The Real and the virtual: Online exhibitions, Web 2.0 and design students

This paper discusses the Centre for Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD) Online Exhibitions Project, a collaboration between the University of Brighton, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art. The project entails creating a virtual exhibition of material from the archives of the partner institutions, with the goal of encouraging students to use archives for practice-based inquiry and in historical/theoretical research. Designing an exhibition that incorporates student involvement through the use of Web 2.0 technologies has presented various challenges: technical, conceptual and pedagogical. We are exploring the potential of archives to expand learning by creating a virtual exhibition around an iconic British modernist house and its archive. Working with students from the Royal College of Art and the University of Brighton, we test assumptions about how students use images and social networks, how the virtual experience of the archive supports learning and what opportunities it presents for student curatorship.