Perceiving Intersensory and Emotional Qualities of Everyday Objects: A Study on Smoothness or Sharpness Features with Line Drawings by Designers

Abstract A large number of studies have focused on the aesthetic value smoothly curved objects. By contrast, angular shapes tend to be associated with tertiary qualities such as threat, hardness, loudness, nervousness, etc. The present study focuses effect curvilinearity vs angularity experience design artefacts. We used drawings everyday objects novel created by 56 designers (IUAV image dataset). Each drawing had two versions: a smooth and an version. To test new associations, beyond value, we obtained ratings for seven characteristics (‘soft/hard, sad/cheerful, male/female, bad/good, aggressive/peaceful, agitated/serene, useless/useful’) from 174 naïve observers. Importantly, each rater saw only one versions object. results confirmed significant relation between smoothness hardness well other (tertiary) associations. link usefulness confirms that perceptual utility is significantly influenced shape This finding suggests convey both static functional information about role constraints in artefacts also discussed.