MAKING THE NEGOTIATION BETWEEN NARRATIVES OF MUSEUMS AND A VISITOR: EMPOWERING A VISITOR THROUGH NARRATIVE-MAKING
Open Access
- Author:
- Choi, Sunghee
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 05, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Dr Stankiewicz, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Mary Ann Stankiewicz, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Christine M Thompson, Committee Member
Charles Richard Garoian, Committee Member
Gregory John Kelly, Committee Member - Keywords:
- narrative
interpretation
museum pedagogy
museum education
identity
museum's narratives
visitor's narrative
narrative identity
empowerment - Abstract:
- Even though interpretation is a main activity performed in the exhibition space at art museums, so far it has been rarely researched what interpretive frameworks museum professionals incorporate into the exhibition for a visitor and how a visitor responds to those interpretive frameworks, when they interpret the works of art at art museums. So, there is little information on how a visitor interacts with the works of art, what elements influence the interpretive processes of a visitor, what messages the museum presents to a visitor, or how a visitor internalizes or rejects those messages. In this context, this study investigated my experience as a visitor at the exhibition spaces of the museums in order to explore how the art museum’s narrative influenced my interpretive experiences and also how I responded to the specific contexts of museum narratives when I interpreted a work of art. Namely, I investigated how the museum’s narratives and my narratives can conflict, resist, and compromise each other. As a methodology to pursue this investigation, I incorporate an autoethnography, so that the research text emerges from my bodily standpoint. To explore the multi-layered intersection of the museums’ narratives and my narratives, this study investigated 1) what narratives the museums made available to me and what my narratives were when I visited the three museums with my family and individually; 2) what strategies I used to negotiate my meaning-making processes; and 3) how I was transformed through the negotiation processes. As a result, I discovered that there are three types of narratives at the intersection of the two narratives—1) the at-a-glance narrative, 2) the exhibitionary narrative, and 3) the hidden narrative. Developed from the at-a-glance narratives through exhibitionary narratives up to the hidden narratives, these narratives evolved as a spiral, re-inviting each other, and finally revealed their substance into its third stages—hidden narratives— when I revealed myself through investigation into my own folk psychology—my lived experience such as my behaviors, my working belief, my assumption, and my deep-rooted painful memories. In particular, findings articulated through hidden narratives demonstrated how vague, incomplete, and inarticulate ideas, thoughts, and feelings residing at the stages of at-a-glance narratives and exhibitionary narratives actually had impacts on the interpretive experiences of a visitor in very subtle ways. Revelation into undercurrent but inarticulate emotions associated with interpretive experiences shows how a visitor is frustrated and encouraged, thereby implying ways to help visitors get more opportunities toward positive experiences. As another finding through this autoethnographic investigation, I identified four strategies responding to the narrative of museums, when I was in troubling situations. These strategies for negotiation are 1) passive resistance, 2) active inquiry, 3) subverting, and 4) disguising. This finding of the four strategies demonstrates that a visitor is not a passive person toward troubling museum’s narratives but an active agent to control a troubled scenario in her own ways. It also shows that the museum’s narratives and a visitor’s narratives do not need to be considered as separated, but permeated and negotiated, when a visitor interacts with works of art in a museum. One available way for me to be an active agent was through narrative-making, which enabled me to be interested in my lived experience such as my interests, my concerns, and my deep-rooted memories. The power released through my revelation, as a result, enabled me to transform myself into a critical visitor who could read a hidden curriculum of the museums in the name of hidden narratives and helped me build more interests in looking at art works. This study into the negotiation between museum’s narratives and a visitor’s narratives will provide museum professionals with an alternative picture of the interpretive experience of a visitor, thereby building in-depth understanding on cognitively, emotionally and socio-culturally diverse visitors and creating conceptually and physically empowered space in museums.