Year: 1991
Type: article
Abstract: For anyone concerned with the educative role of museums, the question of what kinds of information the museum communicates is of basic importance. There is a body of research concerning the ways in which museums communicate, at least on a formal level through exhibits and programs. However, there is a deeper level at which each museum communicates, a level at which the site, the building, the people who work in it, and the objects that are exhibited there engage the visitor in a multilayered transference of meaning. One of the ways in which a complex system of meaning is rapidly transferred is via metaphor. This is a process by which we understand the unfamiliar by comparing it to the familiar, and grasp the abstract by comparing it to the concrete. The function and power of metaphor was known as early as the time of Aristotle, and metaphor was respected as a useful tool for the communication of knowledge well into the Middle Ages. This respect
Author: Michael Sikes
Institution: University of Iowa
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W749217260