A compilation of heritage conservation charters and conventions.

A compilation of important heritage conservation charters


<p>As an art lover, it's important to understand how to properly care for and preserve your beloved pieces. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about art conservation, based on Google search questions and some curated knowledge from reputable conservation sources. The following Q&#x26;A is being constantly updated. I am open to edits and corrections as long as they come from a place of kindness :)</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#what-is-art-conservation">What is art conservation?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#how-do-i-care-for-my-art-collection">How do I care for my art collection?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#what-is-an-art-conservator">What is an art conservator?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#what-is-an-art-conservationist">What is an art conservationist?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#how-do-i-find-an-art-conservator">How do I find an art conservator?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#what-is-a-preventive-care-conservator">What is a preventive care conservator?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#do-you-need-to-be-a-conservator-to-work-with-collections">Do you need to be a conservator to work with collections?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#can-all-art-be-conserved">Can all art be conserved?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#what-should-i-do-if-my-art-becomes-damaged">What should I do if my art becomes damaged?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#how-do-i-become-an-art-conservator">How do I become an art conservator?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#do-i-need-to-learn-other-languages-to-become-an-art-conservator">Do I need to learn other languages to become an art conservator?</a></li>
  <li><a href="#how-much-does-it-cost-to-study-art-conservation">How much does it cost to study art conservation?</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>What is art conservation?</h2>
<p>Conservation is the process of preserving and restoring works of art to their original condition. This involves a range of techniques, including cleaning, repairing damage, and stabilizing the piece to prevent further deterioration. Conservators are trained professionals who specialize in this field and work to ensure that art is preserved for future generations.</p>
<p>If you want to dig deeper, the term "art" conservator is highly misleading as it will mostly apply to conservators working in the fine arts - such as with paintings and sculptures.</p>
<p>However, conservators around the world specialise in a broad range of materials, each with its own difficulties and challenges. Thus, it is not uncommon for conservators to consult each other based on the materials they find on particular objects.</p>
<p>Some of the specialisations you may find (certainly not all) are:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Stone</li>
  <li>Architectural</li>
  <li>Natural history</li>
  <li>Photograph</li>
  <li>Book and paper</li>
  <li>Textiles</li>
  <li>Contemporary art</li>
  <li>Digital media and audiovisual</li>
  <li>Plastics</li>
  <li>Ethnographic (generally related to historical and indigenous collections from around the world)</li>
  <li>Archaeological</li>
  <li>Metals</li>
  <li>Preventive</li>
  <li>Wood (even just waterlogged wood)</li>
  <li>Glass and ceramics</li>
  <li>Murals and frescoes</li>
  <li>Mosaics</li>
  <li>Furniture</li>
  <li>Industrial machinery, trains, airplanes, tanks</li>
  <li>Things as niche as clocks, globes, and model ships</li>
</ul>
<h2>How do I care for my art collection?</h2>
<p>There are several steps you can take to properly care for your art collection:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Keep art out of direct sunlight, as UV rays can fade or discolor the piece.</li>
  <li>Use LED lighting to avoid exposing your art to Infrared radiation.</li>
  <li>Avoid placing art near sources of heat, humidity, or moisture, as these can cause damage.</li>
  <li>Dust and clean your spaces regularly using a soft, dry cloth or a feather duster.</li>
  <li>Handle art carefully and gently to avoid accidental damage.</li>
  <li>If at all possible, keep your spaces clean to avoid pests. Pests such as moths, various beetles and other insects like silverfish will damage your objects, and in some cases, eat them completely.</li>
  <li>If you need to move or transport art, do so with caution and use proper protective materials such as bubble wrap or acid-free tissue paper.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What is an art conservator?</h2>
<p>An art conservator, or just a conservator, is a trained professional who specializes in the preservation and restoration of works of art. They use a range of techniques and materials to clean, repair, and stabilize art, with the goal of preserving it for future generations. Art conservators work in a variety of settings, including museums, galleries, and private conservation studios.</p>
<h2>What is an art conservationist?</h2>
<p>Beware the term "conservationist" as it is not the correct term to describe professionals who work in the care of heritage and art - and it will annoy conservators greatly.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, a "conservationist" is a person who is concerned about the environment, climate change, and pollution.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/art-conservationist-conservator.png" alt="Conservationists versus Conservators"><br><em>Conservationists and conservators are not the same career. In fact, in 2022, conservators spent a significant amount of time cleaning up after conservationists.</em>
</p>
<p>Terms for conservators will vary depending on countries and general usage. In general, correct terms for conservators are:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Conservator</li>
  <li>Conservator-restorer</li>
  <li>Restorer (Although this term is sometimes shunned in some countries as it may denote a more liberal, and often frowned-upon, approach to removing original materials.)</li>
</ul>
<h2>How do I find an art conservator?</h2>
<p>When searching for an accredited conservator, it's important to do your research and ask for recommendations. Look for conservators who have received proper training and accreditation, such as those who are members of professional organizations like the <a href="https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/find-a-conservator">American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works</a> or <a href="https://www.conservationregister.com/">ICON UK</a>. You can also ask for references from previous clients and check for reviews or testimonials online.</p>
<h2>What is a preventive care conservator?</h2>
<p>There is a specific branch of conservation these days which does not focus on a type of object or material, but rather on the conditions that surround objects.</p>
<p>You may also find it as Preventive conservation, also called preventive care, collections care, preventative conservation/care.</p>
<p>Preventive care and management focuses on evaluating and monitoring the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/agents-deterioration.html">10 agents of deterioration framework</a> as developed by the Canadian Conservation Institute.</p>
<p>The 10 agents are:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Physical forces</li>
  <li>Thieves and vandals</li>
  <li>Fire</li>
  <li>WAter</li>
  <li>Pests</li>
  <li>Pollutants</li>
  <li>Light, ultraviolet and infrared</li>
  <li>Incorrect temperature</li>
  <li>Incorrect relative humidity</li>
  <li>Dissociation</li>
</ol>
<p>It is the job of a collections care professional to evaluate the ways in which the 10 agents may be causing damage to a whole collection in order to implement protective measures that minimise damage over time.</p>
<p>In the case of preventive care, a professional will not be directly treating objects, but rather improving the conditions in which those objects live.</p>
<p>For more guidance on how to apply preventive care, check out this resource from <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/conservation/collections-advice-and-guidance/">English Heritage</a></p>
<h2>Do you need to be a conservator to work with collections?</h2>
<p>Nope, you most certainly don't have to be. People who work with collections may come from a diverse background and training programs. In Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM), you may find:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Registrars and database specialists</li>
  <li>Conservators</li>
  <li>Archivists</li>
  <li>Librarians</li>
  <li>Preparators</li>
  <li>Exhibitions officers</li>
  <li>Curators</li>
  <li>Facilities management and operations</li>
  <li>Mountmakers</li>
  <li>Educators</li>
  <li>Biologists, chemists, physicists and other conservation scientists</li>
  <li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Can all art be conserved?</h2>
<p>Not all art can be conserved, as some materials or techniques may be too fragile or unstable to be restored. In these cases, the focus may shift to preserving what remains of the piece and preventing further deterioration. However, with the right techniques and materials, many works of art can be successfully conserved and restored.</p>
<p>Some types of damage, such as fading due to light, are completely irreversible, so they once done, such damage cannot be undone even by the best practitioners.</p>
<h2>What should I do if my art becomes damaged?</h2>
<p>If your art becomes damaged, it's important to act quickly to minimize further damage. If the damage is minor, such as a small tear or scratch, you may be able to repair it yourself using conservation-grade materials.</p>
<p>This is not generally recommended and most conservators will discourage you from doing so as there are many physical and chemical reactions that you may not expect and which you will not be able to control. Many conservators in both private practice and museum jobs spend significant amount of time undoing previous treatments gone wrong. The damage is not always fixable.</p>
<p>If the damage is significant or you are unsure how to properly repair it, it's best to seek the assistance of a professional conservator who specialises in the material you have.</p>
<h2>How do I become an art conservator?</h2>
<p>For a more in-depth discussion on how to become an art conservator, please read this article <a href="https://angelicaisa.com/blog/where-to-study-art-conservation">Where to study art conservation - The ultimate guide</a>.</p>
<h2>Do I need to learn other languages to become an art conservator?</h2>
<p>Not really, no. Programs will only require either the local language of instruction, and in some cases, English as well. Other than that, you do not need to have foreign language qualifications to study conservation at post-graduate level.</p>
<h2>How much does it cost to study art conservation?</h2>
<p>In my article <a href="https://angelicaisa.com/blog/where-to-study-art-conservation">Where to study art conservation - The ultimate guide</a>, I have included a very long Excel table with over 70 programs around the world and as much information as we could get regarding pre-requisites, costs, location, etc.</p><br><br><br><br>If you liked this post, sign up for [my newsletter](http://bit.ly/3XYqzrt) so you can get the latest articles straight into your inbox.


From preventing damage to finding a reputable art conservator, here are the answers you need to keep your beloved pieces in top condition. Frequently asked questions about art conservation.

