Key-Note: Children's Art on the Eve of the Third Millenium
Paper Session: Psychology of Literary Creation and Fruition. II
Paper Session: Aesthetic Appreciation. I
Paper Session: Psychology and Visual Arts
Key-Note: Dynamics of Incongruity Experience, Personality and Aesthetics
Paper Session: Psychology of Literary Creation and Fruition. III
Paper Session:
Methodology and Art Studies. I
Chairman: Alexander Drikker
Department of Informatics, Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Michel Burkard
Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
Political preferences give voice to hopes, desires, value judgements,
fears
and utopias. By voting we express what kind of society, state or world
we
want to live in. Although the ideal of democracy is the responsible
citizen
making his decisions rationally, political preferences aren't necessarily
conscious and explicit. In addition to the rational and argueable
perception of objects and issues, there are many mental images and
associations in the pre- or unconscious realm, which are hardly accessible
by methods conventionally used by empirical social research.
This study is concerned with the potential of photographs to appeal
to
political convictions.
In a written panel survey 500 respondents were offered 14 photographs
and
asked: "Which of these photographs affects you most?" In the following
questionnaire the respondents were asked which political party they
would
vote for if the elections for the German Bundestag (=3D parliament)
took
place next Sunday.
The correlation between preferences for pictures and political parties
is
very significant. From the pictures preferred, one can draw conclusions
to
the respondents' underlying structures of needs. Thus, ideological
image
worlds can be discussed to serve as a tool for the analysis of political
party profiles. Correlating the preference for pictures with political
orientation has been shown to be highly fruitful.
Vladimir M. Koshkin
Polytechnic University, Kharkov State University, Kharkov, Ukraine
Sixty years ago the great Niels Bohr formulated the possible application
of
the complementation principle to the description of human psych. Bohr's
analysis was done in the qualitative manner to show the general direction
for thinking.This paper contains the attempt to describe interrelations
of
the question and reply using the general N. Bohr idea.
It seems to be obvious that any question stated as well as any response
obtained have some portion of an unexactness, just the uncertainty.
This
can be described in terms of distributions of probability of meanings
in
the mind of questioner and answerer. In the Jung-Eysenk-Osgood polar
scales
sense.
Two ideas are introduced. 1. The informational "strength" of a reply
is
determined by the overlapping of meanings, probability distributions
of
questions and replies. 2. The possibility of obtaining a reply is
determined by the excess of overlapping integral named over the level
of
information noises.
The inequality obtained is quite similar to the uncertainty relation
in
quantum mechanics but without the last - only as a result of classical
statistical speculation. It seems this can become the semiotic base
for the
methodology of investigations of psych, first of all in researches
of
perception of art. Some examples for practical usage are delivered.
At the
same time, this is the invitation to the investigators of psych and
art to
dialog with mathematics.
Gustavo Costantini
University of Buenos Aires and "Asociacion Argentina de Semiotica",
Buenos
Aires, Argentina
The edition of the works of Michel Chion focused in the problems of
sound
and music in cinema (and audiovisuals in general) has been one of the
most
important changes in the theory of cinema since the significant approaches
of Michel Fano and No=EBl Burch. "Le son au cin=E9ma", published in
1985, wa=
s
the first book that treated sound in a deep way. Later, in the early
90s,
Chion wrote a new book with his complete system of comprehension of
audiovisuals talking about the existence of one only perception involved
in
the reception of a film or other form of audiovisual representation.
"The
audiovision" - introduction to a simultaneous analysis of image and
sound -
was not only the name of the work but also the description of the
principles of his theory of perception. He demonstrated in it that
the
correspondence of the images and the sounds forms a singular stream,
a
special case of production of sense, and the separated analysis of
them
produced different results from the one that considered this only path.
This paper will try to explain some aspects of Chion's theory and to
contribute with the recognition of some audiovisual articulations that
determine different perceptions of space.
Xenia Gonda*, Nora Jakobi*, Angela Nagy* and Andr=E0s Farkas**
* E=F6tv=F6s Lor=E1nd University, Budapest, Hungary
** Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest,
Hungary
=46arkas (1993) proposed a method for the data-elaboration of experimental
results obtained from Miller's free sorting procedure, which seems
to be a
suitable substitute for multidimensional scaling (a method which allows
paired comparisons of only a limited number of stimuli). Carrasco and
her
colleagues (1993) presented 26 slides of Escher prints in pairs (325
comparisons altogether) to their subjects, and asked for similarity
ratings
on a 10-point scale. Processing experimental data with ALSCAL yielded
a
three-dimensional MDS space with co-ordinate labelled dimensionality,
degree of angularity, and degree of realistic representation. In each
octant of the space, the authors recognized Escher's own classification
and
the results of Bonaiuto (1985). In our study, utilizing Miller-Farkas's
method, 37 Escher-prints (compare to 325 pairs in the experiment of
Carrasco et al.) were grouped by 58 subjects on the basis of similarity.
Half of the subjects were asked to give beauty ratings, and the other
half
were asked to give liking ratings. In both cases, subjects rated
Escher-typicality of each of the prints. With the help of the experimental
data, we sought answers for the following questions: (1)is the
Miller-Farkas method suitable for revealing Escher's classification
experimentally; how does the grouping obtained this way compare with
the
results of Bonaiuto and Carrasco et al.; (2) whether preference indices
such as liking and beauty measure the same; (3) is the monotonous
increasing function between similarity, (proto)typicality, and aesthetic
preference valid as can be expected from Martindale's
preference-for-prototypes model. The results are as follows: (1) Escher's
classification was regained with some minor differences: early prints
and
mirror images in water, regular division of a plain, unlimited spaces,
human images, relativities and impossible buildings; (2) beauty and
liking
are different in the case of the stimulus set; (3) the relations predicted
by the Martindale-model are valid between similarity and liking, between
Escher-typicality and liking, where a monotonous increasing linear
function
was found between the respective variables (level of significance is
p<0.05).
Rafael del Villar Mu oz
University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
There is an acquired knowledge concerning the emergence of a new
audiovisual culture (Calabrese, Lyotard) that coexists with classical
aesthetics. In this context it is important to study interpretative
protocols of young university students (aged 18-23 years) who are presumed
to be inside this new culture. The investigation we are briefly describing
here studies these protocols through in-depth interviews, formalizing
the
collected material by reconstructing opposite systems based on Boole
and,
when this is not possible, by means of catastrophe axiomatization.
The
concepts of primary identification and secondary identification of
Lacan,
Metz, Aumont and Marie form the basis for acquiring the distinct
interpretative protocols, differentiated for the specific professions
envisaged, in conditions of stability or catastrophe.
Vera M. Domiteeva and Alexander S. Drikker
Department of Informatics, State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1. The new spiritual paradigm is fixed materially by the appearance,
in
art, of new media of information.
2. In this aspect, the progress of art in the New Era runs as follows:
a) Literature - the appearance of the printing press - incunabula -
mass
print runs.
b) Music - sheet music, chamber performances - public concerts and
shows -
easily accessible acoustic recording (records, cassettes, CDs).
c) Painting - the transfer of image from the wall onto a compact, mobile
canvas - collections, museums, exhibitions - reproductions.
3. All kinds of art display a similar path - beginning with a widening
of
the auditorium and finishing up with its universal capture by means
of
adequate reproduction of the original work. However, if works of literature
can be exactly reproduced word for word, and a work of music can be
reproduced note for note (with the exact same sound), then in painting
not
even the most modern of technical advancements can reproduce colour,
texture or - especially - size in correspondence to the original.
4. Effective communication depends on certain spatial-temporal conditions.
Temporal forms of art (literature, music) resolve the problem of the
transfer of specific information via its correct and convenient copying.
The spatial art of painting has an indefinite length of perception
and is
highly stringent in attaching acts of contemplation to the concrete
location of the original.
