Year one students from Oxford Brookes School of Architecture collaborated with Archeox, the East Oxford Archaeology and History Project, to explore the connections between architecture and archaeology.
Traditionally archaeological objects are displayed in glass cases in museums, or in drawers to be taken out by professionals wearing white gloves. OB1 LIVE challenged these preconceptions and created prototype display devices designed for significant archaeological artefacts found by Archeox at Bartelmas Chapel, Cowley and Minchery Priory near Oxford United's football ground. The finds reveal important evidence of a leper hospital at Bartelmas Chapel and include prehistoric and medieval finds at Minchery Farm.
The display device prototypes were installed in a temporary exhibition held at the Pitt Rivers Museum on 19 October 2013. The event was designed to gather visitor feedback on the installations and the overall exhibition to help Archeox by testing ideas for a full exhibition of their finds next year.
Prototypes included an interactive fishing net construction installation using a medieval bone toggle; a chair to view a C12th floor tile that referenced the absent body and the archaeologist’s excavation grid; and a device to view a Civil War clay pipe that also related historical and contemporary smoking habits in Oxford.
"A great chance for people...to interact and explore the significance of an artefact." (Quote from visitor to the Found exhibition.)
October 2013