Art Conservation - Frequently Asked Questions


<h2>Life Changes and Career Moves</h2>
<p>November 6th 2022 marked my first full week of official unemployment in the heritage sector after 7 years of permanent employment at a conservation job in a museum.</p>
<p>This is not because it was a terrible job, or because I got laid off because times are tough in heritage. It’s because I recently got married and am now planning a move to Canada at the end of January 2023. Talk about starting from scratch for the chance of a new life (and right before a recession too)!</p>
<p>Anyone in heritage will be able to tell you that finding a permanent job in the field with an acceptable salary is extremely difficult – even more so in conservation, so these are challenging times for me!</p>
<p>Just visit any of the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) communities on Reddit (e.g. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MuseumPros/">r/MuseumPros</a>), and you will see what I mean.</p>
<p>Still, I consider it an opportunity to grow and learn and apply everything I have learned in Peru to a wonderful new job in Canada (or maybe a remote one elsewhere?).</p>
<p>Do you think it's possible? How does one even go about this?</p>
<h2>How to get a job in conservation when things look bad</h2>
<p>As it is, I can’t apply for a work permit until I apply first for my Permanent Residence in Canada after I arrive at the end of January (while at the same time looking for a place to live).</p>
<p>The work permit takes around two months to be issued. This means that I will not be allowed to work in Canada until at least mid-April or May.</p>
<p>This means I have a number of barriers to overcome:</p>
<ul>
  <li>No Permanent Resident paperwork yet because I will apply for it after I arrive</li>
  <li>No working permit</li>
  <li>No valid driver's license until I get through the paperwork</li>
  <li>No local network in the field (not 100% true, but I will elaborate why further down)</li>
  <li>No full awareness of where the jobs are</li>
  <li>No place to live</li>
  <li>No income or credit score</li>
  <li>No car</li>
  <li>No fellow student conservators who just graduated with me from a Canadian program</li>
  <li>No local paperwork for my degrees</li>
  <li>No recent object portfolio because I've spent most of my past 7 years doing preventive conservation, research, education projects, grant writing and area management</li>
  <li>Jobs in conservation are few and far between</li>
  <li>Did I mention I'm from PERU and moving to CANADA in JANUARY?!</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>How many of the above list would you tick for yourself when looking for a job in art conservation?</strong></p>
<h2>It's difficult to get a job in conservation</h2>
<p>At this point, you really could be thinking, <em>if this lady gets something, anyone can.</em> The point I'm trying to make is that when you look at how difficult things can be, it is easy to become discouraged. However, this will be an exercise in tenacity and perseverance - nevermind a challenge to my mental health over a period of time.</p>
<p>You are welcome to <strong>make your own list of why finding a job in conservation or heritage will be hard.</strong> This is not so that you can feel terrible, but so that you can look at your challenges in the eye and so that you can address them one by one.</p>
<h2>But it's not impossible to get a job in heritage - other people do it somehow</h2>
<p>Now that we've looked at the negatives, let's look at the positives. In other words, the things that <em>are</em> actually in my/your control. Which of the things in the above list can I try to resolve?</p>
<p>In my particular case, I am currently:</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Improving my French</strong> so I can apply for jobs in French-speaking Canada as well. I got a C1 grade on the TEF Canada last year, but I could probably improve that, if not on paper, at least in practice. Do <em>you</em> have a language you can work on?</li>
  <li>Working towards the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/facebook-social-media-marketing">Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate</a> through Coursera and reading voraciously about social media marketing because I want to grow my own personal brand and website to continue to cater to the heritage community and those interested in our field. <em>What alternate skills can you grow while you look?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Growing my social media presence</strong> through my regular <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> and an updated <a href="https://www.instagram.com/a.isa140/">Instagram account</a> aimed at people outside the heritage field with an interest in museums and heritage conservation. I literally had 88 followers on my Instagram last week because it used to be private. I have 115 now. Do you think I can get it to 1000 before December 31st? We'll see! <em>Are you leveraging your existing network?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Writing new blog posts</strong> like this one and helping out at the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtConservation/">Reddit community for people interested in conservation</a> whenever I have some free time. <em>Are you volunteering somewhere in a related post or creating content?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Making events and courses</strong> starting with a French-style salon through <a href="https://interintellect.com">Interintellect</a> on Thursday, December 1st called <a href="https://interintellect.com/salon/the-other-conservation-the-role-of-heritage-in-the-21st-century/">The Other Conservation: The Role Of Heritage In The 21st Century</a> <em>Are you looking for like/minded people?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Helping out</strong> as a Community Member at <a href="http://conserv.io/">Conserv</a> by coordinating social media efforts to communicate the values of this exciting brand for collections environmental monitoring. <em>Have you identified any companies you'd like to work with?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Presenting at conferences</strong> related to conservation such as the <a href="https://survey.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/en/node/912">Facing Climate Change Focus on Conservation</a> on November 29th. <em>How many free online conferences or webinars have you signed up for?</em></li>
  <li><strong>Volunteering</strong> with The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) as a Vice Chair for the <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/content/talent-and-participation-tp-committee">Talent &#x26; Participation Committee</a> and with CECA-Peru, the education branch of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).</li>
  <li><strong>Networking like crazy.</strong> I am joining Linkedin groups, Facebook groups, conferences, webinars, Reddit conversations, everything and anything I can find to meet colleagues who work in the field in Canada (and elsewhere because a good network is invaluable wherever it may be located). I am offering courses when possible and meeting people in real life when they are in my area - you'd be absolutely surprised at how many people I've actually managed to meet in person just in the past few weeks and how many meet-ups I am lining up for the next few weeks.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
  <p>I encourage you to try this exercise. <strong>How many terrible things have you identified that challenge your path in having a career in heritage and what could you do, even if it's small, to address them?</strong> I can tell you that out of the list I just made for myself up there, nothing (except for the French) is actually <em>difficult</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has all just taken tons of time and outright effort. Yes, I've worked evenings and weekends for several years now to make it all happen up to now. I am sure you are perfectly capable of achieving this and more too.</p>
<p>You just have to want to do it enough to sacrifice the little free time you might have. And you know what? If you don't want to, there's nothing to feel bad about either. <strong>The whole point is to find something that makes you happy.</strong></p>
<h2>How can we help each other?</h2>
<p>Here are some things that I intend to do right now and which you could do yourself if you are in a similar boat as me:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <p>If you are in the Greater Toronto Area and need a volunteer or a remote aid for anything in your conservation or museum-related endeavours, let me know! I would love to meet and am willing to do what it takes as a new arrival. I can treat objects (although I'll need to brush up a bit) and have experience setting up preventive conservation programs from scratch. I do social media and blogging. I love conservation and heritage outreach.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>If you are outside of Canada and need a content creator and writer with +7 years in the museum and heritage field and an international network in conservation who could work for you remotely, I am free now and looking!</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Do you need blog posts with Search Engine Optimisation to drive traffic to your heritage-related organisation? I have a 100% organic top-ranking Google result for <a href="/blog/understanding-dewpoint">my dew point article</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Are you looking for heritage funding? I have successfully applied before for $30,000 and $1 million for projects in museum outreach and heritage research and would love to help you achieve your goals.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Do you just want to network with me? I would love to hear from you! I don't care if you're a student, pre-program, collections care manager, museum director, curator, freelance conservator, history buff, etc. I don't just want to talk to you if you can help me find a job. I want to talk to you anyway. If you'd like to have a chat with me, ask me stuff about conservation, do a collab on your podcast or social media platform, I would love to see what's up! Do you want to do an interview or talk or rant about conservation? Do you want to know more about SEO and content marketing? <strong>Reach out to me on any of my social media accounts. Linkedin connections are okay too!</strong></p>
  </li>
</ul>
<p>The above list applies for me. What would apply for you? What can you offer others before you ask what they can offer you?</p>
<h2>Will this even work?</h2>
<p>Well, I guess I can't really tell you right now, can I? I won't know until I either get something in heritage in Canada or finally decide to move on - whenever that may be.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>All I can do right now is create opportunities for myself and see where they go. If the day comes when I decide it's time to stop, I will do so gladly knowing that I looked at every possible path I could think of and that my happy job must lie somewhere else. I talked to as many people as I found. I volunteered in as many places as I could. I wrote everything I wanted to write. <strong>Essentially, I will make sure it is a "That'll do, pig" moment and not a "cry myself to sleep because I failed" moment.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/f50TuQCGUAYH6" width="480" height="319" frameborder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/f50TuQCGUAYH6">via GIPHY</a></p>
<p>I do intend to keep track of how this new adventure goes because if it all works out, then I fully intend to use it as inspiration to help others overcome the barriers they are finding to joining the heritage field. <strong>If I can make a strong community and network work for me as a brand new immigrant in a new country, then I can try to make it work for you.</strong></p>
<h2>Always say thank you</h2>
<p>I want to thank all of you who have supported me in my previous and current roles as a museum conservator, communicator, and volunteer.</p>
<p>Whether you are/were/will be a colleague, boss, fellow volunteer, community member, aspiring conservation student, Twitter friend, or Linkedin connection, I am grateful for the things you have taught me and the opportunities you have given me. <strong>Thank you</strong> for following me on my various social platforms, for engaging with my content, sharing and leaving me comments. <strong>Thank you</strong> for reaching out to me and building new connections. I look forward to being able to support you in whatever way I can now and in the future regardless of whether I stay in the field or not.</p>
<p>Whether I met you years ago or this week, (you know who you are!) <strong>thank you</strong> for your words of encouragement and your support. <strong>Thank you</strong> for letting me work with you, for pointing me to job boards, for flagging out job opportunitites that you saw somewhere, for giving me advice on how to stay warm in January in Canada and for sending me useful links. You are invaluable and I appreciate you. <strong>Thank you</strong> for thinking of me. I am thinking of you.</p>
<h2>Some final advice for conservation job seekers from a fellow seeker</h2>
<p>I have received some amazing advice lately, so here it is for you (and me!), distilled:</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Don't stop learning</strong>, keep moving, keep meeting people. Make your CV the best you can make it with the resources available to you. Use your time wisely and keep your eyes on the prize.</li>
  <li><strong>Know what you want</strong>, not just "I know I want to work in conservation/heritage/museums" but know when to want to rest, when to pivot, when to stop and when to recognise situations that are too toxic or negative to be worth it. Know when to walk away. I will tell you if/when I reach this point and I will be honest about it. I have seen many sad experiences being shared on heritage communities online and we should all know that we are more valuable than a job.</li>
  <li><strong>If you are sad or discouraged, lie down and relax.</strong> Think of all the positive things that hold you up. Remember your past achievements as proof that you are capable.</li>
  <li><strong>Be grateful.</strong> Even if this doesn't work out, I will be thankful to everyone who looked out for me during the job seeking.</li>
  <li><strong>Be kind.</strong> Many of us are competing with each other for the same jobs. This doesn't mean we should be mean to each other. Maybe you get the job today, but it might be me tomorrow - and heritage is a small world. The last thing we want is to be making enemies when what we need is supportive colleagues.</li>
  <li><strong>You don't have to work in heritage to be <em>involved</em> with heritage.</strong> If you/we "fail" to get a job in the field, no one said we can't continue to be involved in other capacities. No one said you can't go to museums anymore or write blogs or make podcasts or be a member of the professional organisations or attend conferences. <strong>You/We still can.</strong> And it's not a failure if you find another job that pays your rent. <strong>A job is just a job.</strong> It does not define who we are - although it can certainly feel that way. <strong>If I end up not working in heritage, I can assure you this website will still be here.</strong></li>
  <li><strong>Network</strong> like that song by Roberto Carlos that says he wants to have a million friends. Create meaningful relationships with your colleagues and peers. They will help and support you. If you've never heard this 70s gem from Brazil, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO2NkQ9ws-Q">here's the song</a>!</li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you for reading! I'll keep you posted on the international journey of this conservator!</p><br><br><br><br>
<p>If you liked this post, you can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a>, check out my newest <a href="https://www.instagram.com/a.isa140/">Instagram experiments</a> or connect with me on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelicaisaadaniya/">Linkedin</a>.</p>


As a new immigrant to Canada, how does one go about getting a job in art conservation or heritage?

How to get a job in art conservation

Find out how to care for silk from a museum conservator's point of view.