5. Since the invention of the picture, the process of its movement
towards
the viewer has not been advanced by technology. Culture has concentrated
its efforts on restoration, conservation and storage.
6. The technologically-free demand of painting presupposes an even
deeper
lack of demand:
a) either it is an archaic kind of art that has been ousted by more
modern,
dynamic and visual arts (cinema, video).
b) or it is the art of the future, when the consciousness will be able
to
perceivestatic visual information as a whole, and the new "virtual
reality" will guarantee adequate reproduction of the physical space
of a
picture.
Gabriella Bartoli*, Valeria Biasi ** and Stefania
Pompei *
* Department of Educational Sciences, 3rd University of
Rome, Rome, Italy=
.
** Department of Psychology, 1st University of Rome, "La Sapienza",
Rome,
Italy.
1. Introduction. Motivational features of the "latency period".
Personological and developmental studies with psychodynamic orientation
are
used to denominate the "latency period" or "latency age", the period
from
six to ten years of age. The denomination derives from the fact that
boys
and girls of this age show vivid interest to learn social rules and
reality
aspects which contribute to regulate and to limit the free expression
of
drives. For this reason there has also been talk of socio-centric attitude,
conformism and realism. The motivational setting of subjects of this
age,
even if with a large range of individual and cultural differences or
gradations, appears to be dominated by some general traits, such as
dependence on authority opinion, on prestige of leaders and on pressure
of
groups to which boys and girls belong. Moreover, subjects pay special
attention to the characteristics of inanimate reality, which is carefully
explored. Some drives, such as aggression and sexuality, are subjected
to
various types of transformation in order to defend and to control,
such as
splitting, projection, repression and sublimation, also with advantages
in
terms of emotional neutrality, appreciated for specific cognitive
operations and for actions aimed at order and discipline.
2. Hypothesis, method and results of an experimental investigation.
=46reud recalled (1914) that the consonance between the spectator's
affectiv=
e
situation and that of the artist is a useful condition in order to
have
attraction and a better understanding as regards the work of art. Segal
also insisted on this (1955). In a broader fashion, the general theory
of
aesthetic emotion suggests, among its conclusions, that beauty, as
experienced by each subject, is related to the simultaneous satisfaction
of
the main motivations of the subject him/herself involved in perceiving
or
imagining (Bonaiuto, 1966, 1983; Bartoli, 1973). As a result, we formulated
hypotheses that even the aesthetic preferences of boys and girls aged
8-10
years should clearly reflect the motivational setting that is typical
of
the latency period these subject go through.
Several Italian boys and girls (aged 8-10 y. and residing in the Rome
area)
were individually interviewed in their school environment. Each subject
was
asked to assess, one at a time, twelve reproductions of classical or
modern
works of art and illustrations taken from fairy tale books. Seven-point
bipolar scales were used, with opposite adjectives that were clearly
comprehensible for the subjects' linguistic ability and centred on
the
aesthetic qualities and other perceptual aspects of the illustrations.
Free
comments on the shown pictures were also collected. The images had
been
chosen in order to show full colour representations of the human face
or of
the whole body, with very differing aspects as regards pictorial style
and
the nature of the people depicted. In relation to this, the following
items
were set-up and presented to the subjects: reproductions of paintings
by
Raphael, Michelangelo and Botticelli, of twentieth-century portraits
by
Otto Dix and Oscar Kokoschka, and contemporary illustrations of fairytale
characters, such as Snow White.
Each subject was then interviewed further to generally find out what
events
or objects s/he freely remembered as "beautiful" or "ugly" according
to
personal experience.
The scores attributed to the various prints and the comments of the
interviewed subjects allow us to make the following considerations:
a) A positive value is given to the prestige of the artist ("It
is
beautiful because it was painted by a famous artist");=20as noted by
Franc=
=E9s
(1998).
b) Correspondence to reality is also judged positively ("It has
been drawn
accurately, it is well made"). Similarly, the images judged to be ugly
were
seen as "carelessly drawn" and had "badly outlined contours". This
also
confirms previous observations made by Machotka (1963). To this must
also
be added the rejection or disdain of anomalies, ambiguities and dissonance
with respect to mental schemata, so that works such as those of Dix
or
Kokoschka received mainly negative judgements, as did the image of
the
witch, which also contradicts common expectations of the human figure.
c) As regards colours, there was a preference for compositions with
"bright
colours", that were "pleasant" and "with shades", while images that
were
considered ugly were found to have "dull colours", "dark colours",
"no
colour" or "no shades of colour". Reference in this regard can be made
to
previous research by Woods (1956) and Valentine (1962), and to the
psychological distinctions between colours indicating comfort and those
indicating stress (Biasi & Bonaiuto, 1997).
d) Among the events considered to be "beautiful" are often satisfying
events (parties, success at school, contemplation of nature), which
can
easily be classified as situations of comfort. Strongly conflictual
and
alarming situations (punishments, violence, threats, mourning, etc.)
are
seen as "ugly".
Aesthetic preferences in the latency period thus seem to be oriented
by the
dominant needs in this phase, including social models to conform to,
precise adherence to external reality, and a rejection of anomalies,
sources of suffering and emotional disturbance. The results of this
short
survey are worth comparing with further data on other developmental
stages
and with other differences due to cultural influences (Wolfenstein,
1955;
Machotka, 1963) or special forms of educational training.
References
Bartoli, G. (1973). Evoluzione della personalit=E0 e piacere estetico.
Rivista di Psicologia, 68, 13-36.
Biasi, V. & Bonaiuto, P. (1997). Colour and the experimental representation
of stress and comfort. In L. Sivik (Ed.). Colour & Psychology.
Stockholm:
Swedish Colour Centre Foundation (pp. 59-65).
Bonaiuto, P. (1966). L'esperienza estetica come effetto di campo.
Lineastruttura, 1 (1),
Bonaiuto, P. (1983). Processi cognitivi e significati nelle arti visive.
Paper presented at the Meeting "Linguaggi Visivi, storia dell'Arte,
Psicologia della percezione", Rome. Publ. also in L. Cassanelli (Ed.),
Linguaggi visivi, Storia dell'Arte, Psicologia della percezione. Rome:
Multigrafica, 1988 (pp. 47-79).
=46ranc=E9s, R. (1998). Factors of prestige in art appreciation. Invited
address presented at the XV IAEA Congress, Rome.
=46reud, S. (1914). Der Moses des Michelangelo. Imago, 3 (1), 15-36.
Machotka, P. (1963). Le d=E9veloppement des crit=E8res esth=E9tiques
chez
l'enfant. Enfance, 357-379.
Segal, H. (1955). A psychoanalytic approach to aesthetics. In M. Klein,
P.
Heimann & R. Money-Kyrle (Eds.), New Directions in Psychoanalysis.
London:
Tavistock.
Valentine, C. W. (1962). The Experimental Psychology of Beauty. London:
Metheun & C.
Wolfeinstein, M. (1955). French children's paintings. In M. Mead &
M.
Wolfenstein (Eds.), Childhood in Contemporary Cultures. Chicago: Univ.
Chicago Press (pp. 300-305).
Woods, W. A. (1956). Some determinants of attitudes towards colors
in
combination. Percept. Mot. Skills, 6, 187-193.
Chair: Paolo Bonaiuto, Department of Psychology, 1st University
of Rome,
"La Sapienza", Rome, Italy
Anna Silvia Bombi
Department of Psychology of Developmental and Socialization Processes,
1st
University of Rome, "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy
Children's pictorial art will be examined in this paper from three points
of view.
=46irst, I will briefly review the main approaches to children's art,
in
order to outline the specific methodologic difficulties of this field.
Second, based on recent experimental literature, I will explain why
we must
take into account drawing processes when trying to understand children's
drawings as finished products.
