AES Europe 2026

This presentation develops a conceptual framework for
understanding how visitors cognize sound in museum
exhibitions. While sound increasingly features in museum
practice, research has focused primarily on measuring
visitor enjoyment; engagement rather than examining the
specific meanings sound generates. This gap reflects the
absence of a framework conceptualizing sound's
meaning-making capacities to guide empirical investigation.
Drawing on scholarship from music studies, semiotics,
phenomenology,; embodied cognition, I propose a
seven-component spectrum identifying distinct yet
interrelated meanings that sound can convey in museums:
aesthetic, representational, emotional, sensorial,
imaginative, social,; political. These meanings can be
apprehended independently or in combination, typically
through emergent, pre-conscious perception rather than
deliberate awareness.
The spectrum builds on the premise that museum sound
meaning-making unfolds through dynamics internalized from
early childhood as we attune to the world sonically. It
draws on the notion of sound as a "sonic aggregate"
(Grimshaw; Garner 2015)—encompassing social, contextual,
temporal,; embodied experiences—rather than reducing
sound to wave phenomena. Visitors actively co-produce
meanings by drawing on their moods, memories, knowledge,
; imagination during exhibition encounters.
Each meaning category is illustrated with exhibition case
studies, demonstrating the spectrum's applicability across
diverse sound-based multimodal museum practices—from
popular music exhibitions to sound art installations. The
spectrum aims to catalyze research through varied
methodological approaches; establish analytical
standards for studying sound in museums, with potential
adoption by international standardization bodies.