Auditory environment in the museums: the case of Erimtan archaeology and arts museum

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to conduct a qualitative research to clarify the auditory environment in the museums. Research has taken place in the Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum which exhibits more than 2000 objects from Yüksel Erimtan’s collection of Anatolian archaeological artifacts. It is located near the main gate of Ankara Castle. While the scale and the façade of the building are connected contextually to its historic environment, the interior provides the contemporary experience to its visitors. Grounded Theory (GT) is used in this paper to create a conceptual framework, and clarify visitors’ perception of the soundscape in the museums. Semi-structured interviews are held with participants who are chosen among the visitors after they tour the museum on their own, until the data reaches theoretical saturation. Constant comparison method is used for analyzing the data and creating a conceptual framework which is compared with previous studies and the ISO 12913-1: 2014. According to the findings, context is determined as one of the core categories similarly to other studies. And some categories differ because of the various function of indoor space.