Third, I will illustrate the connections between children's art production
and art appreciation, which are relevant for what I conceive to be
the core
problem of the study of children's art: the problem of intentionality.
Chairman: Ray Crozier
School of Education, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Alamir Aquino Correa*, David S. Miall**, and Don Kuiken***
* Departamento de Letras Cl=E0ssicas e Vern=E1culas.
Universidade
Estadual, Londrina, Brazil
** Department of English, University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada
*** Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada
There is a common critical understanding that setting plays a major
role in
regional fictional narratives, not only on account of its visibility
in the
text, but also because of a noticeable intention to establish a connection
between setting and action, or setting and characters' mood and behaviour.
In regional fiction there is a tendency to build and portray regional
and
sometimes national identities by the use of such connections. But whether
readers find these specific stylistic features striking must be examined
empirically.
To explore the process of reading regional fiction we chose two short
stories, a Canadian text (set in Alberta) and a Brazilian text (in
English
translation), and examined the responses of a group of Canadian readers
(Psychology and English students at the University of Alberta). Among
other
objectives, we wanted to examine whether readers choose as striking
passages those with a high index in foregrounding and/or a high index
in
regional content. A comparison of passages chosen by critics (where
available) and those chosen by participants may be supportive of a
cultural
effect on the strikingness response to literary texts.
The two stories chosen were divided into short segments (usually a
phrase
in length); all segments were then coded for foregrounding and for
presence
of regional stylistic features. During the first reading of a story,
reading times per segment were collected. Participants also completed
two
repertory grids, one about environments they personally find important,
and
another on their response to passages from the story that they found
striking or evocative. Our analyses show that when participants are
unfamiliar with the environment portrayed in a narrative their reading
times tend not to be influenced by passages high in regional content,
but
they are influenced by the narrator's account of characters' feelings
and
by foregrounding. Other explorations of the data will be reported at
the
conference.
Bo Pettersson
Department of English, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Aesthetics, we all know, deals with what is perceived through the senses.
Indeed, when laying its foundations Alexander Baumgarten was interested
in
studying how perception through the various senses was synthesized
or
con-fused into a 'clear' image. With the exception of the recently
growing
interest in empirical aesthetics, interarts, the psychology of perception
and emotion in the arts, twentieth-century aesthetics has largely bypassed
such a synthetic view of aesthetics in favour of more theoretical and
compartmentalized lines of study.
By coining the notion synaesthetics I mean to develop the empirical
study
of the confluence - or, in literary texts, simulated confluence - of
various senses in the arts. In this paper I concentrate on literary
works
of art in which synaesthetics, as I see it, has at least three dimensions:
(1) intentionalist: the study of how the author attempts to simulate
the
blending of two or more senses in a literary work of art; (2) textualist:
the study of how this blending is expressed in the work; and (3)
interpretivist: the study of the effect of the simulated sensual blending
on the reader(s) / audience.
In order to argue my case I briefly lay the 'hard' foundations of
synaesthetics (discussing perception, intentionality, emotion) and
see what
bearing they might have on the 'paradox of fiction'. A rather neglected
aspect of literary works of art - so my argument goes - is the way
they
come alive by multisensory references, thus inviting the reader / the
audience into the fictional world. Calling the resulting experience
synaesthetic (including its allusion to synesthesia) may not be too
far-fetched, since the effect aimed at by multisensory references in
the
fictional world is precisely a description so rich that readers / the
audience experience themselves entering that world. More specifically,
the
importance of focalization (action as perceived by narrator/character)
for
the reader's caring for narrators and characters has not been duly
recognized.
To corroborate my argument I draw on some classic and contemporary
works of
art in fiction, poetry and drama.
Hugh Craig
Department of English, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
This paper presents an assessment of the importance of the authorship
factor in a set of English Renaissance plays, exploring the idea that
time,
genre and other differences so separate the works even of the same
authors
that their connections are tenuous and only forced into a unity by
the
modern commentator, so that (in the words of G. K. Hunter) the "oeuvres"
of
the Early Modern English dramatists, even Shakespeare's, are "feats
of art
rather than expressions of nature." Authorship is compared directly
with
some other oft-cited factors such as date, genre, public versus private
playhouse of origin, and prose versus verse, and is also assessed
independently for the amount of variation it accounts for in the
frequencies of 100 very common words in a set of 100 plays (about 2
million
words, subdivided into over 1000 2,000-word blocks). Quantitative measures
have been regularly used to attribute disputed works to authors, and
have
established various measures and procedures for classifying texts by
author
along the way; but detecting authorial differences in a directed way
is not
the same as testing explicitly and "a priori" the assumption that authors
write differently, and estimating the author-effect, as the experiments
described aim to do.
Vladimir M. Koshkin and Elena I. Kus'mina
Polytechnic University, Kharkov State University, Kharkov, Ukraine
Is it true that the poet demonstrates his soul?
The creativity of two excellent contemporary poets - Oksana Zabuzhko
(Ukraine) and Yefim Bershin (Russia) - was investigated. Six and seven
experts, 109 and 49 verses subsequently and 22 polar scales. Each poem
had
been speculated. The masses of data are 15,708 and 7,546. Our experts
performed also similar estimations for the heuristic impression of
the
poet's creativity. The scales are of 10 points each and contain polar
opposites concerning psychological, social and creative preferences.
The
mean values and medians (with averaging through aggregates of expert
marks
and through meetings of experts) as well as the mean absolute errors
was
determined. The coincidence is excellent for both methods of estimations.
We asked both heroes of our research to mark their self-estimations
by the
same scales (even with the independent Eysenck test for frankness).
The comparison of results of statistics of expert determinations and
self-portraits of both poets appears to be so complete that it appears
to
be surprising even for the authors of this investigation! Thus we have
to
conclude that the poet (the good poet, of course!) expresses himself
(or
herself) frankly and completely in his poetry.
That is what we wished to prove.
Ray Crozier
School of Education, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
The study draws upon biographical and bibliographical documentary material
to investigate individual differences in productivity within a large
sample
of British twentieth-century novelists. Length of literary career predicted
the output of both fiction and non-fiction work. Gender and judged
literary
eminence were both associated with variation in non-fiction output
but not
in fiction output. However, a substantial proportion of the variance
in
output cannot be explained by career length or the other variables
included. There were significant differences in age trends in productivity
between the least prolific and most prolific authors. More detailed
examination of biographical information about individual authors revealed
lengthy gaps in the literary careers of the least prolific novelists,
many
of which were due to social factors and critical life events. The results
suggest the need to include both intra-individual factors and social
support factors in explaining variation in creative productivity.
Chairman: Peng Lixun
Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Institute of Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen,
Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
Most theories of aesthetic appreciation somehow assume that this
appreciation is learned: we learn through experience to like some forms
of
paintings, statues, buildings or decorations. It is obvious from a
brief
glance at art history or anthropology of art that significant differences
of taste exist between people from different societies. Thus, aesthetic
appreciation contains a significant learning factor. However, we will
show
that some features of form do not show these differences: they are
liked or
disliked by people from all over the world and throughout history.
In the
present research we found support for the claim that we are born to
like
certain forms of paintings, statues, buildings or decorations.
We collected decorative band patterns from 20 randomly chosen societies
evenly spread across the world and history. From each culture we randomly
drew 40 patterns. We had these 800 patterns interpreted by 4 judges
as to
figure-background organisation, basic shape, object grouping, etc.
We
classified the 3200 interpretations, thus derived, according to an
elaborate descriptive system of form characteristics. We determined
the
statistical association of all these characteristics with culture;
the
lower this association, the more universal the characteristic is. In
doing
so, we made an ordering of 150 pattern characteristics. This ordering
indicates the relative universality of these characteristics. We think
that
the most universal characteristics indicate aesthetic preferences that
are
innate. They result from the properties of the perceptual system that
is
the same for all human beings.
