Composition and Spatial Layout of Images of Artworks in relation to their Aesthetic Appreciation
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While Composition has been at the center of philosophical aesthetics, art-theoretical discussions, and art education, it has received considerably less attention in empirical aesthetics. The same is true for the notion of Spatial Layout (hereafter “Layout”), which is more central in the literature on space and scene perception. With this large preregistered (https://osf.io/67mx5) online study of 160 artworks, we aim to provide a foundation for future work by investigating the relationship of important aesthetic measures, namely Pleasure, Interest, Order, and Complexity, with Composition and Layout. Our participants were randomly assigned either the Composition or the Layout condition, received definitions and examples of good and poor Composition or clear and unclear Layout, and then viewed 50 randomly selected artworks in two blocks. In the first block they rated them on either Pleasure or Interest, either Order or Complexity, and either Composition or Layout, using 7-point Likert Scales. In the second block they rated the same images again (new random order) on Composition or Layout and on the two remaining aesthetic concepts. Participants also filled out a standard demographics questionnaire, an art-experience questionnaire and scales from selected personality questionnaires for Openness to Experience, Need for Closure, Sensation Seeking and Aesthetic Sensitivity. First results (N=494) show that high ratings for Composition and Layout lead to higher Pleasure ratings. Ratings for Order are highly positively correlated with ratings for Composition and Layout, while ratings for Complexity are negatively correlated with ratings for Composition and Layout. Participants scoring high on Openness and Sensation Seeking require lower scores on Composition and Layout to give higher Pleasure ratings. Composition and Layout are correlated higher for representative artworks than for abstract artworks, and their relationship with other concepts seems to be slightly different. Data collection is still ongoing until we have ratings from 1280 participants. Acknowledgment: This work is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (No. 101053925) awarded to JW.
Recommended citation: Koßmann, L. & Wagemans, J. (2024). Composition and Spatial Layout of Images of Artworks in relation to their Aesthetic Appreciation [Poster]. International Association of Emprical Aesthetics (IAEA), Palma de Mallorca, Spain.