Interesting Facts in the Cabinet of Wonders

The University of Freiburg’s Uniseum has opened its “Cabinet of Wonders” exhibition with a new concept: students from many departments worked on a study project to develop an audio-guide for the exhibition which for the first time will provide individual background information on the roughly 40 exhibits, enabling visitors to enhance their knowledge and understanding.

In the “Cabinet of Wonders” the Uniseum presents selected exhibits from the arts, culture and science that offer an insight into the diversity of the University’s teaching and display collections from the past two centuries. “The objects reveal the range of earlier scientific collections of the University of Freiburg,” says Angela Witt-Meral, curator of the Uniseum. “Bringing them together is a way of drawing on the concept of the cabinet of wonders.”

The curious can now learn more in detail about the exhibits: as part of the “Researching Learning” project run by historian Witt-Meral, around 30 students from different departments have produced information texts about the exhibition. These can be accessed using the audio-guide and fill a gap in the exhibition; until now, it was only possible to provide information about the materials and date of the unusual and valuable objects.

“Researching Learning”, which involved students reworking a total of four exhibition areas in the Uniseum, was funded by the Innovative Study 2018 competition held by the student government of the University of Freiburg and won its “Innovative Study” award. The exhibition is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.