Asya Nina Kovacev
Department of General Psychology and Cultural Sociology, University
of
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Contemporary aesthetic judgements are not only based on formal qualities
of
works of art. The content of the painting is even more important. In
the
present experiment seven works of art were presented to the subjects,
who
were placed into three groups according to their age and education.
The
first group consisted of high school pupils, the second one consisted
of
university students and the third one consisted of middle aged people
with
B.A., M.A. or PhD. The subjects had to choose their favourite painting
and
estimate it on several dimensions, such as excitation, dynamics,
pleasantness, passionateness and emotional fullness, elaboration, harmony,
fantasy stimulation and complexity.
After that the subjects had to decide which of the suggested qualities
of
the chosen work of art determined their decision. The proposed qualities
were: composition, colour harmony, colour beauty, heterogenousness,
sophistication, suggestiveness, eruptiveness, loveliness, luxury,
lightness, monumentality, and imaginativeness. The decisions of the
subjects in the first and second experimental groups were determined
predominantly by the expressive qualities of the art works, i.e.
suggestiveness, eruptiveness etc., while the decisions of the members
of
the third experimental group were, above all, determined by the aesthetic
qualities (composition, colour harmony, sophistication, etc.). In the
end
the subjects had to choose some qualities that would characterise a
good
work of art.
Communication of Values in Painting
Dmitry Leontiev and Halaa Abdel-Fattah
Department of Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Basing ourselves on the assumption that painting, like other arts, brings
some important value content, we hypothesized that it would be possible
for
the spectators to detect in a painting the values intentionally embodied
in
it by the author.
The second author, a professional painter, created 8 sketches in
water-colors and pastels, each of them dedicated to some value from
A.
Maslow's (1970) list of ultimate Being-values. Twenty-six subjects
evaluated the sketches by the Value Spectrum technique elaborated by
the
first author - a grid technique with 18 Being-values (a slightly extended
Maslow list) as its elements. Subjects had to put a mark into the box
if
they supposed that the value in the row was inherent in the object
(sketch)
in the column. Then we calculated the frequencies of ascribing each
value
to each sketch. In all the cases "title values" were ascribed to
corresponding sketches much more often than other ones: 3 times they
were
ascribed more frequently than all the others, 2 times they had the
second
frequency rate, once the 3rd rate, once the 4th rate and only once
the rate
as low as 7th (from the list of 18 items!) The results make it possible
to
state that works of art (paintings) can really serve as means of intended
communication of the author's values.
Peng Lixun
Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, Shenzhen, China
China's ancient aesthetic thinking has a wealth of precise and appropriate
expositions of the features of aesthetic psychology, which are equally
brilliant though different in approach, as compared with Western theories
of aesthetic psychology. However, each of them has its own characteristics
in terms of philosophical bases, modes of thinking, concepts and
categories, while considerable discrepancies exist in specific cognition.
The theory of the void and calm are an important category in expounding
aesthetic psychology in ancient China. It emphasizes that aesthetic
contemplation should exclude considerations of interests and desires,
while
keeping the mind open and calm. It is similar to Western theories of
aesthetic contemplation, psychological distance and aesthetic attitudes.
But the former is based on Taoist thinking which stresses the unity
of man
and Nature, maintaining the formation of conditions for contemplating
aesthetic objects through conformity to Nature; while the latter is
based
on philosophical thinking which emphasizes the dual antithesis of subject
and object, maintaining the determination of the aesthetic object by
the
aesthetic subject.
All the theories of inspirational awareness, subtle understanding and
instantaneous realization in Chinese aesthetic history expound the
characteristics of intuitiveness and suddenness in aesthetic psychology.
This is somewhat similar to the Western theses that aesthetic judgment
is
independent of concept and that aesthetics is intuition. However, the
theories of subtle understanding and instantaneous realization are
deeply
influenced by Buddhism, while intuitivism comes from spiritual philosophy.
There are considerable discrepancies in the interpretation of the
connotations and contributing factors of intuitiveness between the
two.
Expositions of aesthetic pleasure in ancient China have the unique
concepts
and categories of "inspiration", "appreciation", "spiritual enjoyment"
and
"character moulding". Compared with the theories of taste and appreciative
judgmentin the West, they lack systematic, logical analysis, while
attaching more importance to the spiritual enjoyment of aesthetic pleasure.
If Western aesthetics stresses the antithesis between aesthetic feeling
and
reason, Chinese aesthetics emphasizes their unity.
Sergio Lombardo* and Roberto Galeotti**
* Academy of Fine Arts, Frosinone, Italy
** Academy of Fine Arts, Macerata, Italy
40 images belonging to four stylistic categories (landscapes, portraits,
objects and situations) were judged by 50 Ss according to 3 aesthetic
parameters: preference, beauty and interestingness.
The two best ranked and the two worse ranked images of each category
were
selected as experimental stimuli.
Each of these 12 stimuli was submitted to another group of 80 Ss who
were
asked to evaluate the stimuli on a seven-point scale according to the
aesthetic parameters (preference, beauty and interestingness) and
Plutchik's four basic emotions (joy, sadness, fear and anger).
The evocative spectrum of the stimuli was also evaluated according
to the
eventualist method. To this end, the Ss were asked to create short
stories
and/or free associations relating to the stimuli.
=46inally, both the evocative and aesthetic evaluations were compared
in
order to explain the aesthetic judgements.
Dorothee Verdaasdonk
Rotterdam University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Participants in culture combine various activities. Current research
shows
that consumer repertoires show combinations of varied activities, such
as
going to the movies, reading a book, seeing a museum show or listening
to a
concert.
The question addressed in this paper is: how to find an explanation
of
behavior in which different cultural products are acquired.
According to Bourdieu - whose views dominate research on cultural behavior
- homogeneity of cultural products with respect to their cultural status,
is crucial to combine, say, reading (literary or popular fiction) and
listening to classical or country music. This view has been challenged
lately by Peterson, who reports that members of high status groups
have
preference for music with high and with low status. In Bordieu's vein,
the
Dutch sociologist, Ganzeboom, has argued that a common level of 'semantic'
or 'perceptual' complexity is the basis for choosing and combining
different cultural products. This approach faces the as yet insoluble
problem of measuring the complexity of cultural goods.
In the present paper, it is held that background variables, measuring
socio-economic characteristics, and experiential variables, measuring
patterns of cultural participation, are instrumental in explaining
outcome
variables, measuring rates of cultural participation.
However, experiential variables do not seem to contribute to explaining
choices of varied cultural products. Results of earlier research strongly
suggest that experience with one cultural field is not transferable
to
another domain of culture. Culture consumers want their experiences
to be
as differentiated and as dissimilar as possible when participating
in
different fields of culture (e.g. avid reading does not lead to frequent
movie-going).
When there exists a pattern of participation in different domains of
culture, then media use - the acquisition of information on what is
going
on in a varied array of cultural domains - provides variables assessing
joint participation. Path models will be estimated in which causal
relationships between background variables, experiential variables,
variables measuring media use and outcome variables will be explored.
Our
results suggest that use of a specific type of medium (print vs.
audio-visual) affects the domains in which consumers participate.
Data were collected from visitors to four Dutch movie theaters (N=3D
718).
Questions pertained to socio-economic characteristics, experience with
different domains of culture and media use to acquire information on
new
developments in various fields of culture.
Chairman: Martin Krampen
Department of Visual Communication, Hochschule der Konste, Berlin, Germany
George K. Shortess*, Craig J. Clarke**, and Martin Richter*
* Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
USA
** Department of Psychology, Salisbury State University, Salisbury,
USA
Thirty subjects categorized 110 painting reproductions as being either
abstract or realistic by pressing one of two switches. Both choices
and
response times were recorded. A score for each painting reflected inter
subject agreement on the abstract/realistic choice. Generally, those
paintings with higher agreement scores (as being either abstract or
realistic) had shorter response times than those with lower agreement
scores.
