The role of soundscapes and auditory elements in art space experience: The case of Arter Museum of Modern Art

Individuals experience urban space in different ways according to their personal characteristics, sensory world, sociocultural and socioeconomic background. Although each of the senses in the experience of space is examined as a whole without separating each other, the reflection of auditory elements on the experience of museums as art spaces is examined in this research. Each space has unique soundscapes resulting from the differentiation of building materials used, size, width, volume, height, empty and occupied spaces. This research, which focuses on the reflections of soundscapes and other auditory elements, which express the resonance of more than one sound together, on the experience of museums as art spaces, is based on two main fields of study, namely sound studies and museum studies, while creating its conceptual framework. In this context, the concept of soundscapes, which determines the conceptual framework of the research, is analysed in the first section together with different approaches to the classification of sounds. Following the first section, which focuses on the classification of sounds in soundscapes, how the sound experience is realised in museums, the paradigm shift in the approaches of museums to sound and other auditory elements, and the reason for including Arter among modern art museums in this research are justified in detail. In this section where the relationship between museum and sound is evaluated, the relationship of Arter, which is at the centre of the research, with the city and its surroundings is also discussed in the context of the concept of gentrification. The rationales for the use of the sound walk, semistructured in-depth interviews and photo recall methods used in the research are stated and their contributions to obtaining the research findings are revealed. In the research, which examines the role of soundscapes and auditory experience in the experience of artistic space through the modern art museum Arter, which predominantly includes works that emphasise sound in its collection, the sensory aspect of the museum experiences of 10 young adult participants aged between 23 and 33 was focused on. In the research, which focuses on the auditory experience as well as a holistic approach to the experience of artistic space, the role of sensory experience in the perception of the space for museum visitors was revealed by underlining the recall of the experience. The fact that the qualitative research methods used in the research complemented and supported each other provided a holistic view of the research findings. The realisation process of the reflections of auditory elements on the experience of museums from urban spaces in Arter, a modern art museum, is discussed in the research. In the study, the role of sound in visitors' museum experiences and its effect on their recollection of their experiences afterwards are included, and the auditory museum experience is analysed through the example of Arter. In the light of Raymond Murray Schafer's classification of soundscapes and sounds, the processes of perception of sounds in museums by visitors, the sensory changes that occur during the visit and the new perceptual patterns they establish, and the evaluation of the reflections of the relationship established by the museum with its environment on the experiences of visitors are included in the research. Based on the idea that urban spaces have unique soundscapes and that unique sounds are reflected in the sensory experience of the city, this research, which will examine the reflections of soundscapes on the sensory experience of museums, one of the urban spaces, is designed to test six hypotheses. One of these hypotheses is that auditory elements are more prominent than visual elements in the sensory experience of museums. This hypothesis was also confirmed in the research, which also wanted to test that auditory elements play a determining role in the museum experience. It was observed that it was easier for the participants to remember the parts of the space with more auditory elements. Visitors who prioritised sound in their experiences evaluated their museum experiences positively. The experience was evaluated negatively in the parts of the space that focused only on visuality. The sounds considered to be unique in the museum were accepted by the participants as an enriching element that enabled them to evaluate their experience as unique. The museum experience was perceived by the visitors as integrated with the relationship established by the space with its surroundings. It was observed that visitors focussed mainly on this issue during the interviews. Experiencing the museum by photographing it makes it easier to remember the experience. The act of taking photographs, which is seen to be helpful in remembering the experiences that have passed over time, contributed to the research as a reminder method. As a result of the analysis of the findings obtained after testing the accuracy of the hypotheses, it is aimed to reveal the role of soundscapes in the experience of museums. In the study, which focuses on the auditory dimension of the elements that make up the sensory field of the city and deals with the concept of soundscapes through the example of Arter Museum of Modern Art, the findings were reached by using three different research methods that complement each other and the research data obtained were analysed. The Role of Soundscapes and Auditory Experience in Urban Space Perception: The Case of Arter Museum of Modern Art, three different qualitative research methods were used to obtain complementary data. The first of these is the sound walk method, which includes an evaluation questionnaire expected to be answered by the participants during the museum visit. During the sound walk, the participants were asked to take photographs, which were shown to them during the semi-structured in-depth interview conducted online one week after the sound walk, and the photographs were used as a reminder of their experience. During the semi-structured online in-depth interview with the participants, 12 questions were asked to the participants about their experiences and they were asked to evaluate their experiences. How visitors experience soundscapes in museums, one of the urban spaces in the urban space experience, was analysed using different research methods. As a result of the sound walk survey, it was observed that the participants in this study, who had not done a sound walk before, stated that experiencing a space by focusing on what they heard offered a more memorable experience. In today's world where visuality is dominant, focusing on the auditory made the experience more memorable for the participants. It was understood that it was easier for the participants who experienced the space in a way that their sensory perceptions were open to connect with their past experiences and to make associations with this experience. Participants who had not experienced a place before were asked to make an evaluation about visiting a modern art museum by making a sound walk. Before this sound walk, which is different from an ordinary walk or visit, the participants were asked to keep their perceptions open from the meeting point and