Hunter gatherer

Abstract

This paper will explain the process and background of the Product Design Engineering (PDE) undergraduate project in collaboration with University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum. The project asked students to actively engage with collections from The Hunterian, Scotland’s oldest public museum and home to one of the finest university collections in the world. At over 200 years old, The Hunterian is one of Scotland's most important cultural assets and has been recognised as a Collection of National Significance. Throughout the project, students benefited from engagement with a number of museum professionals to support their experiential learning journey using collections [1]. Hunterian founder, Dr William Hunter’s (1718-1783) education in Scotland during the Age of Enlightenment had taught him the empirical method and the importance of learning through observation and practical experience, which was the basis for the initial project investigation. Students selected items from the collection and completed the ‘Ways of Looking’ visual examination with the aim of understanding the context and significance of the artefacts. The next phase set students the challenge of reinterpreting their chosen object and positioning it as a future vision for a possible Hunter Quincentenary Exhibition, 500 years from the birth of Hunter in the year 2218. This future positioning posed a number of discussion topics, including, but not limited to; society, technology and ethics. These topics were to be considered as students developed their visions of the future.