Discussion will focus on the validity and utility of applying cognitive
category theory to the study of aesthetic stimuli.
Yelena Grigorjeva
Department of Semiotics, Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia
1. The problem under consideration proceeds from one of the most basic
oppositions or distinctions within the Theory of Art: that is between
space
and time of a piece of Art and those of recipients of Art. Or, in other
words, that is the problem of the separation of a primarily codified
world
from a secondary codified one. The most demonstrative and simple case
of
the application of this problematic to Art practice are such phenomenon
as
frame and framing that are explicitly characterized with evident bounding
intention. But it must be stressed that the frame is only one and a
rather
particular case of a general Boundary between Art and non-Art.
2. Semiotic tension of a boundary phenomenon is determined, first of
all,
by its mediate function (and, as such, it was studied and described
in the
works of the Tartu-Moscow school). From this position the Boundary
provides
translation from one type of language (code) to another. In the aspect
we
are interested in it means that the boundary (for example in the variant
of
the frame) belongs simultaneously to both Art and non-Art space and
time
continuity. The genetic and typological tie between the frame of a
picture
and the frame of a window (another loci communes of Art studies) reveals
another essential quality of the Boundary: it opens the way in and,
at the
same time, prevents penetration into the space-time of Art. This principal
ambiguity can be expanded to the whole notion of Art and proclaimed
for its
basic quality (perhaps that concerns every type of language, but we
discuss
here, first of all, the language of Art). In this connection also the
capability of a frame to increase the significance of the space-time
restricted by it will be of special interest for us. The terms
"significant" and "signifying" are methodologically very close to each
other here.
3. From this position Art is treated as a specific "doomed-for-failure"
device for trespassing into it. This mechanism can be illustrated with
nearly blasphemous analogy of a key-hole of a voyeur with the system
of
gates in a Temple (the latter according to the interpretation by Pavel
=46lorensky). Both phenomena are intended for showing what can not
be seen
(or conceived). Or, using a more actual term, for certain transgressions
(sexual or spiritual). From this point of view the so called 'heraldic
constructions' ("text in text") and "hole-framed constructions" ("Black
square" by K. Malevich, embossed coverings of Orthodox icons) are analysed.
All cases evidently operate with the idea of possible/impossible
transcendency of a spectator. Perhaps the most striking example of
this
unmerciful game in the history of visual Art is the famous eye-cutting
shot
from "Dog of Andalysia" by Bunuel: the body is a frame for a face,
the face
is framing eyes, eyes are windows of the soul. The vivisection, namely
of
an eye, reveals onthological contradictions between physiological and
mental "contents" of it.
4. Special section of the contribution is dedicated to the problem
of "front
al" (superficial) Boundary. The regularity here can be formulated as
"Art
is its boundary" or "Boundary makes Art". The creative activity of
some
avantgarde artists (and Cristo is first among them) exemplifies this
statement on practice. Also in this connection the semiotical nature
of the
"fourth wall" in theatre, three types of cinematographic "chronotop"
and
the problem of "replaced" Boundary are considered. Special attention
is
payd to the situation of physical selfexpression of spectator "ignored"
by
cinema art.
5. The contribution is concluded by considering the distinction between
"natural" space of the human's body and "artificial", secondary, created
(or codified) space (of Art). For this purpose the Art of the Fashion
or
the Art of Clothing as covering, packing, bounding the human body (both
materially and semiotically) is analysed. The Boundary here between
nakedness (sexuality, nature) and coverage (conventionality, culture)
is
basically ambivalent and mobile. Transgression here proceeding from
its
definition demands for Boundary. But it is "doomed-for-failure"
possibility. Seeking after body ("reality") we always find image -
that
follows from our inevitable consciousness. (The brilliant examples
of this
'failed-search-for-body' were given by Theophile Gautier in his "Le
Poeme
de la femme" and Roland Barthes in his analyses of striptease). And
image
can not be captured or possessed. It is clear that both parts of opposition
receive their existence only in the process of separation, that is
why
realised trespass would destroy both of them. So the Boundary in its
deepest essence is inevitable illusion (or the only "reality" giving
birth
to everything), and as far as Art is illusion, it manifests itself
as
Boundary.
6. And, at the very epilogue, some ideas about virtual Boundaries of
"computer/user" space-and-time continuity.
Hermann Kalkofen * and Micha Strack**
* Institut fur den Wissenschaftlichen Film, Gottingen, Germany
** Institute of Psychology, Georg-August-University of Gottingen,
Gottingen, Germany
When investigating the intelligibility of words embedded in noise Miller,
Heise & Lichtenberg (1951) observed that a word presented in the
context of
a well-formed sentence was more intelligible than that same word presented
in a random-appearing string of words (Biederman 1981). Following
Biederman, "meaningful auditory information comes to us in the form
of
sentences; meaningful visual information comes to us in the form of
scenes". Thus a coherent scene may be considered as the visual counterpart
of a well-formed sentence and therefore named well-formed, too. When
comparing pictures of coherent scenes with the same pictures dissected
and
'"jumbled" Biederman et al. (1973) obtained a kind of visual analogon
to
the result of Miller et al., i.e. superiority of well-formed scenes.
According to them "no more than five relations may be needed to
characterize much of the difference between a well-formed scene and
an
array of unrelated objects". Interestingly enough, mean the first and
the
second relation, >support< and >interposition<, pictorial depth
cues.
Levels of well- or illformedness of the elementary scenes employed
in our
study are exclusively defined in terms of the depth cue projective
size,
interposition, and projective height. If - to follow Baumgartner (1988)
-
"form is judged beautiful if it facilitates the process of perception"
-
are there perceptual benefits provided by pictorial well-formedness?
Martin Krampen
Department of Visual Communication, Hochschule der K=FCnste, Berlin,
Germany
In visual arts (e.g. painting, photography and movies) the human figure
is
portrayed in rectangular frames. In three studies the hypothesis was
investigated that these frames simulate person perception occuring
at
public, social, personal and intimate proxemic distances between partners
(Hall 1966).
In the first study the size of the visual field was measured at various
distances from a wall covered with a grid of 10 x 10 cm squares. It
was
found that the visual field shrinks drastically at subjects' personal
and
intimate distances from the wall.
In a second study observers were asked to describe with the help of
a
questionnaire, which part, movements and details they saw of persons
placed
opposite them. As the observers approached, their visual field around
the
opposite persons narrowed down from encompassing the whole figure to
seeing
only details of the face.
In the third study the hypothesis was tested that the various frames
around
persons' pictures suggested various meanings. A Semantic Differential
(SD)
was applied to drawings representing parts of persons at the various
proxemic distances. The scores of the Potency and Activity dimension
of the
SD increased linearly with diminishing portrayed distance while Evaluation
scores (aesthetic preferences) culminated at personal distances.
Carol S. Gould
Department of Philosophy, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida,
USA
This paper explores the difference between our experience of
representational visual and narrative artworks (i.e., literary works,
dramas, films), by analyzing Plato's differential treatment of the
two
kinds of art in his "Republic." Many scholars find Plato's tolerance,
and
even occasional admiration, for the visual artist either baffling or
logically inconsistent, given that he exiles the poet from his ideal
state.
The painter, for Plato, is the paradigmatic creator of illusions. Plato,
however, does not consider the painter morally insidious as he does
the
poet. Plato would regard less ethically corrosive one of Mapelthorpe's
more
iconoclastic images than, say, Euripides' "Medea." Why?
In this paper I answer this question and defend Plato against the serious
inconsistency charge, by focussing not only on Plato's text but also
on
some contemporary work in aesthetics on the ethical possibilities of
artistic representation. I show how his nonunified theory of aesthetic
value embodies some penetrating observations about the aesthetic experience
of representational artworks.
