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Contemporary art is often challenging for the viewer, especially when it violates classic rules of representation. Also, viewers usually have little knowledge about this type of art, making its reception even more difficult. Our main research question was how the cognitive challenge associated with contemporary art affects eye movement. In particular, we aimed to assess the impact on eye movements of (a) object‐related cognitive challenge in terms of image properties (syntactic and semantic violations) and (b) subject‐related cognitive challenge (composite subjective estimate of image inconsistency, ambiguity, and complexity). The eye movements of expert and naive participants were recorded while they freely viewed digital copies of contemporary paintings (four groups of five paintings each, differing in presence of semantic and syntactic violations). We found that neither violations nor art expertise alone predicted eye movements, although perceived, subjectively experienced cognitive challenge did. In particular, subject‐related cognitive challenge was associated with an increase in visual exploration (longer and more numerous fixations, bigger area of exploration, longer viewing time). The roles of object‐related and subject‐related indicators of cognitive challenge in perception of contemporary art are discussed.

The role of titles in perception of visual art is a topic of interesting discussions that brings together artists, curators, and researchers. Titles provide contextual cues and guide perception. They can be particularly useful when paintings include semantic violations that make them challenging for viewers, especially viewers lacking expert knowledge. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of titles and semantic violations on eye movements. A total of 127 participants without expertise in visual art viewed 40 paintings with and without semantic violations (20 each) in one of three conditions: untitled, consistent titles and inconsistent titles. After each painting was viewed participants also rated liking and understanding. Our results suggest that titles affect the way paintings are viewed: both titled conditions were associated with shorter first fixation duration, longer saccade durations, and amplitudes and higher dynamic entropy than the untitled conditions. Titles were fixated on more frequently (but only in the time window between 1,200 and 2,800 ms) when presented alongside paintings with semantic violations than paintings without violations, and the percentage of fixations to titles was particularly high in the case of paintings with double inconsistencies (inconsistent titles and semantic violations). Also, we found that semantic violations attracted attention early on (300–900 ms), whereas titles received attention later (average first fixation on title was at 936.28 ms) and inconsistencies in titles were processed even later (after 4,000 ms). Finally, semantic violations were associated with higher dynamic entropy than paintings without violations. Our results demonstrate the importance of titles for processing of artworks, especially artworks that present a challenge for the viewers.

Who is the contemporary artist? Social representation of the artist among visual art students Streszczenie:Artykuł prezentuje zastosowanie analizy pól semantycznych w celu zrekonstruowania reprezentacji współczesnego artysty wśród studentów sztuk wizualnych. 124 studentów Wydziału Sztuki Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego w Krakowie oraz Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie odpowiedziało na otwarte pytanie: Kim jest artysta w naszych czasach? Uzyskany materiał jakościowy pozwolił na nakreślenie pola semantycznego czyli ekwiwalentów, opozycji, określeń, asocjacji, działań podmiotu oraz działań wobec podmiotu, z którymi pojęcie artysty jest utożsamiane w percepcji przyszłych twórców. W artykule przedstawiono, wnioski, implikacje praktyczne i przyszłe kierunki badań. Słowa kluczowe:reprezentacja artysty, percepcja społeczna, analiza pól semantycznych, studenci sztuk wizualnych Abstract:The paper presents the application of semantic field analysis to the reconstruction of the social representation of the contemporary artist among visual arts students. 124 students from the Faculty of Art of the Pedagogical University of Cracow and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow answered an openended question: Who is the artist in our time? The narrative material was used to reconstruct the equivalents, opposites, attributes, associations, activities of the subject and activities on the subject which constitute the semantic field of the concept "contemporary artist". The conclusions, practical implications and direction for future studies are presented.