Understanding Urban Devotion through the Eyes of an Observer

If and how an individual’s social, economic, and cultural backgrounds affect their perception of the built environment, is a fundamental problem for architects, anthropologists, historians, and urban planners alike. Similar factors affect an individual’s religious beliefs and tendencies. Our research addresses the intersection of personal background and perception of sacred space by examining people’s responses to a virtual replica of a “madonella,” a street shrine in Rome. The shrine was virtually recreated using photogrammetry. It was optimized for user studies employing VIVE Pro Eye. The study looked at the gaze behavior of 24 participants and compared their gaze patterns with demographic background and social-communal responses. The study finds that certain religious habits of an individual could predict their fixational features, including the number and total duration of fixations, on pivotal areas of interest in the shrine environment (even though these areas were placed outside of immediate sight). These results are a promising start to our ongoing study of the perception and received meaning of sacred space.