Perspectives on Podcasts

A Student using an iPod on the Bus

Development and evaluation of downloadable audio files for design students to use with a visit to the V&A museum

Project leader: Rebecca Reynolds

Downloadable audio files were developed based on four V&A permanent galleries: the Silver Galleries, the British Galleries, the Jewellery Gallery and the Cast Courts.  Each contained views on the galleries from curators, design tutors, art and design practitioners, students and others.  The audio files could be accessed on a PC or downloaded to an MP3 player and could be used before, during or after a visit to the V&A. They were designed to raise students' awareness of the permanent galleries and offer some preparation for visiting them.

A Silver Lining

The V&A Silver Galleries are three richly-decorated rooms crammed full of objects from religious and secular contexts here and abroad.  They include Victorian dining silver, silver from the Jazz Age and objects used by children. Are the Galleries splendid or suffocating?  Hear what curator Eric Turner, information assistant James Cross and artist Anne Brodie have to say.

To listen to 'A Silver Lining', click the play button to the right:
To download the audio file click here (right-click and choose 'Save as')
To download the transcript click here

Click here to listen to the Silver Lining audio

Best of British

The V&A's British Galleries spread over two floors of the museum, offering a view of British design from 1500 to 1900. They opened in 2001, born of 'a fervent desire’ to display objects from the V&A's collections in new ways which would be meaningful to a wide range of visitors. 

Are they successful in this aim? We hear from Professor of Dress and Textile History at the University of Brighton, Lou Taylor, and from Charlotte Austin, a graduate of the Design History MA run by the Royal College of Art and the V&A. We also hear from Sarah Medlam, Deputy Keeper in the V&A's Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department, who explains how the objects in the galleries were selected and organised.

To listen to 'Best of British', click the play button to the right:
To download the audio file click here (right-click and choose 'Save as')
To download the transcript click here

Click here to listen to the Best of British audio

Thoughts on the Courts

Imagine you’re an aspiring artist or designer in the nineteenth century. You’re desperate to see great works of sculpture and architecture, but have no money to travel. What would you do? One option might be to visit the V&A’s Cast Courts, two huge rooms full of plaster casts of great European works.  But what relevance can the Cast Courts have to us today? Here we listen to Catherine Duncumb, V&A + RIBA Architecture Education Officer; Architecture tutor Jos Boys and Interior Architecture graduate Mandy Fleming.

To listen to 'Thoughts on the Courts', click the play button to the right:
To download the audio file click here (right-click and choose 'Save as')
To download the transcript click here

Click here to listen to the Thoughts on the Courts audio

What a Jewel

Lockets containing human hair, a gold collar from 700 BC and earrings made with birds’ heads are a few of the objects to be found in the V&A's Jewellery Gallery, which opened in 2008, holding jewellery made in the western tradition.  We explore the gallery with curator Richard Edgcumbe, artist-jeweller Dorothy Hogg and the gallery’s architect Eva Jiricna.

To listen to 'What a Jewel', click the play button to the right:
To download the audio file click here (right-click and choose 'Save as')
To download the transcript click here

Click here to listen to the What a Jewel audio