Eye-Tracking Research at the Bode Museum

Historical reconstructions are an important tool for bringing the past closer to the public. However, we still know relatively little about how they affect museum visitors. The latest interdisciplinary project led by archaeologist and cognitive scientist Dr. Tomasz Michalik aimed to address this question.

By exploring how visitors’ personality traits and the type of historical reconstruction influence their perception, the researchers seek to understand emotional engagement among participants and the perceptual mechanisms associated with it.  The research was conducted during the exhibition ‘Dress to Impress. Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia’ and a display of medieval Nubian costumes reconstructed from paintings from Faras. The exhibition was presented at the Bode Museum in Berlin from February to April 2025.

– In the study conducted at the Bode Museum in Berlin, we focused on the aesthetic experience of museum visitors. We wanted to explore how various kinds of historical reconstructions move visitors and how this is correlated with visual attention. Our goal was to better understand the factors that shape the experience of historical reconstructions. This is particularly important, as psychological research shows that aesthetic experiences play a key role in building a sense of connection between museum visitors and historical heritage – says Dr. Tomasz Michalik

– By using an eye-tracker, we were able to determine what museum visitors focused their attention on—both in terms of gaze location and the duration of fixations. The analysis of scanpaths made it possible to identify which elements of the exhibition attracted the most attention and which were overlooked. This provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of the reconstructions and the way they are structured. Our findings can be used to create exhibitions that are more engaging and better aligned with the cognitive needs of contemporary audiences – says Dr. Tobiasz Trawiński, a cognitive psychologist from Liverpool Hope University and one of the co-authors of the study.

The exhibition was the result of the project ‘Costumes of Authority. The Image of Royalty and Clergy in Christian Nubia’, led by Dr. Karel Innemée (University of Warsaw). One of the project’s outcomes was the reconstruction of garments worn by figures depicted in wall paintings discovered in the medieval city of Faras (modern-day northern Sudan) by Polish archaeologists in the 1960s. The reconstructed costumes, along with portraits of contemporary Sudanese people wearing them, were presented during the exhibition, which concluded with a catwalks show featuring the Nubian robes.

The eye-tracking study conducted at exhibitiona and during a catwalk show was carried out in collaboration with Dr. hab. Dobrochna Zielińska from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, a specialist in medieval Nubian art; Dr. Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka from the School of Form at SWPS University, who coordinated the costume reconstruction process; and Dr. Tobiasz Trawiński from Liverpool Hope University, expert in the eye-tracking and empirical aesthetics. This is one of the few studies of this kind conducted in archaeology, and the first to focus on the reconstruction of medieval Nubian garments.

Read more about Dr. Michalik’s project: Psychological aspects of creating and acquiring knowledge about the past

Read more about Dr. Karela Innemée’s project: Costumes of Authority. The Image of Royalty and Clergy in Christian Nubia