from The National Museum of Denmark -
Museum Microclimates
go to conference web-page

An important development in the field of preventive conservation is the control and use of enclosures to modify ambient temperature, relative humidity and pollution, so as to reduce exposure of sensitive materials to damage.

The conference papers and posters of the above conference, held late last year, are now available for downloading. The introduction summarising the conference presentations is well worth a read here. The full papers are available here (PDF format, 15 MB) while the posters are available here (PDF format, 1.7 MB).

Also thanks to Conservation DistList for the prior announcement.
.

from The Wired Blog -
New CO2 Capturing Material Could Make Plants Cleaner
go to blog post
go to gallery of images

Using precisely engineered molecules with a definite structure to act as a chemical sieve so that only the target molecule (in this case, carbon dioxide) will be trapped. This principle of a chemical sieve had been used in filtration processes in the form of zeolites

However, this latest development comes from the pharmaceutical field utilising the automated and high-speed chemical screening process in the testing and selection of very specific properties of chemical products. Now, we just need a few more specific chemical sieves for the indoor pollutants that we get in museums.
.

from The Guardian -
Building plans give U2 hometown blues
go to article

I was digging around my backlog of e-mails and found the above rather dated news snippet, and it kind of made me sad to learn that one of my early favourite bands has got absolute no credibility in so far as heritage preservation is concerned. Maybe I have been listening to the "wrong" kind of music ... or that great music and preservation don't mix ... or that U2 is no longer great ... or all (or none) of the above.
.

Pushing pass 500 posts ...

For the ardent and occasional followers of this blog - whoever and wherever you are - many thanks for reading and with the odd spot of contribution thrown in over the past 4 years. Here's to another 500 and more ... Cheers!
.

from The Guardian -
Can you do me a quick cow's head?
go to article

With more "brand-name" artists increasing their reliance on fabricators and assistants, it is important to recognise that accurate (and crucial) information about the actual making of artworks must be sought from people other than the "author" of the work - no matter what the "author" claims to know about his or her work.
.

from The New York Times -
Boot Camp for Curators Who Want the Top Job
go to article

In the increasingly complex and competitive sphere of the "museum industry", the struggle to balance core mission and necessary changes is a real one - and may be a frightening one, too. Both in the US and UK, there are already institutions and programmes which are put in place to address such a need within the profession. And let's not deceive ourselves to think that this is only a particular and unique problem of the Europeans or Americans. So when will we start addressing the problem here in Singapore?

from Emerging Technology Trends -
Free software tools for archivists
go to article

An affordable way of getting smaller collections in order (and accessible via the Internet) without being locked-down by inflexible and expensive license fees. Kudos also for getting the priorities right - long-term preservation instead of short-term commercial gains. More of such efforts would certainly be helpful overall.
.

from The Guardian -
The curse of the blockbuster
go to article

Can't live with them, and can't live without them. Or is it?

"The problem is not blockbusters. It's that in London we get too many exhibitions that sound big, but in reality are very small."

Substitute your favourite global city for "London" and it probably still holds true. "Primary Colours", anyone?
.

from Emerging Technology Trends -
Nanotechnology-based self-cleaning fabrics
go to article

Another application of the self-cleaning technology that is based on the application of a thin coating of titanium dioxide, which breaks down organic materials in the presence of ultra-violet radiation.

Also see earlier posts:
"Self-Cleaning Tiles"
"Cleaning walls? No sweat - just add sunlight and rain"
"Eco glass cleans itself with Sun"
.

from The Guardian -
British Museum and army team up in move to rescue Iraq's heritage
go to article

As the Chinese saying goes:"Mending the fence after loosing all the sheep." Too little, too late, one might add.
.

from Emerging Technology Trends -

Lensless camera for nanoscale imaging
go to webblog post

Taking images of individual atoms in color
go to webblog post

3-D imaging with FINCH
go to webblog post

T-rays used to reveal old hidden art
go to webblog post

Yet more updates and information on new and improved imaging technologies that have potential use in the technical exmamination and analysis of cultural heritage materials.
.

from The Artful Manager -
Allocating that complex asset, the museum collection
go to article

A thought-provoking argument that since most museums' collections do not see the day-light of things, the conventional wisdom that museums must be predicated upon an ever-expanding collection and acquisition policy has to be considered as suspect. Alternative models of shared acquisitions and loans must be seriously explored for museums to be sustainable and viable institutions.

In a related article in the Art Newspaper, the (inevitable) trend towards private museums, at least in the US context, will eventually entail the need for reassessment and rethinking on the museum front:

"As the scale and number of private art museums increases, their influence on museum practice will too, and codes of practice and policies around such issues as de-accessioning, conflict of interest policy and reciprocity in loans will come under pressure as these new institutions explore and test received wisdom and standard practices."

Which may be contentious but not necessarily entirely bad.

And the re-thinking might already be underway in the UK, or not. See:

BBC News
Museums to offload unwanted items

The New York Times
British Museums Told to Clean House

The Guardian Art & Architecture Blog
What happened to civic duty?

sp!ked
Why museums should dump the ‘Disposal Toolkit’

from Materials Today -
Dark-field X-rays shed new light on structure
go to article

Another new technique in x-ray imaging which offers better contrast in detecting minute cracks and micro-structures, which otherwise do not show up on conventional x-rays. Using x-ray as an imaging tool would be useful in the technical examination of heritage artefacts. Furthermore, this new improvement could be easily adapted to existing x-ray equipment.
.

from Institute for Conservation, UK -
20:20 Vision - The Conservation Workforce of the Future
go to symposium web-page
go to presentations

A brief but wide-ranging look at conservation education, training, and professional accreditation within the UK context. This holds pertinent lessons and learning points for all, if we wish to resolve the problem of long-term sustainability of the profession.
.

from Metropolis Magazine -
Self-Cleaning Tiles
go to article

from Materials Today -
Nanoparticles help paint resist germs
go to article

The first, a self-cleaning coating on ceramics which both absorbs pollutants and breaks down organic dirt by the action of ultra-violet radiation.

Also see previous posts here and here on the same technology but applied to clear glass panels.

While the second uses the antiseptic properties of metal particles to combat the growth of disfiguring micro-organisms on painted surfaces.

Still eagerly waiting for such technologies to be transferred to outdoor sculptures or even as a protective coating on historic monuments.
.