Chapter 3. Contemporary Experimental Aesthetics: Procedures and Findings

An aesthetic experience with visual art and the resulting perceived ‘beauty’ of it depend on a complex interaction among characteristics of the art object, the observer, and the physical, social, and historical contexts in which the experience takes place. Experimental aesthetics is devoted to the study of forms of behavior that center around observers’ interactions with works of art and other aesthetic phenomena using a variety of research techniques and controlled observation. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of the diversity of research techniques and procedures employed in the last decade to understand and explain the underlying processes that contribute to an observer’s aesthetic experiences with a variety of visual art forms, including painting, film, photography, sculpture, cuisine, design products, and dance. The chapter is divided into the following sections to achieve its goal: artworks as stimuli, processes underlying an aesthetic experience with different visual art forms, the contribution of viewer characteristics to his or her experience with art, and the art museum as laboratory.