JISC

Start date: 1 March 2001

End date: 30 September 2002

Funding programme: Learning and Teaching (5/99) programme

Project website: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/descoarchive/

The Visual Experience of Post-War Society

This project is part of the images project cluster in this particular programme. The main focus for projects in this cluster is on the creation and use of still image collections for learning and teaching.

Background

This project seeks to enhance access to the resources housed within the expanding Design History Research Centre (DHRC) Archives and associated surrogate collections. Based at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton, the DHRC Archives form a unique body of material which chart the history of British design in the twentieth century. Since 1993, the University of Brighton has committed considerable expenditure to maintaining and developing the DHRC Archives and making them available to ever widening communities. For instance, a recent incentive project has enabled digital access to three thousand images via the JISC’s Visual Arts Data Service (VADS).

Aims and Objectives

The objective of this project is to enhance course curriculum and learning experiences by creating new electronic learning and teaching visual resources. The source material will derive from archival collections that are recognised as significant to the study of design and visual culture.

Project design

At the outset teachers will be invited to use the collections as a source to identify material for digital learning and to author learning modules. Templates will then be developed to reconfigure the chosen content utilising innovative presentation technologies. The end product will consist of a number of modules incorporating visual resources aimed at and delivered to the HE community. The materials will be available through VADS.

Outcomes

The project’s emphasis is on content creation in that the selection of the materials is determined by specific learning and teaching objectives in Art, Design and Communication. This is a collaborative effort that will bring together pedagogic, curatorial and technical expertise in the production and delivery of digital resources.

Complementary materials will also be included from other institutions such as the Design Collection at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth. The project shares the goal of the VADS project Promoting the use of online image collections in learning and teaching in the visual arts (PICTIVA) also funded as part of the DNER development programmes.

The University recognises that the resources of the DHRC have many applications within and beyond the academic sector. Importantly, the content of the collections is not remote or obscure in terms of subject matter.

Concerned with objects, spaces and events that formed part of everyday life in the twentieth century, it documents many of the omissions in museums and gallery collections. From the public decorations erected to mark the Coronation in 1953 to domestic equipment, packaging and street furniture, they form a unique body of material that has relevance to broad communities.