Visiting Richard Serra’s “Promenade” sculpture improves postural control and judgment of subjective visual vertical

Abstract

Body sway while maintaining an upright quiet stance reflects an active process of balance based on the integration of visual, vestibular, somatosensory, and proprioceptive inputs. Richard Serra’s Promenade sculpture featured in the 2008 Monumenta exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, France is herein hypothesized to have stimulated the body’s vertical and longitudinal axes as it showcased five monumental rectangular solids pitched at a 1.69° angle. Using computerized dynamic posturography we measured the body sway of 23 visitors when fixating a cross, or when observing the artwork (fixating it or actively exploring it with eye movements) before and after walking around and alongside the sculpture (i.e., before and after a promenade). A first fixation at the sculpture increased medio-lateral stability (in terms of spectral power of body sway). Eye movement exploration in the depth of the sculpture increased antero-posterior stability [in terms of spectral power and canceling time (CT) of body sway] at the expense of medio-lateral stability (in terms of CT). Moreover, a medio-lateral instability associated with eye movement exploration before the promenade (in terms of body sway sensu stricto) was canceled after the promenade. Finally, the overall medio-lateral stability (in terms of spectral power) increased after the promenade. Fourteen additional visitors were asked to stand in a dark room and adjust a luminous line to what they considered to be the earth-vertical axis. The promenade executed within the sculpted environment afforded by Serra’s monumental statuary works resulted in significantly improved performances on the subjective visual vertical test. We attribute these effects to the sculpted environment provided by the exhibition which may have acted as a kind of physiologic “training ground” thereby improving the visitors’ overall sense of visual perspective, equilibrium, and gravity.

How Do We Move in Front of Art? How Does This Relate to Art Experience? Linking Movement, Eye Tracking, Emotion, and Evaluations in a Gallery-Like Setting

“…Although, it is important to note that, due to the limitations inherent in the nature of our method and already extensive list of general factors already under exploration, we did not investigate fine-grained aspects of looking, for the present study this was a useful counterpoint for tracking movement, allowing us to assess where individuals actually looked while moving (e.g., see Linden & Wagemans, 2021 referenced above for similar usage). Mobile eye tracking has been employed in a handful of other studies combining assessments to consider, for example, viewing distance (Estrada-Gonzalez et al, 2020), movement patterns (Garbutt et al, 2020; Linden & Wagemans, 2021), or in combination with posturography while walking through art installations (Kapoula et al, 2014). However, to date mobile eye tracking has almost never been related to subjective art experience (e.g., see Trawiński et al, 2021 looking at the relationship between eye movement and personality and verbal responses to artworks).…”

The Role of the Body in the Experience of Installation Art: A Case Study of Visitors’ Bodily, Emotional, and Transformative Experience in Tomás Saraceno’s “in orbit”

“…Regarding the body, one study assessed how installation art could have a measurable, objective impact on the body. Kapoula et al (2014) showed that Richard Serra's Promenade installation improved visitors' balance after walking around and alongside the artwork's laterally tilted monumental elements that play with depth and verticality (see also Kapoula et al, 2014;Nather et al, 2010;Vernet et al, 2018 for examples of how representation of movements or depth in visual art has been shown to modulate posture control). Kapoula et al's (2014) study did suggest that spatial properties of installation art can have an objective, measurable impact on the body, as well as the importance of ecologically-valid testing.…”

“…22 my posture Several studies showed that artworks can have a measurable impact on body posture (e.g., see Kapoula et al, 2014 for a study with Richard Serra's Promenade), while the subjective experience of feeling one's posture has not yet been assessed.…”

“…Many of those aspects, found more prominently in installation art settings, could also provide key insights into our general understanding of how we engage art or what factors might be considered in future aesthetic investigations. However, despite a few studies that have begun to consider some objectively measured body-related aspects, such as movement (e.g., Kühnapfel et al, 2023;Linden & Wagemans, 2021), types of interactions (Savaş et al, 2021;, body posture (Kapoula et al, 2014), as well as embodiment as a component of emotions (Eskine et al, 2012;Schino et al, 2021; also see , to date, the body's role in art experience is only a now emerging topic in empirical aesthetics. Thus, the impact such bodily experience or engagement might have on the overall art experience remains poorly understood.…”

Disconjugate Eye Movements in Dyslexic Adolescents While Viewing Op Art: A Creative Handicap?

“…The neural mechanisms responsible for lateral body sway are sensitive to strength and organization of motion cues in paintings [ 6 , 10 ]. Outside of two-dimensional artistic stimuli, eye movement around three-dimensional objects, such as sculpture, can also induce postural sway [ 11 ].…”