Moving on its Own: How do Audience Interacts with an Autonomous Moving Artwork

Abstract

In contemporary art, a new type of artworks use motion as a material from which to create the illusion of life. These autonomous robotic artworks have a behavioral specificity; they tend to be perceived as living, and by some account intentional entities. To account for this behavioral specifity and how it affects the audience experience, we propose a data-driven approach to reveal specific visit patterns. Through a cluster analysis performed on visitors' path inside an installation involving autonomous objects, we highlight four different attitudes characterized by patterns of approach or withdrawal, passive observation and exploration.