This study explores the museum and the exhibition as spaces where the paradigm of knowledge construction has shifted to the paradigm of meaning-making. The focus is particularly on science museums, where objects are traditionally presented without context or meaning. The study examines the museum as a place for finding meaning, with curating viewed as a performance that centralizes the transformation of the object as passive knowledge carrier into an actant—and the museum itself as an entity that activates thought processes in the visitor. This study investigates how the curator can "charge" objects to unlock a multilayered meaning.

The Ghent University Museum (GUM) serves in this research both as a case study and as an experimental platform. On the one hand, the GUM is analyzed to gain insight into the dynamics of meaning-making within a museal context. On the other hand, it acts as a laboratory for testing and developing new approaches that enable museum objects to function as catalysts for active meaning-making. This research contributes to a broader understanding of the role of museums in facilitating meaningful interactions between objects and visitors.