Can art help us better understand our emotions?

Art can inspire a wide range of feelings in us. From the melancholy of a painting to the awe we feel before a sculpture, researchers have been fascinated by the relationship between art and emotion for many years.

Artetik: From the Art, a new installation in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, invites you to explore how artworks from the museum’s collection make you feel. By contributing to the experience, you will be guided to new artworks in the collection through an ever-changing visualization representing the shared emotions evoked in museum visitors.

The project is a collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Google Arts & Culture, based on research about art and emotions by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

This study explored the emotions evoked by works of art over time and across culture. 1,300 people described how a selection of around 1,500 artworks made them feel.

The research revealed 25 different emotions relating to the pieces, including anger, boredom, nostalgia or love. The researchers used these feelings to create an interactive emotions atlas, grouping together artworks that evoked specific emotions.