The Affordances of Cultural Institutions’ Objects: The Evaluation of Organizational Museum Visual Offer from the Perspective of Communication Strategy

The interdisciplinary study bordering communication management and media psychology aims to present the possibility of using the “affordance” concept in the cultural institutions study, and more precisely in the organization’s museum research. It may be particularly useful to extend the theoretical apparatus to describe the phenomena of the organizational iconosphere, where behavioural models seem to be insufficient to analyse the relationship between the designed institutional environment and its ability to influence the visiting audience. The author has conducted qualitative research on visual messages in the newly created Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw. The theoretical foundation was the model proposed by Meyer et al. [2018], which synthesizes the functions of visual messages in the organization’s space. The article, referring to the theory of affordances, presents a new application of this concept in the analysis of the communication potential of an organization’s museum. The assessment of the offer of cultural institutions may begin with the analysis of affordances of the main objects exhibited. This is a complementary approach to studying the preferences and experiences of visitors.

The interdisciplinary study bordering communication management and media psychology aims to present the possibility of using the “affordance” concept in the cultural institutions study, and more precisely in the organization’s museum research. It may be particularly useful to extend the theoretical apparatus to describe the phenomena of the organizational iconosphere, where behavioural models seem to be insufficient to analyse the relationship between the designed institutional environment and its ability to influence the visiting audience. The author has conducted qualitative research on visual messages in the newly created Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw. The theoretical foundation was the model proposed by Meyer et al. [2018], which synthesizes the functions of visual messages in the organization’s space. The article, referring to the theory of affordances, presents a new application of this concept in the analysis of the communication potential of an organization’s museum. The assessment of the offer of cultural institutions may begin with the analysis of affordances of the main objects exhibited. This is a complementary approach to studying the preferences and experiences of visitors.