How to care for silk items


<p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@filirovska">Julia Filirovska</a> on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/wet-transparent-misted-window-with-question-mark-4913769/">Pexels</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Contents</strong></p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#dew-point">Dew point</a></li>
  <li><a href="#absolute-vs-relative-humidity">Absolute vs. Relative humidity</a>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#absolute-humidity">Absolute humidity</a></li>
      <li><a href="#relative-humidity">Relative humidity</a></li>
      <li><a href="#example-in-an-imaginary-space">Example in an imaginary space</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#the-psychrometric-chart-explained">The psychrometric chart explained</a>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#dry-bulb-temperature">Dry bulb temperature</a></li>
      <li><a href="#wet-bulb-temperature">Wet bulb temperature</a></li>
      <li><a href="#relative-humidity-and-dew-point">Relative humidity and dew point</a></li>
      <li><a href="#absolute-humidity-1">Absolute humidity</a></li>
      <li><a href="#a-quick-note-on-dew-point-vs-wet-bulb">A quick note on dew point vs. wet bulb</a></li>
      <li><a href="#the-psychrometric-chart-again-in-full-colour">The psychrometric chart again in full colour</a></li>
      <li><a href="#an-example">An example</a></li>
      <li><a href="#what-can-the-psychrometric-chart-do-for-you">What can the psychrometric chart do for you?</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#lets-go-back-to-dew-point">Let's go back to dew point</a>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#what-does-this-mean">What does this mean?</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#useful-links">Useful links</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Dew point</h2>
<p>What is the dew point, in simple terms? When you look at your environmental monitoring charts, you are used to seeing the temperature and relative humidity lines. However, there is also another line. The dew point line, and this line can be a bit trickier to interpret.</p>
<p>What does it tell us? I have found several explanations of dew point, so I will attempt to sum it up here as clearly as possible:</p>
<ul>
  <li>Dew point is read as a temperature. You will see it in F or °C.</li>
  <li>It represents the absolute moisture content of the air.</li>
  <li>Dew point is the temperature at which Relative Humidity (RH) in your space is at 100% so that the moisture will start condensing out of the air.</li>
  <li>This means that the dew point is the temperature at which dew will begin forming in your space.</li>
  <li>If your dew point temperature is close to your dry air temperature, your RH is high.</li>
  <li>If your dew point is well below the dry air temperature, your RH is low.</li>
  <li>In other words, it is not something you want if you want to keep your things dry.</li>
</ul>
<p>
  <img src="/DewPoint-Graph.jpg" alt="A regular environmental monitoring graph"><br><em>This is a space without any HVAC control. There is no artificial humidifying or dehumidifying or heating or cooling. If you look closely, you will notice that the dew point line is basically the same as the temperature but a few degrees below it.</em>
</p>
<h2>Absolute vs. Relative humidity</h2>
<p>Before going a bit more into dew point, it's important we understand two concepts clearly. You will find much better, more scientific definitions in physics sites, but the following are supposed to be straightforward and clear.</p>
<h3>Absolute humidity</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Assuming constant atmospheric pressure, absolute humidity is the actual amount of water (in weight) that can be "held" by air at a particular temperature. It's actually more about vapour pressure equilibrium, but let's not overcomplicate for now and use the word "hold".</li>
  <li>It is expressed as weight of water per weight or volume of air. So it can be in grams of water per kilograms of dry air. Or grams of water per cubic metre of air. Or similar measurements using feet and pounds.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Relative humidity</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Relative humidity is that amount of water expressed as a percentage of the total amount of water that can be "held" by air at that same particular temperature and pressure.</li>
  <li>It is expressed as a percentage.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Example in an imaginary space</h3>
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Absolute humidity in g/m3</th>
      <th>Temperature in °C</th>
      <th>Relative humidity %</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>10</td>
      <td>53.2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>20</td>
      <td>28.9</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>30</td>
      <td>16.5</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<p><em>Numbers calculated using <a href="http://www.michell.com/calculator/">Michell instruments calculator</a></em></p>
<p>If you look at the above example, you can see that in an imaginary space that holds 5g of water per cubic metre of air, the relative humidity will vary depending on the temperature even though the amount of water in the space has not changed.</p>
<p>This helps explain how, if the only thing you can control is temperature, you can lower it to increase humidity, or increase it to lower humidity. There is an inverse relationship.</p>
<h2>The psychrometric chart explained</h2>
<p>The psychrometric chart is a really intimidating looking graph with a ton of lines going in 6 different directions. For the sake of clarity and because conservators don't really need to use them, I have not drawn in the enthalpy or volume lines. Let's leave those to the engineers and HVAC specialists. Don't worry about the actual numbers in the following charts. They are not strictly accurate charts, but are only being used diagramatically.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Black.png" alt="Simplified psychrometric chart"><br><em>Look at all those crazy lines. Notice that there are temperatures, absolute humidity and relative humidity in there. But which is which and going where and what is this and what do we do with it?</em>
</p>
<p>Before we begin parsing this out, the answer to your question is <strong>YES</strong>.<br>What is your question? Probably</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Isn't there an online calculator for this horrible thing instead? <strong>YES</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>You can use the Mitchell humidity calculator that I linked above with the table, or you can use the <a href="https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/">Image Permanence Institute</a> Dew Point Calculator, which I link below in the links. That said, you might not always have access to the internet (Crazy! I know!), so why not understand the vintage way of going about it?</p>
<p>Let's separate things line by line...</p>
<h3>Dry bulb temperature</h3>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Dry.png" alt="Dry bulb temperatures in orange"><br><em>The dry bulb temperature is the fancy way of saying what we normal people mean by temperature. It is the x-axis at the bottom of the graph and will be seen going upwards. You could also say it is read from left to right in the sense that the lines are vertical but going left to right, but when I say "read in this direction" I am referring to the movement of your eyes.</em>
</p>
<h3>Wet bulb temperature</h3>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Wet.png" alt="Wet bulb temperatures in green"><br><em>The wet bulb temperature is traditionally measured by using a thermometer with a water-soaked cloth around it. The temperature you get will be affected by the evaporation of water from the cloth. If you have 100% relative humidity, the wet bulb temperature will be the same as the dry bulb temperature because they will both be surrounded by water. To get a wet bulb temperature reading, either your manual thermohygrometer has to be digitally setup to tell you the wet bulb temperature, or you will have to use one of these old-style <a href="https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Instruments/Hygrometers/Whirling-Hygrometer">whirling hygrometers</a> that have two thermometers in them. These readings have diagonal lines that cross towards the bottom right.</em>
</p>
<h3>Relative humidity and dew point</h3>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-RH.png" alt="Relative humidity in blue"><br><em>The relative humidity in a psychrometric chart can be found as curling curves that get wider as they go from the bottom left towards the right of the chart. The reason I put dew point here is that, as we said above, the dew point is the temperature at which water begins to condense out of the air. <strong>Your dew point line is the 100% blue RH line.</strong> The dew point will be read by moving horizontally along the same plane as the absolute humidity (pink axis), but the readings will be along the 100% RH curve line, just like with the wet bulb temperature.</em>
</p>
<h3>Absolute humidity</h3>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-AH.png" alt="Absolute humidity in pink"><br><em>Absolute humidity will be running as the y-axis on the right of the chart and will have to be read moving your eyes towards the left along the horizontal plane.</em>
</p>
<h3>A quick note on dew point vs. wet bulb</h3>
<p>Just in case all this talking about absolute humidity, relative humidity, dew points, wet and dry bulbs confused you. Here is a quick table to explain the difference between the wet bulb and the dew point.</p>
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th></th>
      <th>Dew point temperature</th>
      <th>Wet bulb temperature</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Definition</td>
      <td>Temperature at which Relative Humidity (RH) in your space is at 100% so that the moisture will start condensing out of the air.</td>
      <td>Temperature you get from a moistened thermometer bulb exposed to air flow. Affected by the evaporation of the water.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>At high RH</td>
      <td>Close to dry bulb temperature</td>
      <td>At 100% RH, it equals dry bulb temperature. Notice that at 100% in the graph below, the blue and green lines meet.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>At low RH</td>
      <td>Below dry bulb temperature. At 10%RH, your dew point will be around 5°C. Read along the 100% blue line at the blue 10% level.</td>
      <td>Low. See graph below. At 10%RH your green wet bulb will be about 20°C while your orange dry will be around 43°C.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<h3>The psychrometric chart again in full colour</h3>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Colours.png" alt="Absolute humidity in pink"><br><em>Now that you have seen all the lines coloured in one by one, this psychedelic graph should be less shocking. Hopefully, it is also much less intimidating than the original one where all the lines were black.</em>
</p>
<h3>An example</h3>
<p>Why did we go through all that? The point of the psychrometric chart is that you should be able to get any of the variables as long as you have at least two other variables that you can cross-reference in the graph.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Example.png" alt="An example using the psychrometric chart"><br><em>Let's take a look at this example. Imagine you measure a space with 40°C and 54% relative humidity. Unpleasant, I know. But just look at the numbers. Using the chart, you can find the place where the orange 40°C dry bulb and the blue 54% RH intersect. This will tell you that your space has (pink) 25g of water per kg of dry air. If you move your eyes to the left and read along the black 100% RH line, this means your dew point is ~28°C. Should you require it, look at the diagonal green line, and you will tell that your wet bulb temperature is 31°C.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Psychrometric-Example2.png" alt="An example using the psychrometric chart"><br><em>Now imagine that you don't have any dehumidifiers or humidifiers, but you manage to lower the temperature to 35°C. If you look at your graph now, your wet bulb temperature has moved down to 30°C. You should still have 25g of water per kg of dry air, but now you have about 70% RH. Notice your dew point has not moved because the amount of water has not changed. It is still at ~28°C.</em>
</p>
<h3>What can the psychrometric chart do for you?</h3>
<p>Once you become comfortable reading a psychrometric chart and following the lines in the correct directions, the chart is a powerful tool. It means that once you know a couple of variables, you can calculate the others. This, in turn, means that if you want to change variables, you know what other variables you need to move in what direction in order to get what you want.</p>
<p>You should be able to calculate how many grams of water you need to remove from a space, and therefore how many hours you should work your dehumidifier. Or, on the contrary, if you want a certain RH%, you can decide whether you should turn on the AC or the heating to get it.</p>
<h2>Let's go back to dew point</h2>
<p>Remember how I pointed out in the example above that even though you reduced temperature and the RH% dropped accordingly, the theoretical dew point didn't change? This is because the amount of water in the air didn't change. It means that while you were messing around in that imaginary room, nothing else happened to mess with your numbers.</p>
<h3>What does this mean?</h3>
<p>This means that when you have a supposedly closed space, your dew points should remain relatively stable and should reflect your temperature readings just like the ones in the graph at the beginning of the article.</p>
<p>However, if you notice a sudden spike or drop which differs completely from the temperature line, then something has happened. Being able to identify this will help you investigate and decide if everything is still okay.</p>
<p><strong>A sudden change in your dew point will indicate a sudden change in the absolute humidity of the air in your space.</strong></p>
<p>Chances are this change can be easily explained.</p>
<ul>
  <li>Maybe it means someone opened a window and it was really damp/dry outside compared to your room.</li>
  <li>Maybe you got a leaking pipe.</li>
  <li>Maybe someone turned on/off a de/humidifier.</li>
  <li>Maybe Cinderella came in and washed all your floors.</li>
</ul>
<p>I hope this explanation of dew point, humidities and psychrometric charts helps you out wherever you are. I'm not a physicist or HVAC specialist, so do let me know if I didn't explain something quite right, and I will make sure to fix it.</p>
<h2>Useful links</h2>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.dpcalc.org/">Dew Point Calculator by the Image Permanence Institute</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://s3.cad.rit.edu/ipi-assets/publications/sustainable_preservation_practices.pdf">Image Permanence Institute Guide to Sustainable Preservation Practices for manageing storage environments</a>. See chapter 5 for dew point.</li>
  <li><a href="https://www.gasparetto.it/en/psychrometric-chart-dew-point">Gasparetto Engineering</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ReadingAPsychrometricChart/">WOLFRAM Demonstrations Project</a></li>
</ul>
<p>If you liked this post, you can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> where I'll be posting more content on conservation tidbits and how to improve your collections at home.</p>


A colour coded explanation on how to read psychrometric charts and understand dew point.

