from The New York Times
Rare Glimpses of China's Long-Hidden Treasures
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With the end of a 4-year long refurbishment, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan is now re-opening its doors to the public, and interestingly, to an all-too-common refrain:

"While the museum’s collection has an international reputation among art connoisseurs, it has been distinctly less popular in Taiwan, and especially among young Taiwanese who feel little connection to the mainland. Slightly more than half the museum’s two million visitors a year come from outside Taiwan, mainly from Japan, Korea and other countries in Asia."

Creative Commons
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I'm taking an unusual step in this off-topic post to ask readers of this blog to spare a few moments and support the work of Creative Commons. This blog is also published using one of the Creative Common licenses which seek to balance the need for some form of copyright protection but not in the highly restrictive, and potentially crippling, form that we have today.

Find out more about the work and legal concepts of the Creative Commons here.

from The Guardian
Shame on these sophisticated barbarians
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What makes a 'world class' city?
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from The New York Times
Rodin Show Visits Home of Artist’s Muses
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from The Straits Times
Is the museum too 'Disney'?
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Just catching up on various museum-related news and behold the sheer coincidence of commentary. Starting with Jonathan Jones' criticism of the tendency of museums to be geared towards the gimmicky - or the "experiential" - at the expense of the "collection", such that exhibitions are often conceived to titillate (intellectually) instead of being engaging. This is reflected in the growing trend of (art) museums being built outside of Europe and North America, all trying to out-emulate each other, prompting Claire Hsu to wonder:

"How [...] is the 19th century European museum becoming a default model for modern art museums in certain parts of Asia?"

And two instances closer to home to pin down the point that museums cannot afford to be uncritical about the intellectual impact that it carries, willingly or otherwise. One, the story in the New York Times on a very bad case of colonial hang-over - although the one good thing to come out of this episode may be a badly needed infrastructure refurbishment at the National Museum in Phnom Penh. The other, a poignant plead to reconsider the "theme-park" make-over of our very own National Museum - and pointing back to Jone's article to close our circular reference.

from PhysicsWeb
Water pores reveal age of paper
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go to abstract

Yet another scientific analytical tool in estimating the age of paper-based materials (also see earlier post on the "print-clock"). This new technique looks at the molecular structure of cellulose fibres present in paper and measuring the size of pores which holds water in the cellulose molecule, which increases over time. In the abstract, there is a mention of the protective effect of gelatine sizing on paper.

from Tate Papers
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The Tate has collected together various academic papers related to their collection accessible from the above web-site. In particular, several papers related to art conservation:

Issue 1: Spring 2004

"Developing Strategies for the Conservation of Installations Incorporating Time-based Media: Gary Hill's Between Cinema and a Hard Place"
Pip Laurenson
Go to paper

Issue 2: Autumn 2004

"Paintings on Canvas: Lining and Alternatives"
Stephen Hackney
Go to paper

"Conservation Concerns for Acrylic Emulsion Paints: A Literature Review"
Elizabeth Jablonski, Tom Learner, James Hayes & Mark Golden
Go to paper

"The Materials Used by British Oil Painters in the Nineteenth Century"
Joyce H Townsend
Go to paper

Issue 3: Spring 2005

"Glazing Over: A Review of Glazing Options for Works of Art on Paper"
Rosie Freemantle
Go to paper

"The Management of Display Equipment in Time-based Media Installations"
Pip Laurenson
Go to paper

Issue 4: Autumn 2005

"Beuys is Dead: Long Live Beuys! Characterising Volition, Longevity, and Decision-Making in the Work of Joseph Beuys"
Rachel Barker & Alison Bracker
Go to paper

Issue 6: Autumn 2006

"The Effects of Surface Cleaning on Acrylic Emulsion Paintings: A Preliminary Investigation"
Bronwyn Ormsky, Tom Learner, Michael Schilling, Jim Druzik, Herant Khanjian, Dave Carson, Gary Foster & Mike Sloan
Go to paper

"Authenticity, Change and Loss in the Conservation of Time-Based Media Installations"
Pip Laurenson
Go to paper

from The New York Times
A Layered Look Reveals Ancient Greek Texts
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An update on the earlier post on the examination and conservation of the historic Archimedes palimpsest. Also see the offical web-site.

from yesterday.sg

A slew of interesting posts in the past weeks which looked back on various familiar places in Singapore:

shots@ bonham hill (view from Fort Canning Hill)
Beauty World
Lorong Chuan
Bishan Two Zero

Enjoy!

from Metropolis Magazine
Virtual Preservation
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A variation on the successful BBC programme "Restoration", whereby the public gets to vote for a historic property to be restored. In the case of San Francisco, the public will vote online for half of the number of listed historic sites to share in the final "prize-money". Does this not sound like passing the burden of decision-making to the "public", regardless of how inadequate or ambiguous that term / group may be?

from ashpanda
Save Palmer Road
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go to "Save Palmer Road" web-site

A worthy local effort to raise awareness and preserve the dwindling historic areas still standing in present-day Singapore. Also see previous post here.

[ Thanks to yesterday.sg and Singapore Heritage List for the alert ]

from Rambling Librarian
So NLB is archiving Singapore websites...
go to blog post
go to NLB's Web Archive Singapore

Better late than never ... as Singapore joins the wider effort in preserving digital contents.