University of Technology Favoritenstrasse 9-11/188-1 . 1040 Vienna . Austria/Europe Tel: +43 (1) 58801 - 18815 http://vsem.ec.tuwien.ac.at/

Abigail Housen/Philip Yenawine • What is the nature of the aesthetic response? • How can one best study or measure this response? • Can studying the aesthetic response help us teach or develop it more effectively? • Aesthetic Development Interview • Aesthetic Stages • Constructivist and developmental approach

Stage I: Accountive • Here it is orange, here it is black, here it is blue. Here this girl has some stripes. And there is something, some circle, some green. • … I see…two women here… They…are looking at each other...looks like one of the women has a…misfortune

Stage II: Constructive • And they have five fingers, just like us. • The hair on the first person is blond, and it is true, but there is no such thing as a purple face. • The person has chosen, instead of using circles for the background, he used lots of diamonds. • …perhaps, it’s a mirror…

Stage III: Classifying • I’m looking at, I guess it’s a reproduction of a painting that seems to be abstract. I think it’s by Picasso… • it seems to have, the artist divides the painting into four, actually, you can also look at it in halves, and it seems to be two different views of a woman of a female form, it, it’s somewhat a mirror image but yet seems to be different poses, it shows internal and external…

Stage IV: Interpretive • …Well, it looks like a symbolic image of the self learning of the person, she seems to discover something, possibly frighten him there, because this image, it is a kind of unusual and incomprehensible… • …different colors, represented on this picture—they are likely to represent different experiences of her. Well, the red color—is probably some aggressions, and blue is on the contrary some feeling of rest…

Stage V: Re-Creative • …the first time that I saw this painting…whenever I first look at this, my eyes sort of go to the middle of the compositions for some strange reason… possibly because it’s the one where it’s the least clear about what’s going on…

Aesthetic Stages • Aesthetic thinking is largely a stable trait, remaining the same over many years. • Most adults interviewed seldom score above Stage II. • The most important factor predicting level of aesthetic development appears to be the amount of time they have spent viewing and reflecting about art. • Viewers at beginning Stages will misconstrue ideas that are commonly understood by more experienced viewers, and will unknowingly misstate ideas when asked to repeat them.

Visual Thinking Strategies • all students must have ample opportunity to point out what they see in the art they examine and express their opinions about it • students must know that their thoughts are heard, understood, and valued • students must provide evidence to explain their interpretive comments • students must see that each comment contributes to the group process of mining the art for multiple meanings

Asking Questions • What is going on in this picture? • What do you see that makes you say that? • What more can we find?

Acknowledging Response • Point, and be physically expressive. • Paraphrase each person's response. • Let them talk. • Don’t worry about repetition. • Timing • Class Size

Outlook • Create a Prototype which use ideas VTS in a 3D Virtual Environment • User Evaluation

Art Viewing and Aesthetic Development