From the Walls to the Web: Media Aesthetics, Technological Innovation, and Audience Attention to Artwork Representations

Aesthetic theory considers the reciprocal relationship between the creator, the object, and the viewer of an artwork. When viewing artworks on a museum website, a new element is added to the aesthetic model: the mass-mediated representation of the art object. This research brings together art and media theory, as well as technological understanding, to study mass-mediated presentations of artworks and to gauge audiences' visual attention to artworks based on differences in media presentations. Study findings indicate that art museums are generally showing rigor for visual displays of their artworks on their websites, thereby providing a legitimate visiting experience for their virtual patrons. However, regarding technology, art museum websites are not fully embracing web capabilities. Eyetracking data provide empirical evidence of the effects of certain changed aesthetic variables in the viewing experience. From a theoretical perspective, the research showed how aesthetic theory can be placed within a media aesthetic theory model to study the mass mediated viewing experience.