The study of museum audiences: the theoretical-methodological contribution of semiotics

Abstract

In recent years the need to investigate in greater depth the visit experience and inquire about the way in which visitors interpret the exhibition proposal, has become more relevant. Semiotics provides a set of theoretical/ empirical tools to apply a precise method that allows explaining the process of production, communication and transformation of meaning sciences. From a constructivist and cognitive viewpoint, traversed by the analysis of discourse as a methodological tool, the goal of this work is to evaluate the communication efficiency of a exhibition hall in the Museo de La Plata (UNLP). Our aim is to build a model by establishing relationships between the context of representation, the exhibition hall, and the context of appropriation, the discourses produced by visitors after the visit.