Social Proof for Reclaiming Awe

Over the past couple of days, I've been attempting to reach out to communities and specialists that might be able to offer some insight on awe in the world of digital art. 

I started with a few communities of digital artists on Google+, and I posted something akin to the following in each:

I'm currently researching the concept of awe in various forms of digital art. Do you as digital creators feel that digitally native works of art differ from more traditional forms in their ability to produce awe in the viewer? Certainly, the digital medium facilitates a broader range of awe-inspiring subject matter, but does it provide for the same quality of awe as would, for example, looking at a painting or watching a play over seeing an image online or watching a 3D reproduction of the same play?
I'm not sure that there is a right answer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter in any case! Thanks!

I haven't heard back from anyone on my posts as of yet, but I hope that I'll get some responses over the next few days. I think I'll also post something to the Thinkers community, as I've have good success getting responses from them in the past.

I also wrote to Jeffrey Davis, a writer for Psychology Today who maintains a blog called "Tracking Wonder." The letter I sent is included below:

Dear Mr. Davis,
My name is Greg Bayles, and I'm a senior studying English at Brigham Young University. I've been studying digital awe as part of my capstone project, and I came upon "A Call to Wonder in an Age of Disruption" while researching disruption as a source of awe. I found your perspective to be very encouraging, especially the notion that we can use the disruptive potential of digital technologies as a way to fuel creativity. I love the idea of tracking wonder as a whole, and I think you've provided a great rationale for doing so. I guess my biggest question at this point is whether digital and non-digital wonder are really the same things. It seems to me that the awe we experience, for example, in browsing through breathtaking photos online often draws us into deeper cycles of passive consumption rather than active creation. There's been a whole industry of viral mills built up around the idea of creating concentrated experiences of wonder, but I question whether those moments of induced awe really bring the individual to new planes of understanding and creativity. Certainly, digital technologies has enormous potential to inspire genuine awe and spur on creativity, but how are we to understand the 'other half' of the Internet? I would really love to hear your perspective on the matter. In any case, thanks so much for the work that you've done already in helping people to track wonder. It's a great cause, and it's refreshing to find someone who is so positive about turning the challenges of our day into benefits. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Greg Bayles

I also found that Mr. Davis is really active on Twitter (as in, six tweets in the past couple of hours!), so if I don't hear back within a few days, I will try tweeting him to see if I can find out his take on awe in the digital age.

I'm going to contact Jason Silva soon as well, but I think I'll wait until I have my creative prototype hammered out a little bit better so I can use that as a point of reference. I've also thought about talking with Billy Hall, as he's the one who introduced me to Benjamin, Adorno and Horkheimer, and a number of other critics whose works are key in my argument. I want to have a thesis nailed down first, though. Anyway, I'm hoping that getting some social proof will help me to concretize my claim/emphasis a little bit more. If you have any ideas for people whom I could contact, though, please feel free to let me know!