Labelling images as art alters people's perceptions
Labels matter according to researchers seeking to define what elevates art above the ordinary after showing that the mere act of labelling an object as ‘art’ changes the way people feel about it.
The study seeks to pin down the psychological factors at play behind the objet trouve movement in which everyday objects such as Duchamp’s urinal or Tracey Emin’s unmade bed assume qualities beyond the sum of their parts when placed in the context of an art gallery.
To firm up their suspicions researchers at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology showed a group of 24 students a variety of pictures described either as simple photographs or works of art whilst monitoring their brain waves.
Noah van Dongen, of the Erasmus School of History, Communication and Culture in the Netherlands, said: “They came from an international picture system, a highly validated set of images scored according to how strong emotionally people react to them. They are happy couples, puppies, car crashes, mutilated bodies.”
Photographs labelled as art were found to elicit more positive reactions although the strength of their responses also weakened, indicating that viewers were distancing themselves emotionally from the image.
Dongen disputes suggestion that this undermines the attributes of art, stating that labelling and context simply enable great art to be appreciated more.