TY - JOUR

T1 - Art in Hospitals Project Psychophysiology experiment

AU - Wulff-Abramsson, Andreas

AU - Bruni, Luis Emilio

AU - Baceviciute, Sarune

AU - Burelli, Paolo

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - The idea of this pilot experiment within the context of the “Art in Hospitals” project was toexplore the fruitfulness and future perspectives for integrating psychophysiological methodsto the ethnographic approach so far implemented in the project. As a pilot study it serves toopen the doors to experimental avenues that can support the ethnographic investigation.Therefore in order to form a basis for applications of these methodologies in future studies inthe field, this pilot was concentrated in one of the initial premises of the project, whichintended to challenge current recommendations for art in hospitals. Most of these guidelinesfavor figurative over abstract art, based on ideas leaning to the emotional congruence theory,which would claim that abstract art leads to ambiguity and therefore it could augment thecurrent emotional base-line of an already stressed patient. The early ethnographic studies ofthe “Art in Hospitals” project challenged this perspective by investigating the positive ornegative effects of “lower-level” specific features (e.g.: bright colors vs. darker, contrast,predominant shapes) independent of whether they were present in abstract or figurative art,which as such could not be said to have universal positive or negative effects respectively. Inthis sense it was retained necessary to assess whether significant differences can be detectedin cognitive processes when processing figurative or abstract art that has been manifestlyreported as pleasant or unpleasant by the subject – by providing a sample of stimuli that couldstatistically contain both liked and disliked art pieces in two conditions (abstract andfigurative), under the assumption that it is not, abstract or figurative art per se, that makes thedifference. In other words, one may expect a significant difference in cognitive processingbetween the abstract and figurative condition, but this difference in processing mode (oreffect) would not have necessarily to correlate with the subject’s aesthetic experience,whether he or she enjoyed the painting or not.

AB - The idea of this pilot experiment within the context of the “Art in Hospitals” project was toexplore the fruitfulness and future perspectives for integrating psychophysiological methodsto the ethnographic approach so far implemented in the project. As a pilot study it serves toopen the doors to experimental avenues that can support the ethnographic investigation.Therefore in order to form a basis for applications of these methodologies in future studies inthe field, this pilot was concentrated in one of the initial premises of the project, whichintended to challenge current recommendations for art in hospitals. Most of these guidelinesfavor figurative over abstract art, based on ideas leaning to the emotional congruence theory,which would claim that abstract art leads to ambiguity and therefore it could augment thecurrent emotional base-line of an already stressed patient. The early ethnographic studies ofthe “Art in Hospitals” project challenged this perspective by investigating the positive ornegative effects of “lower-level” specific features (e.g.: bright colors vs. darker, contrast,predominant shapes) independent of whether they were present in abstract or figurative art,which as such could not be said to have universal positive or negative effects respectively. Inthis sense it was retained necessary to assess whether significant differences can be detectedin cognitive processes when processing figurative or abstract art that has been manifestlyreported as pleasant or unpleasant by the subject – by providing a sample of stimuli that couldstatistically contain both liked and disliked art pieces in two conditions (abstract andfigurative), under the assumption that it is not, abstract or figurative art per se, that makes thedifference. In other words, one may expect a significant difference in cognitive processingbetween the abstract and figurative condition, but this difference in processing mode (oreffect) would not have necessarily to correlate with the subject’s aesthetic experience,whether he or she enjoyed the painting or not.

M3 - Journal article

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - Media and Cultural Studies

JF - Media and Cultural Studies

M1 - 1

ER -