This project aims to offer new research perspectives, collect and make available new data, and develop a new methodology for analyzing religious experience in Catholic shrines from the medieval, early modern, and contemporary periods. In particular, the research focuses on eye tracking and on the personal experiences of different groups of users (distinguished by age, profession, and religious orientation) within the sacred spaces of selected Italian shrines. The collaboration between computer engineers and experts in gaze studies, historians of Christianity and devotion, and semioticians makes this research strongly interdisciplinary.
Gaze Studies constitute an interdisciplinary field that investigates how gazes convey meanings, emotions, and perceptions. This field encompasses methodologies ranging from visual theory to empirical research, as well as semiotics and cultural studies. So far, the main applications of Gaze Studies have concerned neuroscience, psychology, medicine, computer science and human–machine interaction, marketing, and communication. For the first time, this project seeks to integrate the tools and findings of Gaze Studies with those of Religious Studies, applying them to shrines with a dual objective: on the one hand, to study contemporary devotional practices; on the other, to map visual pathways within a broader perspective of cultural heritage enhancement.
Through an innovative methodology based on the Project Aria glasses developed by Meta Reality Labs and the eye trackers provided by Meta to the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, the project inaugurates the use of this technology in the field of religious studies. These devices record participants’ gaze through integrated cameras, while simultaneously capturing video and spatial data of the surrounding environment. In addition to fixation duration, the glasses record the user’s position and movements, making it possible to identify the objects and spatial elements observed. The observation and analysis of the visual patterns of different user groups will make it possible to investigate how individuals interact with sacred contexts, with particular attention to iconography, saints’ relics, and sacred objects.