Hartmut Espe
Hochschule der Konste, Berlin, Germany
Roman Jakobson (1960), refering to Karl Bohler (1934), proposed six
functions of language: referential, emotive, conative, phatic,
metalinguistic and poetic (=3D aesthetic). The functions do not exclude
each
other; they compete, and, depending on the kind of communication, one
function dominates. Transferred from language into the realm of images
and
visual arts, the question is: How strong is the perception of the poetic
/
aesthetic function in artistic paintings?
A postcard size set of 24 paintings of couples, covering various styles
of
the last five centuries, was sorted by 81 laymen, i. e. not artists
or art
historians, according to "similarity". The concept of similarity was
not
defined further. The number of groups and the number of paintings within
the groups was up to the subject. No verbal explanation of the sorting
was
demanded. (For further information on the sorting method, see Miller,
1969).
The analysis of the similarity matrix over all subjects by Hierarchical
Cluster Analysis and by Multidimensional Scaling results in six clusters
and three dimensions, all of which may be interpreted rather as variations
of the referential than the poetic function. Combined, the clusters
and
dimensions give a model of the representation and perception of the
subject
in paintings. In other words: In this study of perception of paintings,
content clearly dominates form. Two questions arise: Is the referential
function in picture perception always dominant, even in works of art?
Or is
the domination result of the cognitive character of the sorting task?
References
B=FChler, K. (1934). Sprachtheorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache.
Jena: Fischer.
Miller, G. A. (1969). A psychological method to investigate verbal
concepts. J. Mathematical Psychol., 6, 169-191.
Jakobson, R. (1960). Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In
T. A.
Sebeok (Ed.) Style and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press (pp. 350-377).
Chair: Gerald C. Cupchik, Life Sciences Division, University of
Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Paolo Bonaiuto
Department of Psychology, 1st University of Rome, "La Sapienza", Rome,
Italy
This paper presents a short summary of my own and my co-workers'
contributions on the dynamic and personological aspects of incongruity
experience and on the applications which may be of interest for studies
on
creativity and empirical aesthetics.
The experience of incongruity is part of the manifestations of psychic
conflict at the perceptual and imaginative level, and it occurs each
time
an image contradicts the subject's expectations, determined by more
or less
impelling needs, previous experience, purposes, goals and plans. The
psycho-dynamic approach highlights the close relations with the realm
of
motivations, emotions and defence processes, and thus with attitudes
or
personality traits.
In this sense, incongruity presents some fundamental ambivalence. On
the
one hand, it stimulates positive emotions, such as interest, as Berlyne
(1960) and many others have demonstrated through accurate experimental
studies. Incongruity matches fundamental motivations such as curiosity,
the
need for explorative understanding and the need to face and solve problems,
and favours the resulting functional pleasures. Moreover, it satisfies
needs for emotional tension, self-assertiveness through independence,
and
aggression (Bonaiuto, 1983).
Basing myself on these relationships I have been able to interpret
the
taste of various contemporary artists for representing strong
incongruities, as a necessary contrivance for aesthetic experience
since,
in order for it to come about, it requires the simultaneous satisfaction
of
the main human needs and, thus, even of aggression. In the art of the
past
this function was put into effect by depicting bloody scenes; and even
these were in some way incongruent, in the same way as contemporary
incongruities also indicate aggression.
On the other hand, a series of theoretical and empirical contributions
-
among which may be mentioned some psychoanalytical contributions,
experimental studies by Bruner & Postman (1949) and Festinger (1957),
and
the more recent investigations on stress - have highlighted the importance
of opposite needs: those of accord, relaxation and security. We have
seen
the role of tendencies to avoid or reduce conflicts, and thus
incongruities, when they exceed certain limits or threaten to do so.
Evaluation has been made of the activation of "negative" emotions in
strong
conflicts, the capacity to predict this even unconsciously and the
consequent triggering of defence mechanisms against vexation and suffering.
In our studies these general principles have been applied in various
ways
and this has contributed to better clarify them. I should underline,
here,
the productive contribution of my co-workers and colleagues with whom
individual studies were carried out and will be presented - even in
this
Congress, as may be seen in the Programme and Proceedings.
A more general gain is the discovery of the fact that not only is there
interest and attention for incongruities, and therefore their acceptance
and active search, but also that these incongruities are overestimated
when
they are presented in a clear and evident manner: i.e. in conditions
of
univocal observation. We have noticed this fact by studying both
architectural paradoxes (leaning buildings, sharp or obtuse corners,
facades in disarray) and also anomalies introduced in the human face,
in
the colourings of known objects and even in the structure of famous
music
themes. The processes emphasizing incongruities, due to proactive contrast
in the automatic comparison between actual images and mental schemata,
had
not received adequate attention in the past. They parallel opposite=20proces=
se
s, which have been known longer and consist of attenuating or avoiding
incongruities when they are presented in a marginal, ambiguous way.
In the
latter case, proactive assimilation comes into play. We can recall
some old
observations made by Musatti (1931) and Usnadze (1931, 1939), the
demonstrations of Ames (1946) on so-called equivalent configurations,
the
already quoted experiment by Bruner & Postman (1949) on playing
cards with
inverted colours seen through a tachystoscope, and various other studies
on
perceptual defence mechanisms.
In our case, all this has also helped in determining quick procedures
for
diagnosing cognitive styles and attitudes characterising people in
their
relations with incongruent configurations and, more generally, with
psychic
conflict. In particular, these procedures include the Building Inclination
Test (BIT), which was presented in previous IAEA Congresses and which
allows - amongst other things - a quick measure of the individual index
of
incongruity intolerance. Its efficacy was recently confirmed also by
applying factor analysis and correlations with data from other tests.
An overall view of applications and experimental developments can examine
the role of meaning attribution - such as relations between causes
and
effects - in preventing or reducing visual incongruity experiences;
the
same role performed by meaning attribution, elegance and importance
in the
active production of illusory contours; the relations between incongruity
intolerance and aesthetic preferences in the fields of painting and
music;
the possibilities of predicting behaviour in studies on graphic creativity,
literary creativity and even on choices as regards the elegance of
clothing.
References
Ames, A. (1946). Some Demonstrations Concerned with the Origin and Nature
of our Sensations (What We Experience). Hanover: Dartmouth Eye Institute.
Berlyne, D. E. (1960). Conflict, Arousal and Curiosity. New York: Mc
Graw Hi=
ll.
Bonaiuto, P. (1983). Processi cognitivi e significati nelle arti visive.
Paper presented at the Meeting "Linguaggi Visivi, storia dell'Arte,
Psicologia della percezione", Rome. Publ. also in L. Cassanelli (Ed.),
Linguaggi visivi, Storia dell'Arte, Psicologia della percezione. Rome:
Multigrafica, 1988 (pp. 47-79).
Bruner, J. S. & Postman, L. (1949). On the perception of incongruity.
A
paradigm. J. Personality, 18, 206-223.
=46estinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. New York:
Row Pete=
rson.
Musatti, C.L. (1931). Forma e assimilazione, Archivio Italiano di
Psicologia, 9, 61-156.
Usnadze, D. (1931). =DCber die Gewichtst=E4uschung und ihre Analoga,
Psychologische Forschung, 14, 366-379.
Usnadze, D. (1939). Untersuchungen zur Psychologie der Einstellung,
Acta
Psychologica, 4, 323-360.
Chairman: Erik S. McCarthy
Department of English, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri,
USA
Janos Laszlo
Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Science, E=F6tv=F6s
Lorand
University, Budapest, and Janus Pannonius University, P=E9cs, Hungary
Literary narratives have been objects of psychological study from the
beginning of psychology. Psychoanalytic studies used literature as
a
demonstrational object of dynamic psychology (e.g. Gradivia), beyond
exploring its psychological qualities. Mainstream experimental psychology
approached literature with a positivistic attitude looking for evidence
that explains its impact. The theoretical background of this type of
studies was quite eclectic, and they received little feedback from
such
main areas of psychology as general or social psychology.