Understanding psychrometric charts and dew points


<p>Often, conservators will talk about the principle of minimum intervention and not touching up objects a lot. Sometimes, it will be argued that a restoration is absolutely necessary for the sake of the object. How do we make those decisions? When does each apply?</p>
<h2>What can we say about restoration?</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Not restoring things may give a distorted image of the past as broken and damaged.</li>
  <li>Not restoring calls attention away from the object’s aesthetic appearance and towards its damage.</li>
  <li>Restoration is useful to explain how things worked, sounded, looked and felt.</li>
  <li>Restoration can be essential when we talk about working objects like musical instruments or clocks. Some objects were created to be dynamic and cannot be interpreted accurately if they stop moving.</li>
</ul>
<p>
  <img src="/Rijksmuseum-Clock.jpg" alt="Gilt-bronze Mantel clock"><br><em>Parisian-made gilt-bronze clock. c. 1770 - c. 1775. From the Rijksmuseum collection. See <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.493588">here</a>. Is a clock still a clock if it doesn't tell the time anymore?</em>
</p>
<ul>
  <li>Restoration is capable of showing technical, social and economic changes through time.</li>
  <li>Restoration involves the audience. It makes history interesting. Everyone likes to see amazing Before and After pictures.</li>
  <li>Restoration can increase the stability of the object.</li>
  <li>Modern, professional restoration ethical codes emphasize a respect for the remaining original material.</li>
  <li>Even bad restorations in the past helped us have things now. Many of those restorations can be redone and fixed, although not all of them.</li>
  <li>Restoration is about the meaning of the object, which is more valuable than the material itself. The idea is that the social functionality of the object impacts society more than its damaged appearance.</li>
  <li>Restoration might be the only option to save “emergency” objects affected by insect attack, floods, fires, etc.</li>
  <li>Restoration is affected by our perceptions of the past. Just like Victorians tearing down original historical buildings to create fake "gothic" reconstructions, we could be misinterpreting the past and restoring something inaccurately.</li>
  <li>Restoration is sometimes purely concerned with aesthetics. It can be more interested in making something look "new" or "good" than in respecting authenticity.</li>
  <li>Restoration can be used for political means. Choices on what gets or does not get restored can create "biased" histories. Restoration methods or choices can also be used to ignore or highlight different aspects of an object. The identity of the restorer can be defended or attacked based on the "identity" of the object. Certain religious items, for example, "cannot" be restored by women.</li>
  <li>Restoration can affect the ease of care for objects in the future. A good restoration can improve the chances of an object while a bad one can destroy it completely.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What are minimum intervention and the concept of stewardship about?</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Minimum intervention is (arguably) the minimum amount of work necessary to physically and chemically stabilise an object and prevent further degradation. This term is subjective.</li>
  <li>The idea of stewardship is that people of the present are only stewards of the objecs of the past (or of the present), keeping them safe for the sake of the people of the future. Thus, we are not owners, but only caretakers. This principle implies that as caretakers, not owners, we do not have the prerogative to make many decisions about the objects we care for. If you borrow an item from a friend, do you have the right to send it off to get altered?</li>
  <li>Restoration removes information. Many restorations require cleaning and removal of original material.</li>
</ul>
<p>
  <img src="/Rijksmuseum-WoodenBowl.jpg" alt="Incomplete wooden bowl from a shipwreck"><br><em>Wooden bowl from the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Witte Leeuw, anonymous, before 1613. From the Rijksmuseum collection. See <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.432844">here</a>. Should this object be restored? Are aesthetics the most important aspect of an object? The shipwreck destruction is a part of its history.</em>
</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <p>The less we do to an object, the less likely we are to mess it up. Old restorations have sometimes proven to be worse for objects than leaving them be.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Is it culturally appropriate to restore an object? Some objects were made to be destroyed. They were meant to decay. It was a symbolic gesture. Think of grave goods. In some cases, they are supposed to degrade along with the body of the deceased. Would it be disrespectful to deny them this destiny? Some objects were ritually killed by bending or breaking them. Would it make sense to stick them back together?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>If parts are continually replaced, what is the original object? This is called the Ship of Theseus dilemma and it has a "grandfather’s axe" variation. That is, if your grandfather left you his axe, but you eventually had to replace the handle because it broke and then replaced the head because it wore down... is it still your grandfather's axe?</p>
  </li>
</ul>
<p>
  <img src="/Smithsonian-Axe.jpg" alt="Image of man with axe cutting down tree"><br><em>Lumbering in Winter, from Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, January 28, 1871. From the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery collection. See <a href="http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk716869dea-6918-4de4-829f-9f60cd047738">here</a>. The Theseus Ship dilemma. Is your object still the same if every part of it has been replaced over time?</em>
</p>
<h2>More things to think about...</h2>
<ul>
  <li>
    <p>Restoration generates money as objects are displayed or as they enter the commercial market. It is much easier to sell a good-looking object than a broken one.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Restoration gives less freedom to the public to interpret objects themselves. The more "accurate" an object is, the less room for interpretation it leaves.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Restoration can foster further investigation and research. Cleaning things off, investigating, researching necessary information before a restoration can lead to fantastic discoveries. Think about the paintings under the paintings.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Minimum intervention is about truth, keeping TRUE to the original. Why is the truth important? Does it really exist? Does it make people aware and proud of their past? Is that what gets visitors coming to the museum?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Is society just looking for stories, or does it care about truth? Do we prefer romance or beauty at the expense of "truth"?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Do we need professionals to filter information for us? On the other hand, minimum intervention may not be catering to the public. Conservation decisions can affect public viewing.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Truth is still important to some groups, how something really was. Are we taking away from their experience by restoring an object?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>Do people find aged appearances more engaging or do they prefer things that look new?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>What does society want? Who are we to give it to them? What does it believe? What is it interested in?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>There are logical absurdities regarding the term “minimum intervention.” "Minimum" can ultimately be a subjective idea. Who decides? Is it up to the conservator, the curator, the museum director, the board of trustees, the donors, the general public?</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p>If objects are just left alone (minimum intervention), they can get forgotten. They don’t exercise people’s curiosity. Does anybody care about the "ugly" stuff? Can we save the "ugly" stuff? Should we save items that society doesn't seem to care about? - Remember that everything costs money. Resources are not infinite. Budgets are mostly under-budgets.</p>
  </li>
</ul>
<p>Finally,</p>
<ul>
  <li>Strangely enough, even a bad restoration can give an object a new life.</li>
</ul>
<p>
  <img src="/EcceHomo-Before.jpg" alt="Ecce Homo before botched restoration"><br><em>The Ecce Homo fresco by Elías García Martínez in the Sanctuary of Mercy church, Borja, Zaragoza, Spain before its infamous restoration in 2012. Image source: Wikipedia</em>
</p>
<p>You might remember this fresco. The bad restoration became a meme. <em>Ecce Homo</em> became <em>Ecce Mono</em> (Mono is Spanish for monkey). The best part about this new version of the fresco is that I can't even share the Wikipedia image of the restoration because "The restored fresco is assumed to be copyrighted by the artist, Cecilia Giménez, who is still living. According to Spanish law, it won't be public domain until 70 years after her death."</p>
<p>In other words, her restoration is now potentially considered an entirely new and independent work, with an artist author who holds copyrights over the piece. Not only that, but this sleepy little chapel in a random, small town in Spain suddenly saw a massive increase in tourism (and by extension, economic growth - much of which has been given to various charities). People came from all over just to see the bad restoration. They never cared about the original before. It seems to have been considered quite unremarkable. If a professional conservator-restorer had fixed this fresco, maybe nobody would have cared beyond the people who go to that particular church for services every week. So did 80-year-old Cecilia Giménez ultimately do this town a favour? Mind, this would be a very contentious idea to propose - imagine the dangers of having an army of people going out to intentionally deface art in order to attempt such a scheme.</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>I hope that this brief article has brought to light certain aspects of restoration and conservation ethics.</p>
<p>Objects in museum displays tend to look good. They have already gone through conservation processes. You should assume that every object on display has been checked and reviewed by a conservator before it went up. They are <em>not</em> what came out of the ground, or what was found. What you see has not only been <em>curated</em>, it has probably been <em>conserved</em>.</p>
<p>I am extremely interested in opening up the conversation to the general public because it is a fascinating topic. Conservation is, generally speaking, a very behind-the-scenes type of work. If you are interested in art, museums, history and material culture, knowing about conservation can bring a whole new aspect to interpretations which you may not have considered before. Follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> and join me in this exciting project.</p>


What is the principle of minimum intervention and how does it relate to restoration?

