Decoding the emotions evoked by art using artificial intelligence

Art often evokes an emotional response. However, it’s difficult to anticipate and plan for museum experiences…at least until now!

As part of a research project on artificial intelligence (AI) integration, Laval University’s Co-DOT lab is joining forces with the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (MNBAQ) and an immersive OVA technology company to develop a tool for recommending and simulating artistic journeys and experiences based on emotions.

Exploring Emotional Responses

To achieve this, we first needed to understand the relationship between art and emotion. In 2022, Sébastien Tremblay, professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Université Laval and director of the Co-DOT laboratory, led a research project to study the emotional reactions evoked by works of art. About a hundred volunteers visited the MNBAQ exhibition halls, equipped with equipment to record their emotions.

“We both asked participants to identify their emotions using self-reports and measure physiological responses expressed when interacting with the works and which could be associated with a range of emotions, such as eye movements, heart rate or even voice intonation. explains the director of the Co-DOT Laboratory.

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Data collected through this first initiative will help develop artificial intelligence models that can predict the emotional response evoked by works of art, he said.

“Ultimately, we will develop a tool that can recommend to the curator a set of works of art that evoke the desired emotion in the observer, and also allow us to visualize various route scenarios in advance in virtual reality. environment,” emphasizes Professor Tremblay.

“This new collaboration with the Co-DOT team will provide our design teams with new tools, tools that will enable new approaches to developing the experiences we offer our visitors,” notes Annie Berube, head of mediation services at MNBAC. She said the collaboration follows a decade of innovation that has benefited the museum experience.

Interdisciplinary initiative

Sebastien Tremblay assembled an interdisciplinary team around the project – with the participation of Professor Audrey Durand and Professors Jean-François Lalonde and Denis Laurendeau from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Professor Philip Jackson from the Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as the participation of experts from OVA at the initial stage.

“Our goal is to use both technology and expertise in artificial intelligence, artificial vision, virtual reality, museology and cognitive psychology,” explains Professor Tremblay.

The three-year project is funded to the tune of $365,220 by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance program and Prompt.