| Even though interpretation is a central activity performed in the exhibition space at art museums, so far little research has been done on 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 between my narratives and museums' 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 beliefs, my assumptions, 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 permeable 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. 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. |
