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Archaeology meets Psychology

 

 

Digital and immersive technologies have been playing a central role in research and knowledge transfer for several years. The Department of Classical Archaeology at JLU Giessen has been actively exploring the utilization of digital interaction technologies in museum contexts and teaching since 2018. Now, the department is venturing into new research territories. In collaboration with the Department of Experimental Psychology, we are investigating perception structures through eye tracking in a virtual reality experiment utilizing 3D models of ancient sculptures.

 

When dealing scientifically with images, it can be interesting for a deeper understanding to examine how viewers perceive representations and react to them. For classical archaeological research, which is centrally concerned with the visual culture of Greek and Roman antiquity, this presents a challenge. Contemporary ancient viewers can no longer be observed or questioned.

In a collaborative project between Classical Archaeology and the Perception & Action team of the Psychology Department at JLU, we are currently investigating how Classical Archaeology can adopt modern perception research methods to deepen our understanding of how people in antiquity perceived their statues and, consequently, their world.

The project focuses on sculpture from a period of significant change in pictorial composition: the Hellenistic period, in the 3rd century BC. This era saw not only the emergence of a new order in the ancient Mediterranean world due to Alexander the Great's conquests but also a shift in people's perspective on this world. Evidence from three-dimensional large-scale sculptures of this time suggests that viewers no longer perceived sculptures from a fixed viewpoint; instead, they dynamically moved around statues such as those of the so-called Gaul Ludovisi, synthesizing various perspectives to form an overall impression.

The concept of multiple viewpoints represented a departure from the compositional principles of sculpture prevalent before and after the 3rd century BC. Prior to this period, sculptures were designed to be fully comprehensible from a single viewpoint, encouraging a static form of viewing characterized by distance and reflection. Conversely, the sculptures of the 3rd century BC seem to have invited a more immersive experience.

The project aims to investigate how modern viewers interact with these multi-viewpoint statues compared to their engagement with single-viewpoint statues. It seeks to identify specific movement and viewing patterns associated with each type of composition. Additionally, the project examines whether the multi-perspective nature of 3rd-century BC statues arises from 'tipping points' in their composition – specific points on a statue that prompt viewers to move forward or backward.

The underlying hypothesis posits that, if distinct movement and viewing patterns can be established for different compositions, similar patterns can be inferred for ancient viewers. Moreover, the study of ancient sculpture provides an intriguing subject for modern perception research, shedding light on how individuals interact with complex objects in space and how immersive technologies influence human perception structures.

For the investigation, an experiment was designed in a virtual reality (VR) environment, wherein the participants observed and moved around 12 statues of different types, either single-viewpoint or multi-viewpoint. Their spatial movements and eye dwell times were recorded using eye-tracking technology to identify prioritized views and potential 'tipping points' in the composition. The results were validated by comparing the datasets with photographs of the favored sculpture views, which the participants captured in virtual reality in a subsequent step of the experiment.

This experimental setup allowed for the analysis of participants' behavior in an environment they perceived as natural, while still maintaining control over the environment and tasks, thus avoiding the influence of a laboratory environment that may deviate significantly from reality and be highly constrained.

The evaluation of the datasets from an initial test group of only three participants has already revealed clear differences in the perception of "single-viewpoint" and "multi-viewpoint" large-scale sculptures, not only in terms of spatial movement but also in the time spent viewing different sides of the statues.

The visualization of the superimposed participant movements reveals distinct patterns of engagement with both types of statues. While participants tended to focus on the front side of "single-viewpoint" statues, their interaction with "multi-viewpoint" statues involved more pronounced spatial movement patterns and increased interest in different views due to intensive exploration and extended viewing times.

Further analysis of the ongoing tests is pending, but preliminary results indicate that the effects of different composition types can be clearly distinguished and potentially interpreted meaningfully in terms of cultural history.

Moreover, the experiment provided valuable insights that align with the Department of Classical Archaeology's work and will be integrated more comprehensively into teaching at JLU in the future. The use of 3D models of ancient artifacts and sites has long been employed to enhance immersive and intensive learning experiences, blending objective and subjective approaches. In the current experiment, students of Classical Archaeology showed significantly greater engagement when viewing statues in the VR environment compared to traditional two-dimensional photography, which is customary in their studies. Given the centrality of image analysis in classical archaeological work, technologies that enhance intrinsic motivation must play a central role in training future generations of scholars.

 

Contact: Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz and Dr. Claudia Schmieder