Exhibitions: From a Perspective of Encounter

Abstract

The article discusses the nature of encounter with museum exhibitions. It notes the possibility of presenting a destabilizing experience which engages attention and brings cognitive and emotional processes into the situation. It notes that they can occur between two or more people who engage in co-creation. It points out that those visiting the museum are also engaging with the people who created the exhibition. The author proposes seeing exhibition more in terms of encounter than of education, thus requiring interpretation, social activity and narrative.