Restoration vs. Minimum intervention


<p>Are you concerned you don't know how to take care of collections? Do you have any precious objects at home?</p>
<ul>
  <li>Your grandfather's medals from "the war".</li>
  <li>Your great grandmother's black and white photos.</li>
  <li>Your kid's first noodle necklace.</li>
  <li>Your aunt's stuffed animal collection.</li>
  <li>Your mum's silver service.</li>
  <li>Your wedding dress.</li>
  <li>Your personal library.</li>
  <li>Prints, mugs, keychains, dolls, etc. you have collected over time.</li>
  <li>Your very valuable comic books / action figures / Pokémon cards</li>
  <li>Actual written letters from your first ever penpal</li>
</ul>
<p>It can really be anything. Anything you cherish in one way or another. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you lost them?</p>
<p><em>Preventive conservation is all about not letting that happen without actually messing around directly with the objects and possibly ruining them.</em></p>
<h2>You said "course". What is this <a href="https://hyperlink.academy/courses/the-home-collection-game/64">course</a> about again?</h2>
<p>This course is my first experiment in teaching conservation to <em>everyone.</em></p>
<p>And no, I'm not talking about reducing plastic use and saving the elephants, although those things are great too.</p>
<p>I'm talking about the profession of conservation as exercised in museums, galleries, historical and archaeological sites, etc.</p>
<p>I'm talking about the career behind trying to make things last forever.</p>
<p>The American Institute for Conservation (<a href="https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/what-is-conservation/definitions">AIC</a>) defines conservation as</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>"The profession devoted to the preservation of cultural property for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care, supported by research and education."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Big disclaimer: I don't intend to educate formal conservators. There are extremely good programmes for that at both undergraduate and graduate levels all around the world.</p>
<p>What I want do to is bring the ideas of conservation to everyone and anyone, so we can all apply conservation knowledge at home to take care of our personal heritage:</p>
<p>The things we want to preserve for our own personal futures, for our own descendants, not the general and vague future human society.</p>
<p>Without having to pay through the nose or email museum departments to find out.</p><br>
<h2>Ok, so who is this <a href="https://hyperlink.academy/courses/the-home-collection-game/64">course</a> for?</h2>
<p>Anyone.<br>Anyone with a collection they care about now.<br>Anyone with a future collection in mind.<br>Anyone interested in heritage, maybe even thinking about studying it at a higher education level, but still unsure.<br>Anyone who doesn't necessarily want to become a pro but wants to know what's going on behind the scenes in museums and other heritage institutions.</p><br>
<h2>But this stuff sounds complicated... how are you going to teach me this?</h2>
<p>In this occasion,<br>We are going to play a game.<br>We are going to draw.<br>We are going to roleplay.</p>
<p>I will teach you the basic concepts around the ten agents of deterioration as used in museums all over the world so that you may look at your collections and see what you can do with your available time and money.</p>
<p>We will roleplay as secret agents and supervillains in a Bond-inspired game as you learn to apply museum knowledge on preventive conservation and create tailored preservation measures for your own home collections. Fake accents will be encouraged.</p><br>
<h2>This is just the beginning...</h2>
<p>I intend to run more and more conservation courses and conversations as we slowly get this information out there. There is no reason why conservation should be secret, unknown, mysterious.</p>
<p>Conservation is where science, art, history and human practices merge onto material culture. I want to share this with you.</p>
<h2>Will you partake?</h2>
<ul>
  <li><a href="https://hyperlink.academy/courses/the-home-collection-game/64" class="button">I will partake!</a></li>
  <li>
    <p>I can't partake right now, but I will follow you on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> and find out more about what you do!</p>
  </li>
</ul>


You have accumulated valuable items over the years. Join this course by a museum conservator to learn how to take care of collections at home.

The Home Collection Game - How to take care of collections


<h1>Thoughts on the definitions of conservation</h1>
<blockquote>
  <p>“…the approach to conservation can never be generalised, and is very dependent on the aims of the particular museum and curator.”<br>(Oddy 1992: 12)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The definition of heritage conservation is an elusive one, particularly because of the varied nature of the work carried out on the thousands of types of objects chosen for conservation by the hundreds of conservators in the dozens of countries around the world. Actions taken depend on the myriad of objectives that the conservator-restorer may be looking to accomplish based not only on the object itself but also on the owner’s wishes and the societal demands on each particular object’s functionality. Thus, the definition of conservation should, for the sake of accuracy, take into account the different aims, objectives and purposes of all involved players: the object, the conservator-restorer, the archaeologist/curator/owner, and society as a whole. The difficulty in arriving at a general definition thus becomes obvious. Moreover, if, as Andrew Oddy states, “the approach to conservation can never be generalised,” (Oddy 1992: 12), how could we even attempt to arrive at a generalised definition? This essay divides the definitions of conservation into three main types: object-centred definitions, anthropocentric definitions, and mixed object-societal definitions. For brevity, this essay does not include preventive conservation, but only interventive conservation.</p>
<h2>Object-centred definitions</h2>
<p>Many descriptions and generalised statements about the aims of conservation focus on the importance of the objects themselves. As a main objective, deterioration must be stopped or slowed (Pye 2001:24). Objects and their significance (aesthetic, symbolic, religious, etc.) must be safeguarded into the future (Pye 2001: 25). “Conservation is the ensemble of means that, in carrying out an intervention on an object of its environment, seek to prolong its existence as long as possible” (Berducou 1996: 250). Thus, “Conservation supposes an awareness of the materiality of the objects in which we are interested, and of the twofold consequence of that materiality: their irreplaceable nature and their physical vulnerability to the test of time” (Berducou 1996: 250). These descriptions emphasize the importance of a material’s composition/lifespan and, by extension, focus on the conservator’s capacity (whether now or in the past) to understand each material and act upon it accordingly with appropriate conservation skills and techniques (Pye 2001:34). These could be considered “technical” definitions of conservation interested in the survival of material in the face of time and decay.</p>
<h2>Anthropocentric definitions</h2>
<p>Anthropocentric definitions, on the other hand, focus on the fact that objects are meant to be conserved because of the sole value of their existence in a human context; because of the fact that somebody, somewhere, sometime made them and thus turned a series of materials from something natural to something man-made. Here come all those descriptions that regard conservation as the guardian of cultural heritage, material history, and human ingenuity/knowledge (Pye 2001: 24; Cronyn 1990: 13; Berducou 1996: 250, 255; AIC website, ICON website, IIC website). This particular focus on the conservation profession chooses to highlight the conservator’s social responsibility (and interestingly enough, by extension, his or her necessity to be highly trained by or associated to a specific set of institutions). In this case, conservation is not so much about the objects themselves – which preserved cryogenically mean absolutely nothing to us (Caple 2000: 32) – but about the information and feelings they might hold for us regarding our historic past as human groups.</p>
<p>These society-focused definitions of the profession will use language such as “save our treasures for generations to come” (AIC website) and talk about conservation’s “essential contribution to the whole of society, to education, to the advancement of knowledge, to tourism and to the economy” (ICON website) in a natural attempt to justify the existence of the field. Consequently, conservation is presented as a human need, and the definition will not dwell on handling and treatment of objects as much as the symbolic importance of their maintenance. This will also extend to conversations about access - how conservation may act as a guard which either forbids or allows access of other individuals or groups to the objects themselves.</p>
<h2>Conservation as a mixture of social and material aims</h2>
<p>A more holistic approach to definitions of conservation includes in the general definitions both the ideas of cultural heritage and the material object itself (ICOM-CC website, Caple 2000: 33-36). Caple describes conservation as a three-pronged activity consisting of <strong>Revealing</strong>, <strong>Investigating</strong>, and <strong>Preserving</strong> (RIP) each object (Caple 2000: 34) with each individual case having its own, particular mixture of each of these activities. While the RIP triangle itself may be technically-inclined, referring to specific procedures in conservation, the overall purpose of it is to show diagrammatically the existence of a balanced approach including both the academic understanding and physical maintenance of the objects involved.</p>
<p>Similarly, The National Trust Manual of Housekeeping uses the following:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>“Conservation is defined as the careful management of change. It's about revealing and sharing the significance of places and ensuring that their special qualities are protected, enhanced, understood and enjoyed by present and future generations.”<br>(Sandwith &#x26; Stainton, 2011)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This definition bridges the gap between the physicality of the object and its function in society. There is certainly no need for object-centred and anthropocentric definitions to be mutually exclusive unless one specifically desires so.</p>
<h2>But why the divide?</h2>
<p>The origins of conservation as the profession known today can be traced back as far as one wishes depending on what kind of focus we give it. We can talk about the very ancient techniques to conserve food by salting or drying, even include the processes of Egyptian mumification. We can skip those for being a bit tangential and start at the housekeeping manuals of the 17th and 18th centuries explaining how to clean and protect home items from the various agents of deterioration:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>"... have speciall care and regard to p'serve the same from all manner of wett, mothe and other hurt or spoyle thereofe and to leave them to preserved to contynewe at the sayed several houses..."<br>Elizabeth, countess of Shrewsbury in her will of 1601 *(Sandwith &#x26; Stainton, 2011)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We can jump forward to personages such as John Ruskin (mid 19th c.), William Morris (late 19th) and Cesare Brandi (early 20th) who more specifically advocated for the protection of ancient objects and monuments.</p>
<p>Conservation has proven to be an evolving process. When Morris and Brandi wrote, they reacted to destructive "restorations" which did away with many original materials as they searched to renew the aesthetics of monuments or objects. They sowed the seeds for a profession which strove to protect the material aspect of our histories, thus setting the initial focus on the object itself.</p>
<p>During the 1930s and 40s, it was still considered somewhat acceptable to re-build archaeological monuments or objects based on expectations and knowledge at the time. (For example, the restoration of the Palace of Knossos, in Crete or the Inca Acllawasi in Pachacamac, Peru, or the arm of the sculpture of the Laocöon in the Vatican.) Many of these interventions could be impossible to reverse. Furthermore, as exciting, modern adhesives and fillers were invented, during the 50s and 60s, many of them were used on objects without much knowledge on how the added materials would age. Ancient metals were stripped of their corrosion by electrolytic means or acid dips in attempts to see the base metal beneath - to "discover" the "original". Some had no base metal left at all and thus were completely lost and dissolved.</p>
<p>When the 70s and 80s rolled around, it suddenly became noticeable that many old restorations were ageing extremely badly - some potentially even causing more damage than if the object had been left alone. Thus, the history of conservation begins with a concern for the preservation of the original materiality of the object and travels through a sudden realisation regarding the way the objects were reacting to our direct interventions. Ironically, our attempts to save had actually destroyed.</p>
<p>Once we became painfully aware that the objects were not just simply taking and accepting restoring interventions without becoming increasingly complicated, damaged and even losing authenticity, we began to explicitly talk about minimising interventions. We started to worry that our tinkering was, in fact, not only failing to chemically or physically stabilise, but was actively harming and taking away from the <em>"meaning"</em> of the object. And if we believe that objects have modern social <em>identities</em>, then an object-centred approach could be considered inaccurate - which period of time should that object represent? The time when it was made or the time when we are looking at it? Conservation stops being about preserving the material for the sake of an 'unbiased' history, but must take into account the current social value, function and purpose of the object in the context of what society deems important. This particular discussion could be the focus of a complete book, so I will leave it at that for now.</p>
<h2>Final thoughts</h2>
<p>How is it possible to have a short, straight-forward sentence which will, in a few words, describe what Caple has condensed into “three almost opposing aims” (Caple 2000:33)? (Reveal, Investigate, Preserve). In short, I'm not sure it is fully possible. Conservation must therefore be a case-by-case negotiation of possible treatments regarding the health of material objects based on societal desires or pressures, and it is the job of the professional conservator not only to worry about the materiality of an object, but to reconcile our demands with an object’s capacity to fulfil them.</p>
<p>If you'd like to continue this conversation, follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> where I'll be happy to talk about it some more.</p>
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
<p>AIC. (2012). Available: <a href="http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&#x26;pageId=471">http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&#x26;pageId=471</a>. Last accessed 19th Oct 2012.</p>
<p>Berducou, Marie. (1996). Introduction to Archaeological Conservation. In: Price, N.S.; Talley Jr., M.K.; Melucco Vaccaro, A. Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Washington: The Getty Conservation Institute. 248-259</p>
<p>Caple, C (2000). Conservation Skills: Judgement, Method and Decision Making. Oxon: Routledge.</p>
<p>Cronyn, J.M. (1990). The Elements of Archaeological Conservation. London: Routledge.</p>
<p>ICOM-CC. (2012). Terminology to characterize the conservation of tangible cultural heritage. Available: <a href="http://www.icom-cc.org/242/about-icom-cc/what-is-conservation/">http://www.icom-cc.org/242/about-icom-cc/what-is-conservation/</a>. Last accessed 19th Oct 2012</p>
<p>ICON. (2012). Available: <a href="http://www.icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&#x26;view=article&#x26;id=1&#x26;Itemid=2">http://www.icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&#x26;view=article&#x26;id=1&#x26;Itemid=2</a>. Last accessed 19th Oct 2012.</p>
<p>IIC. (2012). Available: <a href="http://www.iiconservation.org/about">http://www.iiconservation.org/about</a>. Last accessed 19th Oct 2012.</p>
<p>Oddy, A (1992). The Art of the Conservator. London: British Museum Press.</p>
<p>Pye, E. (2001). Conservation examined. In: Caring for the past: Issues in conservation for archaeology and museums. London: James &#x26; James (Science Publishers) Ltd.</p>
<p>Sandwith, H. and Stainton, S. (2011). The National Trust manual of housekeeping. 4th ed. London: National Trust, p.35.</p>


What is the definition of heritage conservation? Different perspectives on a field.

