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dc.contributor.authorSaarinen, Jussi A.
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-22T12:12:17Z
dc.date.available2021-11-22T12:12:17Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.identifier.citationSaarinen, J. A. (2021). How Museums Make Us Feel : Affective Niche Construction and the Museum of Non-Objective Painting. <i>British Journal of Aesthetics</i>, <i>61</i>(4), 543-558. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayab011" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayab011</a>
dc.identifier.otherCONVID_101959722
dc.identifier.urihttps://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/78755
dc.description.abstractArt museums are built to elicit a wide variety of feelings, emotions, and moods from their visitors. While these effects are primarily achieved through the artworks on display, museums commonly deploy numerous other affect-inducing resources as well, including architectural solutions, audio guides, lighting fixtures, and informational texts. Art museums can thus be regarded as spaces that are designed to influence affective experiencing through multiple structures and mechanisms. At face value, this may seem like a somewhat self-evident and trivial statement to make. However, in this article, I argue that niche construction theory enables us to make several illuminating observations about the ways in which art museums are engineered to influence our feelings. To expound on this claim, I single out for discussion the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which for its entire lifespan (1939–52)—and prior to its evolution into the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum—was expressly organized to kindle in its visitors a special, spiritual form of aesthetic experience: a liberating feeling of cosmic rhythm and order, no less. The argument will proceed as follows: In Part 1, I introduce the basics of niche construction theory and specify the sense in which I apply it to museums and aesthetic affective experiencing. In Part 2, I outline the origins and ethos of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, after which I pin down the type of affective experience it fostered by drawing from visitors’ self-reported reactions to the artworks on display. Then, in Part 3, I use niche construction theory to explain how the Museum consciously fashioned itself, by means of various mutually supportive resources and technologies, into a fertile setting for the specified feelings. Finally, in Part 4, I extend beyond the discussed case to assess the implications of niche construction theory for a broader understanding of how art museums make us feel. In other words, by tracing the early steps of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting towards the present-day Guggenheim, I call attention to the general variation in affective niches as regards their structure, technologies, and affective aims. Overall, the article elucidates the functioning of art museums as affective niches and furthers the conceptual development of niche construction theory in aesthetics.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherOxford University Press (OUP)
dc.relation.ispartofseriesBritish Journal of Aesthetics
dc.rightsCC BY 4.0
dc.titleHow Museums Make Us Feel : Affective Niche Construction and the Museum of Non-Objective Painting
dc.typearticle
dc.identifier.urnURN:NBN:fi:jyu-202111225764
dc.contributor.laitosYhteiskuntatieteiden ja filosofian laitosfi
dc.contributor.laitosDepartment of Social Sciences and Philosophyen
dc.contributor.oppiaineFilosofiafi
dc.contributor.oppiainePhilosophyen
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle
dc.type.coarhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1
dc.description.reviewstatuspeerReviewed
dc.format.pagerange543-558
dc.relation.issn0007-0904
dc.relation.numberinseries4
dc.relation.volume61
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
dc.rights.copyright© 2021 the Authors
dc.rights.accesslevelopenAccessfi
dc.relation.grantnumber
dc.subject.ysokokemukset
dc.subject.ysotaidemuseot
dc.subject.ysoaffektiivisuus
dc.subject.ysoreaktiot
dc.subject.ysoelämys
dc.subject.ysotaideteokset
dc.subject.ysoestetiikka
dc.subject.ysotunteet
dc.subject.ysoelämyksellisyys
dc.subject.ysotaide
dc.format.contentfulltext
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3209
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p8144
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p11268
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p12638
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3211
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p778
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p5196
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3485
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p20773
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p2851
dc.rights.urlhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.relation.doi10.1093/aesthj/ayab011
dc.relation.funderKone Foundationen
dc.relation.funderKoneen Säätiöfi
jyx.fundinginformationI would also like to thank Kone Foundation for their generous funding of this research.
dc.type.okmA1


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