A Study on Curatorial Narratives and the Reconstruction of Audience Experience in Contemporary Museums from the Perspective of Immersive Media

Immersive media are fundamentally transforming the narrative modes and audience experiences within contemporary museum exhibitions. Media forms represented by projected images, surround sound, interactive installations, virtual reality, and situational simulation have shifted exhibitions away from a format organized exclusively around objects, display cases, and explanatory labels. Instead, exhibitions are increasingly becoming narrative fields jointly shaped by space, the body, the senses, and action. Taking art museums and science museums as the main objects of analysis, this article examines how immersive media promote the transformation of curatorial narrative from linear explanation to spatial organization, and analyzes how audiences transition from passive viewers to active interpreters engaged in embodied meaning-making. The study finds that immersive narratives in art museums place greater emphasis on the formation of emotional atmosphere, bodily perception, and aesthetic experience, whereas immersive narratives in science museums prioritize knowledge contexts, operational feedback, and cognitive construction. Although the two types of exhibitions differ in their goals and experiential priorities, both reveal a broader paradigmatic shift in museum exhibitions from object display to relationship production. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how immersive technologies reshape the epistemological and phenomenological foundations of museum practice, offering theoretical insights for curators, designers, and scholars seeking to harness the full potential of immersive media in contemporary cultural institutions.