What is conservation?


<p><em>Surveillance camera. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@scottwebb?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Scott Webb</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/security-museum?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em></p>
<p>Much like a medical doctor, a conservator should not cause harm. It is a conservator's job to care for the different aspects of material culture, thinking not only about the physical nature of objects, but also about their context and meaning within human society in the past, the present and the future. Conservators are not detached observers/agents but may actively affect the interpretation of objects through their work.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>What happens when a conservation treatment can lend legitimacy to an object of dubious provenance?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are two opposing views which we can present here:</p>
<h2>1</h2>
<h3>Stolen objects have no contextual value. We must not intervene them.</h3>
<p>Here are some of the views that could be expressed to explain why some might believe that stolen objects or those with dubious provenance must not be intervened:</p>
<ul>
  <li>An object is worthless without context. Why waste scarce resources on it? If it was stolen and has no contextual information, then its value is limited to its aesthetic appearance.</li>
  <li>Stolen objects hurt international relations. Here come in all the international debates on the return of looted cultural material or objects taken during colonialist undertakings.</li>
  <li>Stolen objects fund dangerous associations (e.g. terrorism, drug trade, etc.). This idea posits that violent individuals will loot cultural heritage and sell it on the black market in order to fund questionable projects.</li>
  <li>Conservation of objects of dubious provenance encourages buyers to keep acquiring stolen objects. A conserved object derives some legitimacy by having been accepted and treated by a professional. Conservation can unintentionally "white-wash" an illegally-obtained object.</li>
  <li>The internationalist position of object trading encourages economically depressed locals to loot their own heritage for small cash revenues.</li>
  <li>We would rather lose ‘information’ – which is cold and nonhuman – than to foster inequality and painful human experiences. The ‘past’ is not more important than the people in the present.</li>
  <li>Conservation organisations encourage us to stick to the law and question the provenance of the items we treat.</li>
  <li>Valuable information associated to the object's procurement could be removed by cleaning.</li>
  <li>Legal implications – conservators could get prosecuted for aiding in the trade of cultural heritage objects.</li>
  <li>There could be undesirable consequences from lack of information. Looters many times use chemicals to 'treat' objects to make them look older or to make them conform to a certain type of object they wish to sell. Carrying out chemical interventions on tampered objects could result in unexpected reactions with unknown added substances and ruin the object.</li>
</ul>
<h2>2</h2>
<h3>We must do everything to save our material culture</h3>
<p>In spite of the above points, there are also some other views that refute the idea that all objects from unknown provenances should be shunned:</p>
<ul>
  <li>The classic: "If I don't do this properly myself, <em>someone else</em> will do I don't even know what and make it worse. The object will be in danger."</li>
  <li>Conservation encourages research into the object before intervention. This can help educate the owner regarding the object they have bought or obtained.</li>
  <li>There will always be a market for illicit objects. Will we sacrifice them all?</li>
  <li>It's not the object’s "fault" it was stolen – it still needs and deserves treatment.</li>
  <li>I could treat the object <em>and</em> notify the authorities. Preferably not in that order.</li>
  <li>Conservation and study gives an object a record. This will make it more difficult for it to move in hidden circles. (Note that this can also legitimise a stolen object.)</li>
  <li>Conservation treatments can reveal fakes. Sometimes, the object is not authentic. It has been fabricated. Conservation research will show technical-historical inconsistencies.</li>
  <li>Who owns the object in the first place? How could a conservator find out or know? Who is the conservator to determine ownership?</li>
  <li>Conservation is better than nothing.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Discussion</h2>
<p>How do we even decide what counts as an object from "dubious provenance"? Objects could have been picked up, taken during conflicts, looted, sold legally to unwary buyers, picked up by legally contracted treasure hunters from shipwrecks in international waters, etc.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Shipwreck.jpg" alt="Revelation-Investigation-Preservation triangle"><br><em>Exploring the J. J. AUDUBON shipwreck. Who owns underwater material heritage? Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@noaa?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">NOAA</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/shipwreck?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<p>When it comes to objects from shipwrecks, ownership is extremely fuzzy. For example: A sunken Spanish galleon from the 17th century that was taking essentially looted silver from what is now Peru and sank in what are currently Colombian waters by a British pirate ship. As far as I understand international naval war rules, the ship technically belongs to the victor - the one who sank it. So in cases like this, who are the real owners of the treasures? Spain, Peru, Colombia, UK, the private company hired to find the galleon, the government that paid for the company to find the galleon? etc., etc. Find out more about the intricacies of shipwreck ownership <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44302476">here</a>.</p>
<p>Whether we like it or not, a conservation treatment has the power to validate an object in some way or another. The very fact that an object has gone through a professional, been studied, treated, photographed and registered on a database will remove a shade of illegality from it. How could it be illegal? It's all written down here. At the very least, the person who paid for the treatment can now claim that they have invested in the object and therefore it justifies ownership.</p>
<p>Another interesting aspect is that notions of identity can change through time. People may be comfortable/uncomfortable selling/not selling their cultural property at different periods in time. This is not to excuse the selling of cultural heritage during the 19th and early 20th century - certainly there are issues of power involved. However, if our ancestors didn't care and sold something legally to get money for it, can we assume they were wrong/mistaken/coerced and demand those objects back?</p>
<p>As time goes by, objects change identities and meaning through our perceptions of them. They are only important in cultural contexts. Humans made them. Humans decide what they mean to us.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there is a difference between personal ethics and actual law. Eventually, a series of laws arise which broadly represent the majority view on how complicated issues such as these should be dealt with. There will be a range of views regarding stolen objects, but it must be recognised that a consensus emerges that we all end up respecting. The ‘norm’ established at the moment is that objects with no clear provenance should not be worked on. Doing so might infringe the ethics codes of several conservation bodies and may even lead to possible prosecution. However, the main reason is that conservation gives more value and validates objects. Perhaps we must accept the fact that some objects have to be ‘let go’. Maybe not everything can be saved?</p>
<h2>What do <em>you</em> think?</h2>
<p>I hope you found this article thought-provoking. If you feel like it, do send me a message on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> and we can continue the conversation there!</p>


How does the field of conservation relate to black market artifacts and trafficking of cultural heritage objects?

Thoughts on objects from dubious provenance


<p>If you're not a professional conservator, and you just don't have the budget to get one, then preventive conservation is for you!</p>
<p>We can learn to apply various bits of useful information on basic preventive conservation. Why?</p>
<p>The first mothers ever learned to roll the big rock over the entrance of the cave overnight to stop the predators from coming in and eating you while you slept because they knew that prevention is better than lamentation.</p>
<p>In the case of museums, galleries, libraries and home collections, prevention is better than restoration.</p>
<p>This is why I am giving you a tiny introduction to preventive conservation. I say tiny because there are thousands of entire websites and books on the topic, but here are some basics. I will address more in future posts.</p>
<h2>1. If you touch the object, it's not called Preventive Conservation anymore</h2>
<p>A clear definition of preventive conservation is the following by Dr. Ziad al-Saad:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>"Preventive Conservation is the mitigation of deterioration and damage to cultural property through the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures for the following: appropriate environmental conditions; handling and maintenance procedures for storage, exhibition, packing, transport, and use; integrated pest management; emergency preparedness and reponse; and reformatting/duplication. Preventive conservation is an ongoing process that continues throughout the life of cultural property and does not end with interventive treatment."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As you see, Dr. al-Saad has at no point mentioned messing with the object directly in any way.</p>
<p>It is important to understand that "preventive conservation" is a technical term in the field. It is not just being descriptive. I have heard some people say things like "We did preventive conservation on object x by lightly vacuuming it." This statement is not accurate, as the object is being directly cleaned. It is being directly intervened. You cannot "do" preventive conservation on an object.</p>
<p>But why? Isn't cleaning an object a preventive action? Won't that <strong>prevent</strong> damage?</p>
<p>Yes. It will. However, any action taken directly upon an object is an intervention which requires a thorough documentation process. Preventive conservation is about taking measures <strong>around</strong> the objects in order to <strong>avoid</strong> having to intervene directly.</p>
<h2>2. Why is preventive preferable to interventive conservation?</h2>
<p>While direct intervention will sometimes be necessary and required to stabilise decaying objects, preventive conservation has many advantages:</p>
<ul>
  <li>It is so much cheaper!! It will be much more cost effective to monitor and control the environmental conditions around a huge collection of objects to minimise deterioration than it is to conserve object by object once they have been damaged.</li>
  <li>Preventive conservation can be more environmentally friendly as it reduces the need for chemical use.</li>
  <li>It encourages a culture of prevention rather than reaction to damage.</li>
  <li>It can be taught to and carried out by all people who deal with collections and is not limited to trained professionals.</li>
  <li>It encourages the scientific investigation of dynamics of deterioration and material science.</li>
  <li>It is much more efficient on a time-per-object basis and resources used.</li>
</ul>
<h2>3. The 10 (or 9) agents of deterioration</h2>
<p>One of the easiest and most basic ways to start learning about preventive conservation is using the 10 (or 9) agents of deterioration. They were first published in 1994 by Charlie Costain and were further worked on by Stephen Michalski, C.L. Rose, C.A. Hawks y Robert Waller. Here we go:</p>
<h3>1</h3>
<p>Physical forces - As in "Oops, I dropped that." or "Oops, that tourist plonked his backpack on it." or "EARTHQUAAAAKE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hQP7HylOjm0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><em>The title of the video says it all.</em></p>
<h3>2</h3>
<p>Thieves and vandals - See bastards, sometimes also terrorists. Lately though, and much more contentious, politically-driven groups or individuals.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Buddha_of_Bamiyan.jpg" alt="Buddha of Bamiyan"><br><em>The Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan - destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70963205">Image by Fars News Agency, CC BY 4.0</a></em>
</p>
<h3>3</h3>
<p>Fire - See <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/one-year-after-notre-dame-fire-officials-struggle-to-keep-restoration-on-track">Notre Dame</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-museu-nacional-fire-rio-de-janeiro-natural-history">National Museum of Brazil</a>, <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/897015/the-glasgow-school-of-art-fire-what-happened-and-what-happens-next">Glasgow School of Art</a>.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/NotreDameFire.jpg" alt="Notre Dame Fire">
  <em>Fire in Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78085901">Photo by Wandrille de Préville - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0</a></em>
</p>
<h3>4</h3>
<p>Water - Like in Flashdance, damage by the bucketful, or like in Titanic, by walls of moving water.</p>
<p>
  <img src="/Flood.jpg" alt="Flood">
  <em>The Old White Horse Brasserie, Old Main Street, Bingley, UK in 2015.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@chriswebdog?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Chris Gallagher</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/flood?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<h3>5</h3>
<p>
  Pests - Like in the Bible.
  
