New technologies for knowledge and the physical space of the museum

Within the complex relationship between technological innovation and cultural heritage, the aim of the paper is to investigate how the multimodality, the sensory faculty and the aesthetic dimension, which are peculiar to the kind of knowledge possible through the experience of exhibitions and museums, are modified by the most current technologies. The digital technologies expand the exhibition area temporally and physically, allowing the comparison between what is present and what is elsewhere or does not exist anymore. Moreover, they allow to anticipate the experience of the visit, preparing it, and to rebuild it, thanks to memory. Particularly, they contribute to increase the availability of the museum, or the exhibition, to follow the different interests and cultural backgrounds of the public who comes in contact with these material and immaterial goods, which these institutions aim to preserve and transmit. Since their entry, the communication technologies have changed the sensitivity and the modes of perception, leading the easthetic theories to considerate their impact on the production and the fruition of the cultural heritage. The infinite space of the information compares itself with the concrete architecture of the museum space, where we recover the value of haptic experience in the processes of knowledge as well as in the conception of architectural space. The new technologies, combined with the traditional instruments of the architecture, strengthen and enrich the sense of experience which is possible inside the museum, thanks to the active role of the user.