The 100 Hours Project

100 Hours was an interdisciplinary project which over one year used innovative and collaborative methods to realise new research directions for the study of material things in contemporary and historical society.

The 100 Hours research team focussed closely and individually on a selection of objects chosen from UCL Museum collections and through discussions with specialists created a series of innovative research ‘responses’. In harnessing the analytical power of individual ‘close looking’ and the intellectual versatility of collaborative research this project broke new ground for the study of material culture: identifying future questions for object-centred research and offering methodologies capable of providing answers.

The project was led by researchers Leonie Hannan and Kate Smith, and was advised by Margot Finn, Simon Werrett and Ludovic Coupaye. It brought together a team of ten collaborators: Katy Barrett, Tullia Giersberg, Liz Haines, Elin Jones, Juliette Kristensen, Sarah Longair, Emily Marshall-Orr, Matthew Paskins, James Paz, and Florian Roithmayr.

Collectively, the 100 Hours team represented eleven academic fields: History, History of Science, Anthropology, Geography, English Literature, Cultural and Critical Studies, Material and Visual Culture Studies, Philosophy, Fine Art, History of Art, and Design History. It also brought together thirteen organisations: the V&A, Science Museum, National Maritime Museum, British Museum, UCL, KCL, QMUL, RHUL, Goldsmiths, Cambridge, Princeton, Kent, the Shakespeare Institute, Birmingham.

The progress and findings from this collaborative research were fully documented on the project website.