=46rom the seventies, a "cognitivisation" of the psychology of literature
ha=
s
proceeded. Theoretical issues raised by narratological studies became
more
and more accessible to empirical exploration of processing of literary
information leading to the questions of literary interpretation. Research
on literary narratives accumulated rich experience on psychological
functions and mechanisms of narrative texts. In the past decade, alongside
the narrative turn in social sciences, this experience proved to be
more
and more productive in understanding human thinking, emotion, and action.
The paper reviews the theoretical and methodological advances that
were
initiated by research in the psychology of literature.
Olga A. Kobrina
Department of English, Herzen State Pedagogical University, Saint
Petersburg, Russia
As a rule, young children acquire the simplest patterns (such as reflecting
relations "agent-action" or "thing - its instrumental value" earlier
than
vocabulary. Therefore, when talking about things they have no words
for,
they try to fill the gaps with the words they coin themselves. In doing
this they are intuitively guided by three main "considerations": simplicity
of the operation (they make the fewest changes possible in constructing
a
new word), transparency (they are very sensitive to the notion which
this
or that form or word-forming affix denotes, and use it accordingly),
and
productivity (they prefer more familiar and recurrent ways which they
hear
in adults' speech). Many scientists investigating children's speech
think
that these three principles affect their choice in word-formation in
many
Indo-European languages.
In English the main mechanisms for children's innovations are derivations
and compounding. As typical situations in their games and in surrounding
reality are "agent-action" and "thing-its instrumental value", they
mostly
coin nouns and verbs.
In coining nouns by means of affixation children naturally choose the
most
transparent agentive and instrumental suffix "-er": kicker for one
who
kicks the ball, digger for a spade. Other suffixes do not occur so
often;
"- ist": drummist. The diminishing suffix "-ie": cattie, forky.
In compounding, young children prefer bare-root compounds. In many
cases
they ignore the rules of word-order. Collected data show that compounding
seems less difficult for small children than derivation. These data
also
prove that regularity in usage is acquired very early. In coining verbs
children follow the same principle of simplicity, and as the least
change
possible is no change at all, they employ zero-derivation (conversion).
Being ignorant of such verbal categorical meanings as transitiveness
and
intransitiveness, active voice and passive one, action/state/coming
into
state, etc., they can use their innovations without discrimination
as to
these categorical meanings as, for example, "I'm talling" for "I'm
growing
tall"', "Mummy trousered me" for "She put on my trousers".
Philip Lodge
Communication Research Unit, Department of PMPC, Napier University,
New
Craig, UK
The context of this paper is the development of a model of Scottish
literary aesthetics in the period 1764-1851. Prevailing orthodoxy argues
that Coleridgean romanticism, derived from eighteenth century German
sources, was the dominant influence in British aesthetic thinking:
but this
largely ignores the separate and distinctive Scottish tradition founded
in
the writings of Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart and James Beattle.
Their work, derived from and reacting to Humean empiricism, can be
seen as
a sophisticated response to the central issues of aesthetic communication
through the development of a philosophy of "common sense", as opposed
to
Coleridge's higher mysticism. Their influence in the Scottish Universities
ensured the centrality of their ideas in the complex debates over Scottish
cultural identity in the early part of the nineteenth century, and
reaches
a culmination in the work of ES Dallas in the 1860s, forming a distinctive
and largely under rated tradition of Scottish empirical aesthetics.
Erik S. McCarthy
Department of English, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri,
USA
Blake is unique among British Poets in that he often supports his texts
with numerous and rich illustrations. Nearly all of his commentators
recognize both the elusive and allusive attributes of his designs.
As
Christopher Heppner points out in his insightful study, while Blake
freely
adopts "traditional" figures from the likes of Michelangelo, he ingeniously
adapts them to entirely new and sometimes surprising textual situations.
This intermedial approach allows for an increased understanding of
Blake's
creative output. Nowhere is his more true than in his confusing and
frequently misunderstood iconotext (as Peter Wagner recently defined
the
term) "The Laoco=F6n" (see enclosed).
In my paper I attempt not only to uncover the origin of this powerful
engraving, but also to explore how meaning itself is instigated through
the
complex interaction of image and text. Some consideration will be given
to
notable contemporary attitudes towards the famous sculptural group
that
would later become the basis for Blake's design, including Winckelmann's
highly influential treatise On the Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture
of the Greeks (1755) and Lessing's equally popular Laoco=F6n: An Essay
on th=
e
Limits of Painting and Poetry (1766). Certainly, the arguments advanced
in
these widely read aesthetic documents prompted Blake's own dramatic
revaluation of the sculpture and its overall significance. In the end,
I
argue that his polyglot text and attendant image both play an essential
role in the manufacture of meaning. While linguistic and visual signs
remain apparently distinguishable semiotic codes, neither can function
independently as a nicely self-contained, rarefied logic. Thus, image
and
text in Blake's "Laoco=F6n" become mutually framing boundaries, a radical
palimpsest that disrupts hierarchical, Enlightenment thinking and disperses
meaning rather than seeking to contain it!
Dorthe Berntsen
Institute of Psychology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
Relevant analyses of modernist poetry are extracted from Werner and
Kaplan's (1963) classical, psychological theory of language development.
In
the present paper, contradiction (e.g. oxymora) and fusion of syntactic
categories are identified as central devices of modernist poetry that
can
be regarded as a kind of holophrastic utterances, as this notion was
defined by Werner and Kaplan -- that is, expressions involving little
differentiation between vehicle and referent, self and other. Also,
I
demonstrate that some modernist poems abolish referential meaning in
order
to encourage physiognomic apprehension -- which is another key notion
in
Werner and Kaplan's theory. Via this mechanism, the auditory or
orthographic appearance of linguistic symbols are endowed with concrete
sensorimotor characteristics associated with the physical referents.
=46inally, I argue that analyses acquired from Werner and Kaplan (1963)
are
more economic and more consistent with modernist philosophy than are
more
recent analyses of poetry deriving from so-called embodiment semantics.
Specifically, Werner and Kaplan's psychological theory offers possible
explanations as to why language is often considered as a source of
estrangement in modernist poetry.
Literary narratives and narrative psychology: the impact of experimental
aesthetics on mainstream psychology.
Hugo Verdaasdonk
Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Lists of bestselling books are generally thought of as reflecting the
sales
figures of the titles concerned and, for this reason, as reliable
indicators of readers' preferences. In the Netherlands, as many as
16
bestseller lists are published every week by chains of bookstores or
by
agencies buying for affiliated outlets. Top-ten lists predominantly
feature
titles that bookstores bought in large quantities. The vast majority
of new
books represent a considerable risk to the book trade. Top-tens contain
titles embodying a reduced risk - because the authors' previous books
were
bestsellers, because the (translated) title was very successful in
its
country of origin, etc. Bookstores buy preferably from publishing houses
that have proven themselves to be producers of bestsellers. Large
publishing houses spawn large quantities of books and have more titles
on
top-ten lists than small firms; to a greater extent than small publishing
houses, they publish authors who have acquired a vast audience that
readily
buys their new releases.
The paper focuses on two categories of decision processes: that of
admitting titles to a top-ten list and that of monitoring titles during
their stay on top-ten lists.
It is hypothesized that titles have access to top-ten lists by virtue
of
specific characteristics, i.e. whether or not the author had a bestseller
in the past, whether the title is by a foreign or a Dutch-speaking
author,
the genre to which a title belongs (popular vs. literary fiction).
=46urthermore, the size of a publishing house (measured in terms of
the
number of titles in print) and its record as a purveyor of bestsellers
are
of importance.
