Implicit experiences as a determinant of perceptual quality and aesthetic appreciation

Abstract

Since the Dadaist refusal of the conventional standards in art, followed by Fluxus` rejection of art as a commodity, and recently, the popularity of Internet and technology in art, artworks have become difficult to recognize as artworks in themselves. Modern works of art are no longer readily only seen today, more often fully experienced. The processing of an aesthetic experience needs a new understanding in terms of the changing context of art and the experiential perspective of art recipients. In the multimedia arena, the valid assumption is that, evaluations of aesthetic experiences are mostly based on the accessible information on the surface of the medium. Several research groups in psychology question the singularity of exterior-level assumptions demonstrating that there are modulating factors that affect aesthetic experiences and one of these is implicit experience. In this paper, we review the significance of empirical aesthetics in psychology and from the artistic point of view combined with a technical and experiential perspective. We also discuss our approach of considering the implications of implicit experiences to the modelling of Quality of Experience (QoE) where this is used as a measurement of perception and aesthetic judgment of contemporary and modern works of art.