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How art appreciation inspires artistic creation

Conference Paper · March 2019

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Chiaki Ishiguro Takeshi Okada

Kanazawa Institute of Technology The University of Tokyo
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 How art appreciation
inspires artistic creation
Chiaki Ishiguro* & Takeshi Okada**
*Tamagawa Brain Science Institute
**The University of Tokyo
 Art inspires us to create
• Works of art inspire us
• Great artists collect other people’s art as a source of
inspiration
• Amateurs also get inspired through interacting others’
artworks

Picasso
2
Inspiration in creative education

• Inspiration is important for art learning (e.g., Tyler & Likova,

2012; Chemi et al., 2015)
• Educational practices on creativity are based on little
theoretical and empirical evidence
Black box of inspiration process
• How do viewers experience inspiration from works
of art?
• Psychological process of inspiration
• Empirical foundation of inspiration research is
constructed (Oleynick et .al., 2014)
• Two major process of inspiration (Thrash & Elliot, 2004)
• Inspired by
• Inspired to
 Process model of inspiration for art making through
art appreciation (Ishiguro & Okada, 2018)

Phases of appreciation leading to inspiration

Subject of Type of
Initial state Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
processing processing

Cognitive Inspiration for

Viewer's Motivational Reflection on viewer’s own art
own art state for art viewer’s own
making making
making Emotional art making

Artwork Cognitive Motivational

Evaluation of Evaluation of
Dual focus
state for
by others appreciation
artworks by others artworks by
Emotional others

Inspired by Inspired to

evaluation of artworks by others

compare others’ art making and viewers’ own 5

Traits for being inspired to make
art
• Creative experience and achievements
• Experts in product design experience more inspiration than
amateurs (Thrash & Elliot, 2004)
• Art majors experience more inspiration than non-majors
(Ishiguro & Okada, 2017)
• Remembering one’s art experience promotes inspiration (Ann
& Youn, 2018)
Experience in art-related activities
• Self-evaluation for creative activities
• Competence is positively correlated to inspiration (Thrash &
Elliot, 2003)
• Self-evaluation for artistic expression is positively correlated
to inspiration in art majors and non-majors (Ishiguro & Okada,
2017)

Self-evaluation for artistic expression

Types of artworks promoting
viewers’ inspiration
• Mental leap hypothesis
• A conceptually distant source, which has a similar
structure but a different surface, elicits a creative
breakthrough (e.g., Gentner & Markman, 1997; Holyoak
& Thagard, 1996; Poze, 1983; Ward, 1998)
• Deep interaction with unfamiliar artworks
• Okada & Ishibashi (2017) showed copying and
appreciating unfamiliar artworks for over 20 minutes
promote creative drawing
 Hypothesis
Art viewing process Styles of artworks

evaluation of artworks
of others

compare others’ art

traits making and viewers’
own
Self-evaluation Inspiration
of artistic to make art
expression

Experience of
art-related
activities 9
Method
• Questionnaire survey via Internet
• 400 participants (age from 20 ~ 69)
• Procedure
1. Appreciation 4 artworks
1. Appreciated each painting for a minute
2. Answered to psychological scales (Ishiguro & Okada, 2017)
2. Answered to traits scales
• Types of artworks :Classic and Abstract paintings
(Leder et al., 2011)

10
 Art viewing (1 minutes)
Answered to psychological scales
• The methods of appreciating artworks
e.g., “I think about why the author made the
artwork.”,”I think about what kind of person
made the artwork.”
• Inspiration scale
e.g., “I feel inspired by someone’s
artworks or events.”,”I come up with
new images and ideas by encountering
someone’s artworks or events.”

Answered to psychological scales

• Experience of art-related activities
e.g., “How often do you visit art galleries?”,”In
average how many hours per week do you
participate in art making?”
• Self-evaluation of artistic
expression
e.g., “My ability of art expression is highly
regarded.”,”I am confident that I can make good
artworks.”
 Art viewing process Style of artworks
Results
-.10*** -.11***
2
R =.16
The method of appreciation
to evaluate others’ artworks

.07* 2
.22***
R =.21
.35*** The method of appreciation
Trait factors .42*** to compare others’ artistic
expression and their own R2=.69
.56***
Self-evaluation Inspiration
of artistic
.15***
for create
expression
.06*
.35*** .00n.s.

Experience of
art-related
Art viewing process has a greater effect than the other factors
activities

12
 95% IC
Estimate SE Z Lower Upper Std.all
Experience of art-related activities
Direct -0.011 0.056 -0.199 -0.120 0.102 -0.005
Indirect1 0.047 0.023 2.033 0.011 0.101 0.022
Indirect2 0.103 0.049 2.086 0.012 0.211 0.048
Indirect3 0.073 0.021 3.568 0.040 0.120 0.034
Indirect4 0.239 0.053 4.507 0.159 0.361 0.111
Indirect5 0.155 0.038 4.056 0.091 0.248 0.072
Total effect 0.605 0.103 5.861 0.431 0.824 0.282
Self-evaluation of artistic expression
Direct 0.265 0.053 5.010 0.164 0.367 0.149
Indirect1 0.125 0.030 4.163 0.068 0.185 0.071
Indirect2 0.408 0.062 6.634 0.289 0.533 0.230
Total effect 0.799 0.064 12.553 0.675 0.923 0.451
Note:
indirect1 is the effect of each trait with mediating of the method of appreciation of
Although
evaluating experience of art-related activities had no significant direct effect, the
others’ artworks
Indirect2 is the effect of each trait with mediating of the method of appreciation of
total
comparing effect
others’ via art own
and viewers’ viewing process is unexpectedly large.
art expression
Indirect 3 is the effect of each trait with mediating of self-evaluation of artistic expression
and of the method of appreciation of evaluating others’ artworks
Indirect 4 is the effect of each trait with mediating of self-evaluation of artistic expression
and of the method of appreciation of comparing others’ and viewers’ own art expression
Indirect 3 is the effect of each trait with mediating of self-evaluation of artistic expression
Discussion
• Interestingly, inspiration depends on individuals’
interpretation of stimulus (e.g., appreciation of
artworks)
• The process of being inspired by art viewing is clarified
• Comparing others’ art making and viewers’ own promotes
inspiration for art making
• The traits affect inspiration
• Art-related experience had no direct effect on inspiration
• The traits’ effect on inspiration is strengthened when mediated
by art appreciation
Contributions
• Present findings contribute to…
• Understanding the mechanism of inspiration
• Developing educational practices in creative
activities (e.g., art education in formal learning
settings, workshops in informal learning settings,
training programs in business)
Future work
• Accumulating empirical evidence in education on
aesthetics and creativity
• Examining more specific process and mechanism of
inspiration
• Collaborating with educators to develop programs to
promote inspiration
• These efforts can contribute to the development of
creative individuals and creative society.
 Phases of appreciation leading to
inspiration
Subject of Type of
Initial state Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
processing processing

Cognitive Inspiration
Viewer's Motivational Reflection for viewer’s
own art state for art on viewer’s own art
making making own art making
Emotional
making

Cognitive Motivational Evaluation of Evaluation

Dual focus
Artwork
state for artworks by of
by others appreciation others artworks by
Emotional
others

Figure1. Outline of the process model of inspiration through art

appreciation (IAA)
23
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