from Art:21 Blog -
No Preservatives: The Clocks’ Tic Tic Tic …
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An insider's view (with monthly updates in a new column, "No Preservatives: Conversations and Conservation", by Richard McCoy) on the issues surrounding efforts and approaches in the preservation of contemporary art.

"[E]ven when guidelines are established as to how an artwork can change over time, the concept of authenticity and correct representation is still complicated and open to some level of interpretation."

As conservators increasingly embrace the use of scientific tools and techniques in conservation work, more than ever, the subjective nature of conservation work is - and has to be - made apparent and necessary. Apparent, because human decision-making processes are subjective in nature. Necessary, because we should neither delude ourselves nor pretend otherwise.
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from The New York Times -
Making Things Work
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Although not a direct comment on the work of conservators, but it resonates to a large degree:

"The fact of the matter is that most forms of real knowledge, including self-knowledge, come from the effort to struggle with and master the brute reality of material objects — loosening a bolt without stripping its threads, or backing a semi rig into a loading dock. All these activities, if done well, require knowledge both about the world as it is and about yourself, and your own limitations."

Which, perhaps, explains why I'm happy doing what I do ...
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from Technology Review -
A Camera from a Sheet of Fiber
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Not quite earth-shattering preservation news, but a potential new technology for imaging and real-time sensing. With specially engineered sensors (for light, specific colour, temperature or other possible parameters) incorporated into a fabric sheet, such a device could record data pertaining to pollution, moisture, light and temperature - factors which have detrimental effect on materials.

The 2-dimensional array of sensors could also give an actual map of how the monitored parameters change and interact over time. And being thin, the fabric sheet could be attached as a temporary skin onto any surface of interest - stretched behind paintings; pinned onto walls; wrapped around sculptures; stitched into showcases etc.
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from MIT News -
MIT engineers find way to slow concrete creep to a crawl
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A somewhat troubling thought ... What would become of architecture preservation if buildings actually lasts 16,000 years?

Link via BLDG BLOG
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from The New York Times -
A New Concept in Handling Art
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Just as Switzerland - the last bastion for the trafficking of "antiques" without provenance - is tightening their act to ensure that illegally excavated and exported antiquities are more closely monitored, Singapore goes in and fill that gap by offering an even more lax set of regulations - effectively encouraging the next generation of shady deals with accompanying questionable ethics.

"In 2005, Switzerland enacted strict federal legislation, based on a 1970 Unesco international convention against art and antiquities trafficking. The legislation, prompted by scandals and foreign criminal cases involving stolen works trafficked through Switzerland, regulated Swiss free ports handling cultural goods and set criminal penalties for violators. But Singapore opted out of the Unesco Convention in 1985 and chose not to sign a 1995 international agreement on the repatriation of stolen or illegally exported cultural goods."

Ironically (and disturbingly), Singapore's foremost government-funded agencies for art, culture and heritage (the National Heritage Board and National Arts Council) are in cahoots in implementing the scheme by each taking "a 5 percent stake" in the venture. What a shame ...
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from 60-Second Science -
9,000-year-old brew hitting the shelves this summer
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Finally, putting archeological hard work and knowledge to good use - recreating ancient brews. Cheers!
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from IIC News -
Sound and Image Collections Conservation website launched
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go to SOIMA's website

From the web-site:

"ICCROM’s SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) programme responds to the urgent need for a coordinated international action for safeguarding the endangered audiovisual collections in its Member States. [...] Initiated in 2006, the programme has identified three priority areas of activity: Training, Awareness generation/dissemination, and Research."

Apart from such top-down (institutional) approaches in determining the methodologies used and contents being preserved, a bottom-up approach which engages the community and users at large would surely be more viable and sustainable in the long-term.
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from The Getty Conservation Institute -
Ethical Dilemmas in the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art
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"We live in a society that does not always value the signs of age. Many modern and contemporary works of art were either intentionally meant to be ephemeral, or were made from new and untested materials that have turned out to be dramatically unstable. The resulting deterioration of these objects raises difficult questions about their conservation."

from The New York Times -
Digging (Against the Clock) for History
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Achieving results, despite of (or perhaps because of) a quick-in-quick-out approach. Maybe something similar to shake up the often sleepy pace of art conservation ...
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