The launch of the Alternative Perspective tours at The Hunt Museum

The Interaction Design Centre at the University of Limerick and The Hunt Museum are organising a public event to mark the inauguration of the “Alternative Perspectives” museum tours on Tuesday, 15 September 2015, 11am at the Hunt Museum.

The exhibition marks the launch of a self-guided tour using The Loupe, a smart artefact developed as part of the Material EncounterS with digital Cultural Heritage (meSch) EU project.

The aim of the meSch project is to design and develop a platform that will allow cultural heritage professionals to build  and modify their own interactive exhibits, and re-use existing multimedia digital content. It involves thirteen partners in six European countries and several cultural heritage institutions.

The already existing tours “History of Ireland in 10 objects” and "Architecture in the Hunt Museum" offered by the Hunt Museum to explore its eclectic collection (using a brochure or led by docent) are now offered in a new form – assisted by The Loupe.

The event,  which will take place in The Captain’s Room, will be opened by Hugh Maguire, director of the Hunt Museum. Dr Luigina Ciolfi  (Sheffield-Hallam University, UK, meSch coordinating partner) and Dr. Gabriela Avram (Interaction Design Centre, UL) will speak about the meSch project and respectively about the 2015- Year of Irish Design initiative, which funded the exhibition.

Laura Maye, the UL interaction designer behind the exhibition who has worked together with the team at The Hunt Museum (curators, docents and interns) will introduce the tour, after which the participants will be invited to experience the Loupe-assisted tour.

Steampunk'd : exhibition of student works

This exhibition is based on course work byMasters and PhD students in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick. Since 2010, in the course Contemporary Art in the Public Realm, students have worked in a dialogue with the Hunt Museum in Limerick City, using the Hunt Collection as inspiration for creating contemporary interpretations that can be juxtaposed with the original artefacts. This year’s theme is Steampunk, an art form (or cult) with its origins in literature as a subculture to genres such as fantasy and science fiction. Steampunk, in the physical form of various artefacts, often has an expectation that it relies on Victorian-style steam- or spring-powered technology. The materials used for creating the artefacts in this exhibition are mainly recycled. This year’s students had the opportunity to be coached into becoming creative makers by the eminent blacksmith and coppersmith Mark Wilson from Mountshannon, Co. Clare.

The exhibition is on display in the Bourn Vincent Gallery at the University of Limerick until the 23rd of April 2015. Admission is free.