Meaning in the Algorithmic Museum: Towards a Dialectical Modelling Nexus of Virtual Curation

Abstract

The rise of algorithm-driven virtual museums presents a philosophical challenge for how cultural meaning is constructed and critiqued in digital curation. Prevailing approaches highlight important but partial aspects: the loss of aura and authenticity in digital reproductions, efforts to maintain semiotic continuity with physical exhibits, optimistic narratives of technological democratisation, and critical technopessimist warnings about commodification and bias. Yet none provides a unified theoretical model of meaning-making under algorithmic curation. This paper proposes a dialectical-semiotic framework to synthesise and transcend these positions. The Dialectical Modelling Nexus (DMN) is a new conceptual structure that views meaning in virtual museums as emerging from the dynamic interplay of original and reproduced contexts, human and algorithmic sign systems, personal interpretation, and ideological framing. Through a critique of prior theories and a synthesis of their insights, the DMN offers a comprehensive model to diagnose how algorithms mediate museum content and to guide critical curatorial practice. The framework illuminates the dialectical tensions at the heart of algorithmic cultural mediation and suggests principles for preserving authentic, multi-layered meaning in the digital museum milieu.