  <img src="/Pests.jpg" alt="Cockroach on a white jelly">
  <em>Cockroaches will eat anything and can cause disasters in a collection.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@erik_karits?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Erik Karits</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/pests?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>
.</em>
</p>
<h3>6</h3>
<p>
  Contaminants - Air pollution, like in any city in the world these days.
  
  <img src="/Pollution.jpg" alt="Factories emitting clouds of pollution">
  <em>Sulphides and particulate pollution in the air can increase degradation in objects.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@pafuxu?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Kouji Tsuru</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/pollution?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<h3>7</h3>
<p>
  Light, UV and Infrared - That is, unfiltered light, like under the sun or right next to a window.
  
  <img src="/Light.jpg" alt="Light coming in through a window">
  <em>Light streaming in through a window may be beautiful, but your light-sensitive objects will not appreciate it as much as you.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ianjbattaglia?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Ian Battaglia</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/light-window?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<h3>8</h3>
<p>
  Incorrect temperature - Like in Qatar for the Football World Cup in 2022.
  
  <img src="/Temperature.jpg" alt="Image of digital thermostat showing 63F">
  <em>Generally speaking, for objects, the colder, the better. High temperatures will increase the speed of chemical reactions, and by extention, increase degradation.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@danlefeb?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Dan LeFebvre</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/@archibald140/likes?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<h3>9</h3>
<p>
  Incorrect relative humidity - This is sometimes joined to point 8 as a single point called incorrect environmental conditions.
  
  <img src="/RH.jpg" alt="Image of digital thermohygrometer showing 24.1°C and 44% relative humidity">
  <em>Being able to monitor Relative Humidity is essential to make sure you neither dry up your objects nor let them mould over.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@kaffeebart?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Kaffeebart</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/@archibald140/likes?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<h3>10</h3>
<p>
  Dissociation - This means the loss of the information that goes with the object. A loss of information causes loss of meaning and academic/social value. In other words, that little card with the object info that went in the box got lost, or Mr. Jones, who used to be the only one who knew anything about the object left or died and told no one, or the rats ate all the registration archives, or the fire burnt down the office, or your server got hacked. So the object itself is there and undamaged, but we suddenly know nothing about it anymore.
  
  <img src="/Dissociation.jpg" alt="Image of old filing cabinet system with cards">
  <em>It may seem old-fashioned, but always having a paper copy of your digital files might save you from software meltdown.
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@qwitka?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Maksym Kaharlytskyi</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/files?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<p>Since each agent is a whole book in itself, I will make little posts on each, but I just wanted to present them here as a list so you may have them in mind. These are the agents that a preventive conservation programme is trying to hinder and manage.</p>
<p>If you liked this post, you can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> where I'll be posting more information on the preventive conservation and how to take care of your objects.</p>
<p>Alternately, if you'd like to take a five-week interactive course, take a look at The Home Collection Game course <a href="https://hyperlink.academy/courses/the-home-collection-game/64">here</a> where I take you through all agents in detail and we learn to apply preventive measures through play.</p>
<h2>Bibliography (in English and Spanish)</h2>
<p>AECID. Conservación preventiva para todos. Una guía ilustrada. <a href="http://www.aecid.es/Centro-Documentacion/Documentos/documentos%20adjuntos/MANUAL%20DE%20GESTION%20bj%20on%20line.pdf">PDF here</a></p>
<p>Caple, C. 2011. Preventive conservation in museums. 1st ed. London: Routledge. <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42123302.pdf">PDF here</a></p>
<p>Costain, C. 1994. Framework for preservation of museum collections. Canadian Conservation Institute Newsletter 14:1-4.</p>
<p>IBERMUSEOS. 1999. Conservación preventiva. <a href="http://www.ibermuseos.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Unidad3_MUSEUM-INTERNACIONAL_conservacion-preventiva.pdf">PDF</a></p>
<p>Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España. Plan nacional y fundamentos de conservación preventiva. <a href="http://ipce.mcu.es/pdfs/PN_CONSERVACION_PREVENTIVA.pdf">PDF</a> y <a href="http://ipce.mcu.es/pdfs/FundamentosCP.pdf">PDF2</a></p>
<p>Michalski, S. 1994a. A systematic approach to preservation: description and integration with other museum activities. Pp. 8-11 in Preprints of the Ottawa Congress, 12-16 September 1994. Preventive Conservation, Theory and Research. (A. Roy and P. Smith, eds.). International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, London. 244 pp.</p>
<p>Rose, C.L. y C.A. Hawks. 1995. A preventive conservation approach to the storage of collections. Pp. 1-20 in Storage of Natural History Collections: A Preventive Conservation Approach. (C.L. Rose, C.A. Hawks, and H.H. Genoways, eds.). Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. x + 448 pp.</p>
<p>Simmons, John E., y Yaneth Muñoz Saba. 2003. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1870670/The_theoretical_bases_of_collections_management">The theoretical bases of collections management.</a></p>
<p>Waller, R. R. 1995. <a href="http://museum-sos.org/docs/WallerSPNHC1995.pdf">Risk management applied to preventive conservation.</a> Pp. 21-27 in Storage of Natural History Collections: A Preventive Conservation Approach. (C.L. Rose, C.A. Hawks, and H.H. Genoways, eds.). Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. x + 448 pp.</p>


Basic preventive conservation - 3 things to start you off


<p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmceoin/">Randy McEoin</a> on <a href="https://flic.kr/p/6gSWjN">Flickr</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Insects? Why are we talking about insects?</h2>
<p>Pests and insects are a well-known topic in conservation. I am sure you will know from personal experience that there are certain insects which can wreak havoc at home - in the wooden furniture, our clothes, our books, our kitchens.</p>
<p>Has it ever happened to you that some ingrate moth has left a hole in that one shirt you had at the back of the closet saved up for special events and which is the only shirt that goes with the rest of the special outfit with the special shoes and the special bag that you save for special events when Zoom is not an option and you just have to show up? Maybe that's just me.</p>
<p>What about the gross little weevils that show up in your rice? You know how they say that the only thing worse than a worm in your food is half a worm in your food.</p>
<p>The point I'm trying to make is that <strong>insects will not just eat things in your home, but also in museum collections, galleries and archives.</strong></p>
<p>A friend told me once that something ate seven books in her library. I myself had to throw out a bamboo steamer because of a termite infestation. It's my main excuse for discarding the steamed vegetable diet I intended to pursue.</p>
<p>The thing is, in my opinion, <strong>these insects eat away my happiness</strong> - and we can't just go fumigating all our spaces once a month because we don't also want to die from excess toxic chemicals. Moreover, collections don't like fumigations either and sometimes discolour or increase deterioration rates after contact with fumigants. Let's not even mention that some fumigants cause damage to local fauna (like bees) and that, just like with antibiotics <strong>if you over-fumigate and you don't manage to kill 100% of the bugs, they will come back stronger and more resistant.</strong></p>
<h2>Warnings about the fumigant ghosts of the past</h2>
<p>There are some important warnings to be made.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Remember that many objects have been treated in the remote and not-so-remote past with toxic fumigants and biocides.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
  <img src="/Teratogenico.png" alt="Bad impression of a Picasso cubist portrait"><br><em>Yes, I'm Johnny. How could you tell my mum used to fumigate in the museum?</em>
</p>
<p>Remember that although many chemicals and fumigants today are designed to be non-harmful to humans, this was not always the case. Barely 30-40 years ago, we used very toxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic things. (Teratogenic means that if you are pregnant, your child might come out like a cubist Picasso portrait - with 6 arms, their mouth inside a half-eye, their ear on top of their nose and a hairy tail on one of their 3 feet. Do be careful.)</p>
<p>Be especially mindful of organic objects that have been in your collection or home for a long time. <strong>You just don't know what they might have had added to them.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Be extremely careful with taxidermy items. Most, if not all, will have remnants of arsenic and mercury. Remember that many of these horrible susbstances can be absorbed through the skin and will build up in your body.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you are around objects like wood, textiles and dried botanical specimens, many of them might have been mandatorily fumigated in proper Ford-style production line mode. This is just how things used to be protected from insects in the past.​</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Beware of "white powders" on materials. Not everything that looks like salt is just table salt! (Sometimes it is, but do you want to find out the bad way?)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Don't go poking your nose on objects like a hound. If you feel you sense a particular fumigant-y smell (It's hard to describe. You come to recognise it with experience.), put on an organic vapour mask. Avoid being in closed rooms with such objects. Make sure you are in a well-ventilated space.</p>
<p>Be careful because your sense of smell might get flooded and stop recognising a smell. Your head, however, will know and will start hurting if the vapours in the area are causing you harm.</p>
<p>Even naphthalene (main ingredient in traditional moth balls) which were so common in our grandparents closets and wardrobes now seems to be a proven carcinogenic with some governments setting occupational hazard exposure limits to it. See this <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002477.htm">entry</a> for naphthalene poisoning. I warn you. It's not pretty.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>If you still know people who "smell like mothballs," you might be doing them a kindness if you let them know they're a walking cancer dispenser. Be nice about it, though.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
  <img src="/PPE.jpg" alt="Person with full Personal Protection Equipment"><br><em>This might be overkill, but not always! Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@cdc?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">CDC</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/ppe?utm_source=unsplash&#x26;utm_medium=referral&#x26;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>.</em>
</p>
<p>Most of the time, there will be no documentation on past treatments with toxic substances, so it's best to be on the safe side and put on your PPE.</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>Remember that just because "I've never used PPE for this and nothing happened" doesn't mean nothing happened. Internal body damage by chemicals is cumulative. You may not feel anything is going on now, but if you keep doing it, maybe that cancer you get 10 years from now is being born through your actions today.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY</h3>
<p>If you would like to know more about insects and pest damage for collections, you can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> where I'll be posting more content on how to protect your objects at home.</p>


Warnings about pesticide use before integrated pest management practices. There are dangerous remains from the past!

