Aesthetic Experience in Online and Onsite Art Appreciation:  An Islamic Aesthetic Perspective

Didit Endriawan; Tri Haryotedjo

doi:10.59890/ijaamr.v4i9.307

Authors

Didit Endriawan Universitas Telkom
Tri Haryotedjo Universitas Telkom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59890/ijaamr.v4i9.307

Keywords:

Aesthetic Experience, Art Appreciation, Islamic Aesthetics, Digital Mediation, Onsite and Online

Abstract

This study examines the differences in aesthetic experience between online and onsite art appreciation through the framework of Islamic aesthetics. Utilizing a qualitative approach with a reflexive autoethnographic orientation, the research investigates how physical co-presence and digital mediation shape sensory perception, spatiality, materiality, affect, and spiritual meaning-making. Findings show that onsite appreciation provides an embodied, multisensory experience where spatial awareness and direct material interaction facilitate immediate emotional and vibrational responses. Conversely, online appreciation offers a mediated, imaginative experience where screen interfaces foster selective visual attention and cognitive reconstruction to compensate for limited sensory input. Interpreted through Islamic aesthetics which views beauty as a pathway to contemplation (tafakkur) and divine awareness (tawḥīd), neither mode is inherently superior. While onsite encounters ground appreciation in physical reality, online platforms expand accessibility and reflective engagement. The study moves beyond the binary of physical authenticity versus digital deficiency, proposing that online and onsite modes represent distinct, complementary configurations of aesthetic experience in contemporary art appreciation

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