Louis Williams: Turning noise into clarity

Most of us have stood in front of an abstract painting and felt completely lost. We want to understand what the artist intended. Research shows that providing contextual information helps and can lead to greater aesthetic appreciation of an artwork. In one of my psychology experiments, I found that providing context even changed the eye movement behaviour of the art observer. When novices were shown a video explaining and depicting the art-making process of dynamic abstract paintings, such as a Jackson Pollock, it changed the way they engaged with similar artworks. They were more a...