Integrated Pest Management - Fumigations and pesticides


<p><em>Montorsoli's restoration of the Laocoön's right arm was attached in an extended pose based on expectations, but when the real arm was found in excavations, it turns out it was bent at the elbow. Image source: Wikipedia.</em></p>
<blockquote>
  <p>"The conservator should endeavour only to use techniques and materials which, to the best of current knowledge, will not endanger the true nature of the object and which will not impede future treatment or the retrieval of information through scientific examination”<br>(Ashley-Smith, 1982:2)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The main issue in the debate between believing in an original, ‘true nature’ of an object and the reversibility principle is that if a conservator chooses a point in time for an object’s ‘original’ look and feel, all the cleaning that may occur based on this decision will effectively and irreversibly erase any evidence of any other aspects and interpretations of that object. The real question is: does it actually matter?</p>
<h2>Definitions</h2>
<p>Before beginning any analyses, working definitions are in order. The ‘true nature’ of an object “includes evidence of its origins, its original construction, the materials of which it is composed and information as to the technology used in its manufacture” (Caple 2000:62). The concept emphasizes the importance of the original object as a historic document, aesthetic entity and potential source of information (Caple 2000:141-143) and bases itself on a positivistic approach to knowledge where such a thing as one, single ‘truth’ is discoverable through scientific means. ‘True nature’ joins with the concepts of ‘authenticity’ and ‘integrity’ as “a measure of the wholeness and intactness of the natural and/or cultural heritage and its attributes” (Jokilehto 2009:81). This definition could lead a conservator to make the decision to irretrievably strip off many layers of later additions (whether natural or man-made) over the object in an attempt to reveal this ‘true’ meaning.</p>
<p>
  The concept of ‘reversibility’ began in the 1960s when conservators encountered the problems presented by past restoration work in the 19th and early 20th century that were difficult to remove and that caused objects more harm than good (Caple 2000:63). ‘Reversibility’ was meant to
  distinguish the modern, professional conservators from their ‘technician’ predecessors and emphasised the importance of not harming objects or hindering future treatments and investigations (ICON, article 9). As a concept, ‘reversibility’ displayed the interesting dichotomy of
  both insecurities in a profession where constant scientific discoveries can derail previous knowledge about what is ‘good’ overnight, and at the same time, the firm belief that constant scientific improvement meant that such a thing as ‘reversible’ treatments were completely possible – which in all reality, they are not (Caple 2000:64). ‘Reversibility’ implies that anything conservators do can be not just wrong, but very wrong – and that non-permanent treatments are paramount even if they mean risking the object to be subject to periodic retreatment – at its worst, 'reversibility’ almost hints at a lack of professional confidence and ability. Generally speaking, it would be more accurate to speak of ‘retreatability,’ but this is beyond the scope of this précis.
</p>
<p>
  <img src="/TrueNature-RIPtriangle.jpg" alt="Revelation-Investigation-Preservation triangle"><br><em>The rough location of the concepts of ‘true nature’ and ‘reversibility’ as presented in a RIP diagram of Revelation, Investigation and Preservation (Caple 2000:34). A particularly important thing to remember about the concept of ‘reversibility’ is that it is also dependent on the restorer’s skill (Ashley-Smith 1982:3).</em>
</p>
<h2>The mythical Truth and the postmodern era</h2>
<blockquote>
  <p>“It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture.”<br>(Ruskin 1996:322)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It turned out, as time went by and ideas changed or were rediscovered (Brandi 1996), that the one Truth – with a capital ‘T’ – was so elusive when it came to object biographies that it almost didn’t exist – and it had to fall from use for professional, ethical guidelines. That idea of an authoritative, historical, accurate, single past with the (very real) power to shape present thoughts and decisions was not real, and by extension – the consequences of ignoring ‘reversibility’ loomed more threatening than before. If it was true, as Viollet-le-Duc posited, that “to restore…means neither to maintain… nor to repair… nor to rebuild… [but] to reestablish… in a finished state, which may in fact never have actually existed at any given time (Viollet-le-Duc 1996:314), then conservators were running the risks of re-writing history with the stroke of a brush (Richardson 1996:191).</p>
<p>It became important to start retaining old restorations due to historical meaning (Oddy 1994:5; ICOMOS 1964:article 11) and because of the capacity of objects to speak as ‘objective’ witnesses to the past (Caple 2006:206). It was realised that the most stringent cleaning would not necessarily leave an object with an ‘original’ surface (as that may have already been corroded away) (Caple 2006:207-208), and that “the attempt to reestablish ‘the original state’ was purely a mythical endeavour that could never be obtained; one could only have a ‘present state of the material’” (Carbonara 1996:237). Moreover, authors like Carbonara and France-Lanord argued that since whatever the ‘original’ was could not be brought back, that objects should be given back their “figurative context” by striking a balance between looking for the historical document and finding its aesthetic identity (Carbonara 1996:240; France-Lanord 1996:245; Caple 2000:141).</p>
<p>Not only were the dynamics of historical continuity acknowledged on objects, but documents such as the Nara Document on Authenticity of 1994 also highlighted cultural pluralism and respect for different viewpoints in the interpretation of object ‘truths’ (Jokilehto 2009:73; UNESCO) – a recognition that not all ‘truths’ are tangible and based on the materiality of the object, and more importantly, that depending on our backgrounds, we all see or fail to see very different ‘truths’ reflected in the object (Hassard 2008:158).</p>
<h2>The importance of object interpretations</h2>
<p>On the one hand, it is very significant that ideas on ‘true nature’ have evolved into today’s definitions. Interpretations of an object will help determine its conservation needs (Hall 2004:69), and the actions that are taken with ‘reversibility’ concepts in mind will shape both the tangible and intangible heritage contained in each object for future generations (Hassard 2008:150). Furthermore, objects that are displayed are the result of a conscious decision by the curators and conservators and show very specific points in their history – that is, they give out a false sense of ‘completeness’ as an object becomes isolated in time instead of being clearly presented as a snapshot of a continuum (Caple 2000:94-95).</p>
<p>All of the aforementioned points imply that as professionals, conservators have the qualifications and power to influence public thought and knowledge – and to a great extent, this is true. This may be partly the reason why single meanings rather than a multiplicity of them per object are presented – so as not to confuse. Still, whichever way in which we choose to display objects, in this view, we have now supposedly moved on to believing that the object has had (and will continue to have) a much longer life than us and therefore has more truths in it than we can see. It is no longer conservators and curators attempting to reveal and force the one truth that they inaccurately believed the object held, but the other way around. It is the object revealing its own truths while we do our best not to obscure them.</p>
<p>In Holtorf’s opinion, however, “cultural appreciation of the past is not now, and never has been, to any large extent dependent on original ancient sites and objects” (Holtorf 2011:289). Holtorf regards ancient objects and sites as the product of our interest in the past, and not the other way around (Holtorf 2011:289). His ideas “based on the truism that ‘every generation rewrites its history – and its history is the only history it has of the world’,” suggest that every time a new past is ‘created’ through our interpretations, we find objects and sites that become significant and supportive of our beliefs (Holtorf 2011:289). Thus, Holtorf goes beyond the concept of ‘true natures’ that are inherent to objects and sites, and instead argues that “archaeological heritage management should be concerned with actively and responsibly renewing the past in our time” (Holtorf 2011:294).</p>
<p>In other words, it is not the objects themselves that are important, but what we make of them. In a strange way, it seems to go back to the idea of a single meaning in objects that we ascribe to them – except this time, it has no unrealistic expectations of such a meaning coming from the object itself, but is acknowledged as directly springing from us: ‘true nature’ as a concept, here, is completely redundant – and ‘reversibility’, by extension, becomes a non-issue. It will be most interesting to observe, as time passes by, whether Holtorf’s ideas become the next step in conservation theory or whether we will go in another direction entirely.</p>
<p>I hope you liked this article. Do send me a message on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConservaLlama">Twitter</a> and we can continue the conversation there!</p>
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
<p>Ashley‐Smith, J. (1982) The ethics of conservation, The Conservator, 6:1, p.1-5</p>
<p>Brandi, C (1996) Theory of Restoration I-III. In: Price, N. and Talley, M., et al. (1996) Historical and philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute. p.230-235, 339-342, 377-379</p>
<p>Caple, C. (2000) Conservation skills. Judgement, method and decision making. London: Routledge.</p>
<p>Caple, C. (2006) Objects: Reluctant witnesses to the past. London: Routledge.</p>
<p>Carbonara, G (1996) The integration of the image: /problems in the restoration of monuments. In: Price, N. and Talley, M., et al. (1996) Historical and philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute. p.236-243</p>
<p>France-Lanord, Albert. (1996) Knowing How to “Question” the Object before Restoring It. In: Price, N.S.; Talley Jr., M.K.; Melucco Vaccaro, A. Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Washington: The Getty Conservation Institute. p.244-247</p>
<p>Hall, A. (2004) A case study on the ethical considerations for an intervention upon a Tibetan religious sculpture, The Conservator, 28:1, 66-73</p>
<p>Hassard, F. (2009) Towards a new vision of restoration in the context of global change, Journal of the Institute of Conservation, 32:2, 149-163</p>
<p>Holtorf, C.J. (2011) Is the past a non-renewable resource? In: Layton, R. and Stone, P., et al. (2011) Destruction and conservation of cultural property. London: Routledge.</p>
<p>ICOMOS (1964) Venice charter. [online] Available at: <a href="http://www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf">http://www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf</a> [Accessed: 17 May 2013].</p>
<p>The Institute of Conservation (2002) Professional Guidelines. [online] Available at: <a href="http://www.icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&#x26;task=view&#x26;id=121&#x26;Itemid=">http://www.icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&#x26;task=view&#x26;id=121&#x26;Itemid=</a> [Accessed: 16 May 2013].</p>
<p>Jokilehto, J. (2009) Conservation principles in the international context. In: Richmond, A. and Bracker, A. (2009) Conservation. Principles, dilemmas and uncomfortable truths. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. p.73-83</p>
<p>Oddy, A. (1994) Restoration – is it acceptable? In: Oddy, A. (1994) Restoration : is it acceptable?. [London]: British Museum Department of Conservation. p.3-8</p>
<p>Richardson, J. (1996) Crimes against the Cubists. In: Price, N. and Talley, M., et al. (1996) Historical and philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute. p.185-192</p>
<p>Ruskin, J (1996) The lamp of memory, II. In: Price, N. and Talley, M., et al. (1996) Historical and philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute. p.322-323</p>
<p>Viollet-le-Duc, E.E (1996) Restoration. In: Price, N. and Talley, M., et al. (1996) Historical and philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute. p.314-318</p>


What is the reversibility principle in conservation procedures?

True Nature vs. the reversibility principle


<p>The following introductory articles on various topics in art conservation are meant to give you basic information on art conservation. These articles are a good place to start if you don't know anything about conservation yet.</p>


Introductory articles on various topics in art conservation.

Introductory topics in art conservation

Related Articles