Falkirk Wheel, Panoramic view.

Falkirk Wheel, Panoramic view.
Image by Cameron Lyall, GNU license Wikimedia

28 June 2011

(Not so) Industrial Dundee

During our free exploration day last Monday, a group of us went to tour the Frigate Unicorn and the RRS Discovery. Both ships were set up for people to explore and learn how the two ships once functioned. The Frigate Unicorn was simply the restored ship with all the information about it on the inside, whereas the RRS Discovery had an entire museum dedicated to telling the story of its voyage to Antarctica.

These sites may not have an industrial history themselves, being a warship and a research vessel respectively, but they represent Dundee’s post-industrial future. In the past Dundee brought resources here, manufactured those resources into products, before shipping them all over the world. Now Dundee has set up a few locations, including both ships, the universities, and hospitals, where bringing resources to refine them isn’t needed.

Instead Dundee is setting up these facilities to bring people here. There are no longer intense exportations of items, people are coming here to take knowledge away with them. The Discovery museum is set up to present all the knowledge about the Discovery that people could feasibly take away with them. There are activities and mannequins set up in order to convey as much knowledge that can be feasibly taken away.

So although the ships have not been industrial sites themselves, they demonstrate how Dundee is aiming its post-industrial trajectory. That is exporting knowledge and creating more think based work.


1 comment:

PickleInk said...

This sounds like a really great trip. I really like how you used alternated the pictures and the word explanations very nice.