How to lead one's gaze. The effect of auditive information of individual art perception

Claudia Pitnik

Master thesis project 

Comparatively old media like audio guides are still in use in the mediation work of art museums, despite the influences that technical advancement of the age of Social Media have on these institutions. The approach taken to develop new tools like museum apps and multi-media guides, is not very different than  designing audio guides. The clear advantage of this device, which can be used flexibly and easily, lies in using it simultaneously to looking at a painting. But does aural information change the way people look at a piece of art? Based on previous audio guide research and the results of studies from the psycholinguistic field of the Visual World Paradigm, the question of how such image-describing aural information impacts art perspective was investigated through an eye tracking study in the Lab for Cognitive Research in Art History in Vienna. The results show that the gaze of visitors can be guided by aural information, if the content arouses interest and offers a surplus value for the viewers. This finding is of great relevance, especially for art education, as it is possible to draw conclusions about the form in which aural information should be designed for audio guides or Apps in order to achieve a positive effect with as many visitors as possible.