This project aims to drive scientific innovation in the fields of sound studies, cognition studies, and museum studies by providing knowledge on the use of sound as a meaning-making medium for building museum exhibitions. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the types of meaning that sound can provide to visitors within these settings. Sound-based multimodal museum practices are both diverse and complex, as are their meaning making opportunities. To address this, I have developed two frameworks: one comprising seven curatorial functions (Cortez 2022, 2024) that serves as an analytical scaffold for case studies organised around the following categories: sound as a mode for lecturing; sound as an artefact; sound as ambiance/ soundtrack; sound as art; sound as a mode for crowd-curation; sound as a mental phenomenon; and sound as live performance. The study draws on case study research distributed across these categories, each examined in terms of a second framework comprising seven dimensions of meaning previously proposed (Cortez 2026): aesthetic, representational, emotional, sensorial, imaginative, social, and political. Qualitative methods include semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and personal narratives. Quantitative methods will serve two primary purposes: to gather demographic data to complement the qualitative insights; to draw on music cognition research to explore psychological, physiological and physical responses to sound. This will include data collection and biofeedback measurements such as Electrodermal Activity and heart rate.
This study is groundbreaking not only in its focus but also in its methodology, and its results will advance both museum studies, cognition studies, and music studies.
Keywords: Cognition studies; sound studies; museums studies; meaning-making through sound