PROJECT
Ryōan-ji in Kyoto is renowned for the distinctive aesthetic experience of its rock garden. This project investigates whether patterns underlying that experience can be identified empirically by examining how people visually engage with the cultural heritage site.

APPROACH
A digital reconstruction of the garden was deployed in Virtual Reality and experienced through a FOVE headset integrating VR with eye tracking. Participants' eye movements are recorded while they explore the virtual garden, providing behavioral data about visual attention within the reconstructed environment.

CONTRIBUTION
The project combines cultural heritage, immersive simulation, and gaze analysis to investigate aesthetic experience, demonstrating how computational methods can help uncover otherwise difficult-to-observe relationships between spatial composition and human perception.