The spatial semiotics of regulating visitors interaction at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman

Employing a social semiotic framework, this study analyses how the spatial and curatorial design of the Royal Tank Museum in Amman-Jordan is semiotically constructed to regulate the visitors' interactional experience with the Museum's halls and exhibits. It specifically examines the interactional metafunction communicated by all the semiotic resources in the Museum through the features of power, involvement, social distance, and binding. Following the social semiotic approaches of visual design (Kress and van Leeuwen (2021 [2006])) and 3D spaces and structures (Stenglin, 2004; Stenglin, 2009; Ravelli, 2006; Ravelli & McMurtrie, 2016), this study reveals that although the Museum's power and authority are regularly exercised through controlled and linear narrative storylines which control visitors' sense of agency, this exercise of power is counterbalanced by a few curatorial strategies and techniques arranged to foster physical proximity and social intimacy with the visitors. For instance, the frequent employment of close-up perspectives, exhibits at eye level, and minimal physical barriers encourages personal interaction and mitigates the Museum's power realized by its strong sequential narrative storylines in key halls. Furthermore, the ?bonding icons? work as national emblems and depictions of historical figures which aim to cultivate communal identities associated with narratives of national pride and technological advancement.