Measuring interactions and involvement in a cultural context

Abstract

This paper stems from a prior longitudinal case study in which the authors analyzed the experience of Palazzo Strozzi, an Italian Cultural Institution experimenting an open approach to the process of sense-making that takes place during the visit. Through a significant re-design of the language, Palazzo Strozzi provides visitors with a two-way pattern of communication instead of a more traditional one-way flow of information .Both in cultural and in non-cultural contexts, innovation has taken place upstream and the role of the user can be mainly considered as a receiver. In terms of sense-making process, users hold a personal set of codes, which is used to give sense to the objects. We describe an experiment in which three different types of verbal content are used to describe different exhibits and the time of frontal interaction between people and exhibits is measured, thus highlighting the effect of the supporting content