PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — The Halvorsen-Pruitt Museum of Regional Art unveiled its most ambitious interactive installation to date Saturday, inviting guests to stand quietly in front of a painting for exactly eleven seconds, an experience the museum describes as “participatory” and “fully immersive,” and which costs $24.

The exhibit, titled “Presence,” consists of one oil landscape, one strip of floor tape, and a wall-mounted timer that begins counting down when a visitor steps onto the tape. At zero, a soft chime signals that the viewing is over and the next guest may step forward.

“Audiences today are hungry for engagement, not passive consumption,” said curator Dolores Venkataraman-Oyelaran. “So we asked ourselves: what if we took the thing people already do in museums, which is stand there, and added structure? What if we made it a program?”

Venkataraman-Oyelaran said the project took fourteen months and a $2.1 million grant from a foundation she declined to name on the grounds that it “prefers to remain unembarrassed.”

The eleven-second figure was not chosen arbitrarily. According to the museum’s research partner, Dr. Leopold Tannenbaum, Senior Fellow in Gaze Duration Studies at the Institute for Applied Lingering, it represents the precise point at which a visitor stops looking at a painting and starts wondering whether the gift shop sells tote bags.

“Our data show that the average museumgoer spends 8.4 seconds before an artwork, 6 of which are spent reading the placard,” Tannenbaum said. “We’ve extended that window by 2.6 seconds, the equivalent of a full additional blink. It’s a leap forward for the field.”

“We’ve extended that window by 2.6 seconds, the equivalent of a full additional blink.”

Early reception has been strong. Opening-day attendee Gordon Fenwick-Albright, 58, said he felt “genuinely moved” by the experience, though he conceded he had been moved mostly by a docent who gently asked him to step off the tape.

The exhibit includes several accessibility features, among them a seated version of the eleven seconds and an audio option in which a calm voice says “Here is the painting” at the start of the countdown.

Critics have questioned whether the installation is meaningfully different from standing in front of a painting. Venkataraman-Oyelaran rejected the comparison. “In a traditional gallery, a visitor might stand for three seconds or thirty,” she said. “That’s chaos. Here, the experience is consistent, repeatable, and ends with a chime.”

Visitors who wish to extend their viewing may purchase the Premium Presence Package, which adds a second eleven seconds for $9. A Platinum tier, which includes a nod from a docent, is expected to launch in the spring.

The museum has also announced plans for a companion exhibit, “Absence,” in which guests are asked to leave. Venkataraman-Oyelaran said it has been in soft launch for years, and that early numbers are encouraging.

“Presence” runs through the end of the quarter. Timed tickets are required, and the museum reminds guests that the eleven seconds begin when the chime sounds, not when they feel ready.