Museum as a Sensory Space: A Discussion of Communication Effect of Multi-Senses in Taizhou Museum

Museums are much more than repositories of cultural relics to be preserved for the future. They are centers of learning, community centers, social hubs—even places of healing and contemplation. The museum experience is a multilayered journey that is proprioceptive, sensory, aesthetic and social. In this context, this study takes the case of the ‘People at the Seashore’ multisensory area in the folk exhibition of Taizhou Museum, applies three data collection techniques (questionnaire, in-depth interview and observation) to assess various types of experiences (object, cognitive, social and introspective) and effects (visceral, cognitive and emotional) in the museum, and analyzes the practical effect and relative merits of the multisensory approaches used in this exhibition through the lens of communication effect. Accordingly, multi-senses acquire creative significances upon the attractive and holding power of museum exhibitions, specifically the emotional relevance and resonances. Thus, museums should be more concerned with the connection and complex interaction between senses and experience, meanwhile be active with visual, auditory, olfactory, taste and proprioceptive experiences and engage in the potential impact on visitors from cognitive and emotional aspects, which is an important trend for the museum’s future development and also the vision of this study.