Blog - Future of Ageing

Partnership and Communications Manager Janice Murray tells us about her visit to the V&A in Dundee.

Several members of the team visited the Future of Ageing Exhibition at the Dundee V&A, which ended last weekend. They have agreed to give us their thoughts on the exhibition.

We start with Partnership and Communications Manager Janice Murray.

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First impression upon walking into the V&A was that the exhibition was really quite small, had this been a wasted journey?

Fast forward 45 minutes and the answer was no, not wasted at all.

The exhibition had been cleverly designed around a series of wooden pod-type structures, with the visitor being able to walk into and around the pods.

The exhibition had made full use of all surfaces with a mixture of visual and what I’d call semi-interactive displays (semi-interactive because they were videos which you could watch and listen to using headphones which were supplied by the exhibitors).

The exhibition itself touched on solutions for mobility issues with The Centaur, a self-balancing, two wheeled electric vehicle. A full sized Centaur was on display, shame we couldn’t try it out! Another full sized exhibit was Gita, the cargo carrying robot! A hands free robot/ companion and able to carry up to 18kg, Gita looked fascinating. Again, behind glass where it would have been nice to get hands-on.

It addressed early hearing loss to the visitor by means of an app which could be downloaded by scanning a QR code. The story of a patients gradual hearing loss which was noted when she could no longer hear the birds on her woodland walk was particularly poignant. A nice part of the exhibition was the enclosed pod which allowed you to hear the birdsong that Angela was no longer able to hear.

Visitors were invited to vote for an everyday item to be redesigned, which ranged from the top scoring food packaging to duvet covers, TV remotes and electric plugs. They were also invited to send a postcard to their future selves to comment on how they felt about ageing and perhaps share any tips on being healthier, wiser and more joyful. Community approaches to ageing and solutions for working from home in later life were also explored.

So all in all I thought that the exhibition managed to pack a lot into a small space. The topics covered were wide ranging and done in an engaging and creative manner.