Examining the Influence Taken by the Audiences from the Memorial Elements of the War Museum Based on the Symbology Components (Case Study: the Audience of the National Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense)

Showing and presenting various cultures and events require providing different spatial and temporal conditions. War, as one of the most important events of human societies, affects different strata of people all over the world, it is necessary to remember and to represent its various aspects for people in order to express the face of the horror of war that should be a lesson for all generations of society. The museum is one of the public spaces accessible to the people of the society, and by using memorial elements, it displays different aspects of the war in a scenario-oriented and planned manner. Symbols and signs, as well-known patterns and schemata among different people of the society, can provide the prerequisites for these spatial and temporal conditions in an efficient way. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impressionability and experience of the audience from the memorial elements of the war museum based on the components based on the symbology of the memorial elements.
For this reason, the research questions are as follows: 1- What are the symbology-based components of the memorial elements of war museums that can be understood and influenced by the audience? 2- What are the key and selected components of the symbology of war museum commemorative elements from the audience's point of view? The dominant approach in the research environment is qualitative and based on interviews and content analysis, as well as library research and systematic review, in addition to examining and briefly identifying components based on war memorial elements in the first step. The research will lead to the evaluation of their impact on the audience through a questionnaire in the second part. The method of collecting samples in this research is based on non-probability and available random sampling method; in order to evaluate the opinions of the audience regarding the memorial elements of the museum, as well as to evaluate their impressionability towards the memorial elements.
In order to take advantage of the opinions of the audience, 190 Iranian visitors of the National Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense, who left the seven halls of the museum immediately after visiting, were assessed through a questionnaire.
The method of collecting samples in this research is based on non-probability and random sampling method and also the number of 190 people is the result of the process of collecting questionnaires from visitors in the period of one week in all the working hours of the museum. The reason for choosing this time period is the variable number of visitors on all days of the week. Out of these, 28 questionnaires were removed due to defects in the answers and also due to having irrelevant answers to the question, and 162 questionnaires were used as criteria for action. Among 162 people, based on gender, 85 people were men, 77 people were women, based on age range, 57 people were between 20 to 30 years old, 55 people were between 30 to 45 years old, and 50 people were 45 years old and above. In order to evaluate the performance of the audience when visiting different parts of the museum, 18 experienced guides of the museum, who have a lot of experience in interacting with the audience, have continuously monitored the behavior of the visitors.
After presenting the questionnaires and having them completed by the audience and museum guides, the statistical results along with their preliminary analysis were obtained in the tables and the selected components were selected based on the highest frequency extracted.
The method of analysis is descriptive, so that the statistical data extracted from the questionnaires can be examined and analyzed.
The necessity and importance of this research originate from the fact that the identification of components based on the symbology of the memorial elements of war museums, which are perceptible and impressive to the audience, as well as the anthology of selected and outstanding components from the audience, can be the context that would provide new memorial elements for designers.
The results have shown that while examining the audience's views regarding the memorial elements of the National Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense through a questionnaire, only a few components based on the symbolism of the memorial elements - such as context, identification, as well as the need to reconstruct the past and the symbolic role of the memorial elements in physical manifestation concepts - from the point of view of the audience seemed more prominent, and it can be argued that considering the selected components of the symbology of memory elements, since they seem more prominent from the point of view of the audience, they play a significant role in their impressionability.