Historical reconstructions are an important tool for bringing the past closer to the public. However, we still know relatively little about how they affect museum visitors. In research conducted at the Bode Museum — during an exhibition and a fashion show of medieval Nubian dresses — we asked visitors to evaluate their aesthetic experience while viewing various reconstructions of medieval Nubian garments. By examining how visitors’ personality traits and the type of historical reconstruction influence their perception, our aim was to identify what makes such reconstructions appealing and how this correlates with visual behaviour, in order to inform the design of more engaging exhibitions in the future.
The role of archaeologists is not only uncover remains of the past but also present them to a broad audience. However, this can pose challenges, especially when researchers come from a different culture than the local inhabitants. To foster dialogue between archaeologists and the local community, we invited Sudanese and Western visitors to view medieval Nubian paintings, discovered at the Old Dongola Archaeological Site in Sudan, using a mobile eye-tracker. Recognizing similarities and differences in how these paintings are visually processed was our starting point for developing educational programs about paintings tailored to cultural perceptions.
Visual analysis of artefacts is a basic procedure in archaeological research. However, teaching the visual analysis of artefacts can be a challenge, mostly because seeing is not an entirely conscious process. To aid archaeological instructors and students in learning and teaching artefact analysis, we developed eye-tracking recordings that depict the gaze behavior of archaeological experts during artefact analysis (a method known as Eye Movement Modelling Examples - EMME). Subsequently, we presented these recordings to students during archaeological courses. The results showed that students gained various educational benefits from EMME.
Archaeologists are specialists in analysing heritage from past cultures. However, when conducting analyses, they are not free from the influence of their own cultures. To understand how culture and knowledge may influence the way archaeologists visually analysis remains from the past, we asked archaeology students from the University of Warsaw to analyse non-European medieval paintings from Faras Gallery National Museum in Warsaw as part of a project. Our goal was to determine if archaeological education can override culturally grounded tendencies in processing figurative art called Other Race Effect.
The imperative to preserve archaeological heritage for future generations has spurred the intensive development of non-invasive research within archaeology. However, new technologies present both opportunities and challenges for researchers who must learn to analyze various types of data. To better understand the knowledge creation process based on non-excavation data, this project aims to investigate the psychological aspects of searching for archaeological objects using magnetic imaging. By analyzing the gaze behavior of both experts and non-experts, we aim to explore which elements of the images attract visual attention, the difficulties encountered by analysts, and whether certain anomalies are detected more easily even without expert knowledge.