Three questions are raised:
- Given the characteristics, titles must share access to a top-ten
list,
will a grouping procedure (discriminant analysis) succeed in correctly
classifying titles unique to one list as fair of this list?
- Which of the characteristics of titles on top-ten lists has the strongest
impact on its longevity on the probability of its undergoing the event
of
disappearing from the list (event history analysis)?
- Can Granger causality be attested between top-ten lists? If this
appears
to be the case, it provides evidence for the contention that, in the
course
of time, makers of top-ten lists learn that only a very tiny fraction
of
the total supply of books has the power of attracting large numbers
of avid
buyers. This makes them adjust their lists to others.
On a theoretical level, the paper makes a plea for devising explanatory
models accounting for the rapid changes the cultural production undergoes
and for strategies by means of which cultural products are positioned
as
worthy of attention.
Chairman: Vladimir M. Koshkin
Polytechnic University, Kharkov State University, Kharkov, Ukraine
Alex Nesterenko
School of Communications, Grand Valley State University, Allendale,
USA
It has been argued that in studying the meaning of art, it is important
that one understand how interpretations of art are connected with "Self."
Interpretation is not conducted in isolation, but rather involves
"projection" in an effort to place a work of art within the context
of ones
Self. It is in its relationship to Self that a work of art is understood
and has meaning.
=46rom the standpoint of Q-methodology 1, Self is the central issue
under
investigation 2. Self is modelled empirically in the form of a Q-sort.
Q-sorting is accomplished by ranking (often on a scale from "most agree"
to
"most disagree") a set of statements or items (Q-sample) which, for
experimental purposes, has been selected from a "communication concourse,"
or universe of discourse 3.
Q-methodology has been used widely in the fields of psychology,
communication, and political science, among others 4 ; and yet, there
have
been relatively few efforts to apply Q-methodology to the study of
art 5.
Carl Rogers, for example, found Q-sort technique to be a powerful tool
in
psychotherapy, enabling the subject to systematically reveal Self 6.
While
Rogers was content with individual Q-sorts, most often it is the practice
to factor-analyze Q-sorts performed by various individuals to reveal
typologies of people.
However, as Stephenson has shown, complex analyses of Self are possible
with the aid of single case Q-methodology 7. Procedurally, the individual
performs multiple Q-sorts, which is to say Q-sorts are performed from
multiple "conditions of instruction" upon the same Q-sample (of
statements/items). Conditions of instruction are chosen for their theoretic
signiticance and utility in revealing dimensions of Self. In addition
to
Q-sorting statements from one's point of view, a subject might be asked,
for example, to sort the Q-sample to represent an ideal position (Rogers'
"self-and-ideal" congruity). Other conditions might be selected along
the
lines of Sullivan's "me-you" dynamism, Freud's law of
"identification-with," and so forth. The possibilities for conditions
of
instruction are many and varied. An individual's Q-sorts are then factor
analyzed, with the resulting factor matrix indicative of self-structure.
Each factor in the matrix provides factor-scored statements which,
when
placed in descending array of Z-score value, can be interpreted for
meaning
that goes beyond structure alone.
In previous research, the present author demonstrated the application
of
single case Q-methodology in discovering the psycho-dynamic relationship
of
one work of art with the artist8. The proposed paper goes a step further
and demonstrates the application of single case Q-methodology to show
the
configural relationship of several works of art vis-a-vis Self. The
works
of several painters are considered, including Mary Cassatt, Leonardo
Da
Vinci, Winslow Homer, Claude Monet, and Norman Rockwell. Paintings
used in
the study all concern themes related to the topic of childhood. Several
single case Q-studies (each involving l0 conditions of instruction)
are
presented and discussed.
Notes
1 Stephenson, W. (1953). The Study of Behavior: Q-Technique and Its
Methodology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
2 Stephenson, W. (1979). The Communicability and Operancy of Self.
Operant
Subjectivity , 3, 2-14.
3 Stephenson, W. (1978). Concourse Theory of Communication. Communication
,
3, 21-40.
4 Brown S. R. and Brenner D. J. (1972; Eds), Science, Psychology, and
Communication: Essays Honoring William Stephenson. New York: Teachers
College Press.
5 For a notable exception, see A. Nesterenko and C. Zoe Smith (1984).
Contemporary Interpretations of Robert Frank's "The Americans," Journalism
Quarterly, 61, 567- 577.
6 Rogers, C.R (1961) Client-Centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Also see: Idem (1961), On Becomig a Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
7 Stephenson W.(1974). Methodology of Single Case Studies. Journal
of
Operational Psychiatry, 5, 3-16. Also see Morris, Parloff, Stephenson
&
Seymour, (1963). Myra=EDs Perception of Self and Others. In D. Rosenthal
(Ed.), The Genain Quadruplets. New York: Basic Books, (pp. 493-501).
8 Nesterenko, A. (1997). Communicability of Artistic Self. Paper presented
at the National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists,
New York.
Steen Folke Larsen
Institute of Psychology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
In the dissemination of aesthetic works, retailers play an important
part.
What knowledge of these works do they acquire and apply when dealing
with
their customers -- the audience of the artists? This paper reports
on a
case study of a book seller with more than 50 years of experience in
the
trade. His memory of books from the entire period, as well as his ability
to locate them in the store when demanded, is found to be impressive.
The
cognitive organization of this large body of knowledge relies strongly
on
his personal episodic memory of the books. Also important are formal
classifications, such as genres and schools of authors, as well as
factual
knowledge of the publishing industry (e.g., publishers' profiles).
In
contrast, he maske little use of knowledge of the content and aesthetic
features of the particular books. Thus, expert management of works
of art
need not require (or breed) much attention to its content and artistic
value.
Elly A. Konijn
Faculty of Arts, General & Comparative Literature, Free University,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Institute for Media and Re/Presentation,
Utrecht, The Netherlands
In correlational studies, especially in the field of emotion, theatre,
film
and literature as well as scale analyses, correlations of .80 or .90
should
be treated with suspicion. Although=20cheerful conclusions are based
on them=
,
they are often corrupted by extremely skewed data. Data sets with just
a
few outliers and many zero scores may lead to strong correlations among
variables, which are yet meaningless. It is argued why such correlations
should be treated with care, considering large sample sizes, skewed
distributions, outliers, asymmetric relationships and the relative
interpretation of different correlation measures. Usually, these problems
are not recognized by researchers in the field, particularly when the
results are less extreme. Therefore, the significance of significant
correlations of .40 or .50 is also questioned. Finally, a provisional
criterion will be offered to decide whether significant correlations
indeed
reflect a sufficiently strong relation between variables.
Yury N. Rags
Moscow State Conservatory, Moscow, Russia
Two phases can be singled out in the development of the method. The
first
one is experimental; it endured approximately from the middle of the
nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Selected properties
of sound were measured, as a rule it was the pitch of the sound and
its
timbre, and also the properties of human hearing. The achievements
of this
stage were the including of human musical into the system of acoustic
explorations and the appearance of psychophysiological acoustics
(Helmholtz, Stumpf).
The second phase is an aspiration to the synthesis of acoustic measurements
with the cognition of music, a transition from the elements of sound
to the
integrity of musical oeuvre. The influence of many factors on the
"behavior" of sound is examined; for example, on the perception of
order as
the organization of the sound pitch system, on the perception of mood
as
the organization of logical associations in the work. The explorations
became factorial and polyfactorial.
Under these conditions, great importance goes to the subjective (art)
components of the method. A hierarchical system of experts is developed.
A
transition was made from an easy statistical processing of material
to the
exploration of a complex system of individual particularities of art
performance, art achievements of musicians. The most important scientific
works in this direction in Russia are those by N. A. Garbusov, O. E.
Sahaltueva, E. W. Nazaikinsky, Y. N. Rags, O. M. Agarkow, P. W. Lobanov
and
N. S. Bazhanov.