Seeing a Work of Art Indirectly: When a Reproduction Is Better Than an Indirect View, and a Mirror Better Than a Live Monitor

Abstract

Visiting a museum and seeing an original artwork can be a special experience. We use a survey and a set of hypothetical questions to explore how such experience would be affected by changes in how the artwork is seen. In a first study, participants imagined that they had traveled to see a painting that they particularly like. They discover that it is impossible to directly see the original painting. Three alternatives are offered: seeing an optical reflection (using a mirror), seeing a video screening (a closed-circuit camera), or seeing a reproduction. In all cases, it is made clear that the size, brightness, and resolution will match that of the original. In addition, these options could be within the same room as the original, in the room next door, or in a different building. Results show that physical distance did not affect significantly the responses. However, there was an overall preference for seeing a reproduction as opposed to an optical or digital image. Contrary to the idea that the original is always superior to a copy, many people felt that a direct view of a copy is a preferable experience than an indirect view. The second study was focused directly on the comparison between a mirror and a monitor. Here we highlighted the fact that for the mirror light coming from the mirror originated from the painting. Data were collected in Britain and in China. In both cases, there was a clear preference for the mirror over the monitor.

The Influence of Presentation Format on Responses of Male Sex Offenders to Digital Paintings that illustrate the Consequences Sexual Crimes

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

“…A relatively unexplored area with emerging experimental design guidelines as well as some ethical concerns 48 , 49 , nevertheless VR holds exciting promise for empirical aesthetic research. There is some previous research comparing museum and laboratory settings as well as original and reproduction artworks 50 , and similarly, investigating preference towards types of substituted representations of artworks 51 , or targeting emotional experience using mobile EEG to develop a classifier based on the data recordings from a real and virtual museum 52 . In line with recent experimental results underlining the observed contextual differences (particularly between lab-based and real-world conditions), aesthetics research in laboratories resembling the genuine contexts of aesthetic experience as much as possible was proposed 53 .…”

Ecological Art Experience: How We Can Gain Experimental Control While Preserving Ecologically Valid Settings and Contexts

“…It should be noted that in specific cases the experience of art and art reproductions could be even better, richer, and deeper in a non-museum context. As was recently shown in a survey study by Bertamini and Blakemore (2019), high-quality reproductions allow a direct and close inspection of the artworks that is not possible in many art museums due to security issues. Additional promising results stem from preliminary studies in the domain of virtual reality testing (Janković et al, 2019).…”