Aesthetic experience in the physical and immersive virtual space

Art contemplation typically occurs in museums or art galleries. However, aesthetic experience has been predominantly investigated in laboratory settings, limiting the generalizability of the results. Virtual reality (VR) can create immersive and realistic simulations, potentially bridging this gap. However, the extent to which aesthetic engagement in virtual environments parallels that of physical exhibitions remains to be tested. To address this question, twenty-four art naïve participants visited both a physical photographic exhibition and its virtual counterpart designed for Oculus Quest 2. We assessed both explicit aesthetic experiences (liking, curiosity, and emotional involvement) and implicit behaviors towards art (viewing times) in both settings. By employing Bayesian linear mixed-effects analyses, we found evidence of no difference between the two environments in terms of liking and emotional involvement. However, the participants who first visited the exhibition in the physical context reported lower curiosity towards the photographs during the second session (i.e., in VR). We also found strong evidence for the lack of a modulatory role of context over phenomena generally found in real-world exhibition, i.e., the museum fatigue and the relationship between viewing times and aesthetic experience. Moreover, one year later, participants similarly rated the vividness of their memory and their willingness to revisit the virtual and physical exhibition. Altogether, these findings suggest that aesthetic experiences in a controlled physical context can be comparable to those experienced in its immersive digital twin, with meaningful scientific and cultural implications.