Wonder (and Wander) in the City: Investigating the Role of Wonder in Public Art Perception

Authors: Maia Berger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin · ENS Paris), Corinna Kühnapfel (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Stephanie Miller (University of Vienna), Joerg Fingerhut (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Abstract

This study investigates whether wonder is a key differentiator of transformative and novel art experiences in urban public spaces. We tested whether the five experiential profiles identified in museum contexts — Harmonious, Disengaged, Negative, Novel, and Transformative — replicate in encounters with urban public art, and whether wonder predicts cognitive expansion outcomes including self-change, perspective shifts, and edification.

Research Questions

Q1 · Generalization: Do the five experiential profiles found in museums — Harmonious, Disengaged, Negative, Novel, Transformative — also fit urban public-art encounters?
Q2 · Wonder: Is wonder the primary differentiator for Novel and Transformative experiences in the city, compared to other experiential profiles?
Q3 · Cognitive Expansion: Does wonder predict self-reported cognitive expansion — self-change, perspective shifts, edification?

Study Sites

Allesandersplatz (Berlin, Conceptual): An intervention on a brutalist 1970s GDR-era office tower at Alexanderplatz — typographic activism re-reading the city's most photographed plaza.
Andreas Park (Vienna, Mural): A monumental cubist-coloured portrait of a man holding a tabby cat on the gable wall of a Viennese apartment block.
Fleischfassade (Vienna, Memorial): A photo-realistic mural of a deconstructed sandwich wrapping the side of a building.
FLY (Berlin, Conceptual): A blank billboard with the single word FLY mounted on a graffiti-covered firewall above a tram stop.
Memoria Urbana (Berlin, Memorial): Juan Garaizabal's luminous steel skeleton retracing the silhouette of the Bohemian Bethlehem Church, demolished in 1963.
Phorusgasse (Vienna, Mural): A black-and-white wallscape by Italian artist Millo — an oversized child looks out over a dense graphic city.

Experiential Profiles

Novel (19.3% of encounters, mean wonder 7.60/10): Surprise, freshness, and the sudden cognitive jolt of the unfamiliar. Highest mean wonder in the sample.
Transformative (7.6%, wonder 7.15): Profound, self-implicating experiences. Smallest profile yet near-ceiling wonder score and the strongest links to perspective shift.
Harmonious (32.1%, wonder 5.85): Pleasant, aesthetically rewarding, fluent. The most common positive register — but moderate wonder. Beauty without disruption.
Negative (9.2%, wonder 4.27): Aversive responses; some wonder still surfaces through provocation.
Disengaged (31.7%, wonder 2.54): Affectively flat. Almost a third of all encounters. Lowest wonder by a wide margin.

Cognitive Expansion Indicators (wonder as predictor)

Active Engagement (β=0.52): Felt drawn into sustained attention, looking, returning.
Transformation (β=0.43): A sense that the encounter shifted something.
Edify / Enlighten (β=0.40): The artwork taught or revealed something new.
Changing Myself (β=0.36): A felt change in the self in response to the work.
Changed You? (β=0.30): Self-reported personal change attributable to the encounter.
Better Person (β=0.18): Felt the piece nudged toward becoming better in some way.