to walk by paying more attention to what they hear than ever before. In the semi-structured in-depth interview with the participants, questions were asked to enable them to evaluate the whole experience together, including the route followed before the sound walk in the museum, the route that took the participant to the museum. None of the participants had ever experienced a space with such an emphasis on audio before, all of them gave positive feedback, and the participants stated that it was an activity they would like to experience again. In general, it is possible to say that the participants' experience of the space by sound walking increased their sensory awareness. However, although the fact that this activity was carried out within the scope of a research created an uneasy feeling on the participants at the beginning, they stated that this feeling of uneasiness decreased as they spent time in the space. One of the points stated by the participants is that sound has an auxiliary function in making sense of the artefacts in the museum and that its absence would be noticed. It is also one of the points expressed by the participants that it contributes to remembering their experiences in the galleries where sound is dominant in the museum after time has passed. Participants stated that although there is an atmosphere in which auditory elements are dominant in the museum, they still perceive that the rules are not broken, both because they are involved in a study where they need to pay attention to the auditory and because the ambience in the museum is not reminiscent of rulelessness. Although the museum did not use the same level of sound on each floor visited, the participants stated that when they made a general evaluation, they perceived that the museum had a set of rules that were expected to be followed. Since they were expected to pay more attention to the auditory elements, they tried to be more quiet and made an effort to better perceive the sounds around them and experience the space. The hypothesis "Auditory elements are more prominent than visual elements in the sensory experience of museums in the eyes of visitors", which was aimed to be confirmed throughout the research, was confirmed. In semi-structured in-depth interviews with visitors, it was observed that in the galleries where auditory elements were emphasised, they started to talk about Gallery 2, for example, where auditory elements were at the forefront, and the artworks they experienced there, although the participants had not yet been asked about this issue. The second hypothesis, "Auditory elements play a determining role in the recall of the museum experience", was confirmed in the online interviews conducted at least 10 days after the sound walk in the museum, rather than immediately afterwards. Participants tended to remember the parts of the space experiences in which auditory elements were dominant by connecting with their personal characteristics and past experiences. Compared to the other galleries in the museum, Gallery 1, which contains only visual elements and consists only of paintings lined up on the walls, attracted the least attention of the visitors, while Gallery 2, which offers a rich auditory experience to the visitors, was the most positively evaluated part. The hypothesis "The fact that auditory elements are at the forefront in the museum experience of the visitors provides a positive evaluation of the experience." was also confirmed. The point that the visitors commented on the museum for the longest time and drew attention to was the contrast of the environment in which the space is located. In the part of providing access to the museum before the sound walk, each participant had the opportunity to feel the environment where the museum is located and then shaped their art experience with these sensations. Another issue that the participants wanted to mention during the semi-structured interview without being asked a question about the location of the museum was the relationship of the museum with its surroundings. Therefore, as a place of art experience, the roads reaching the museum, transport options, its location in the city, the feelings and thoughts it evokes in visitors before and after the art experience are decisive. The hypothesis "The museum experience is integrated with the relationship that the space establishes with its surroundings other than the space itself." was added to the research and confirmed on the grounds that the urban location of Arter is a theme worth questioning due to its relocation from a place that can be called close to the art world of the city before its new location to a place on the outskirts of the neighbourhood. The participants in the study were asked to take photographs during the sound walk and these photographs were shown to the participants by screen sharing during the indepth interview conducted online. The main reason for using the photographs in this way in the research is that the in-depth interview was conducted after the sound walk and after a certain period of time had passed after this experience. In this sense, the photographs taken by the participants themselves were intended to be used as a reminder of the experience. In addition, it was a question of visiting 4 floors where the exhibitions of a museum with a large number of artworks were located, and in a space of this size, it is not possible to expect visitors to remember the works they experienced without using any form of recording. For this reason, photography was used as an element that helps to record and remember an experience. The participants recorded the artefacts that attracted their attention with different motivations such as personal curiosity, recalling another memory, and putting them into a conceptual framework. Similar studies in which the experience of the museum in the focus of sound is made by using a mixed research method through a modern art museum are not frequently encountered at the thesis level. The fact that soundscapes are mostly handled in the fields of engineering, architecture, acoustics and the use of methods suitable for these disciplines has been an obstacle in utilising them as a resource in the realisation of the research. Analysing the soundscapes of outdoor and indoor spaces requires the evaluation of field findings from different perspectives. In this context, it was only possible to collect data by using mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods. These conditions, which caused the field process of the research to be prolonged and spread over a wide period of time, increased the stages of data collection and made the analysis of the data difficult, even though the research was conducted with a small number of participants. The sound walk questionnaire allowed the participants to retrospectively analyse the sounds they paid attention to, the sensations of the sounds, and the soundscapes they experienced during their visits to the museum The in-depth interview and the photographs taken by the participants during the interview provided a more detailed understanding of their thoughts and feelings about the points mentioned in the survey questions. One of the reasons for conducting the interview is to ensure that the findings are qualitatively enriched and to ensure that there is no ambiguous and unenlightened information