“Uncomfortable and scary”: visitation and experience at the Museum of Madness in Barbacena-MG (Brazil)

Abstract

Museums enable the democratization of the collection as a social right, while tourism assumes part of the institution's dialogue with society. Some museums can be related to Dark Tourism exhibitions and those aim to raise public awareness. The objective of this study is to analyze the visitation experience at the Museu da Loucura de Barbacena – MG, as well as to identify the characteristic and outstanding components of the visitation. The research has a qualitative approach and documental research design, and applied the analysis of content in comments and photographs shared by users of TripAdvisor and Google Local Guides. Elements of the museological experience (proposed by Falk and Dierking, 2016) and dimensions of the visitor’s experience (by Pine and Gilmore, 2011) were considered to reflect about the visitor’s experience. As a result, the museum provides personal transformation, which influences the desire for social and political changes. The museum is able to provide memorable experiences, due to the identification of components that relate to all the dimensions proposed in the research. The study demonstrates relevance by presenting results from two sharing platforms and two data sources. The study presents elements that are similar in both experiences: personal transformation, heritage preservation, electronic word-of-mouth and temporality.