Fig 2 - uploaded by Glenn Wharton
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Nam June Paik. TV Garden, 1974 (2000 version). Video installation with colour television sets and live plants. Dimensions vary with installation. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Source publication
The conservation field needs a framework for combining top-down consideration of professional ethics with a bottom-up approach to guide conservation decision-making in specific contexts. In this article the author presents a three-part model that combines ethical guidance, analysis of recognised case studies and accommodates the needs of individual...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... 1: TV Garden. 1974Garden. (2000. Guggenheim Museum 22 1a Conservation problem TV Garden is an installation work consisting of a large group of CRT television sets and live plants (Fig. 2) installed or purchasing a group of CRTs and dedicating them to the work, thereby freezing the work in time. 1b Conservation ...
Context 2
... 1: TV Garden. 1974Garden. (2000. Guggenheim Museum 22 1a Conservation problem TV Garden is an installation work consisting of a large group of CRT tele- vision sets and live plants (Fig. 2) installed or purchasing a group of CRTs and dedicating them to the work, thereby freezing the work in time. 1b Conservation ...
Citations
... Van de Vall et al. 2011;Hölling 2016. 23 Hummelen et al. 2008Streeton 2017;Wharton 2018;Holtorf 2020. 24. ...
Since the second half of the 20th century, public museums have witnessed a steady increase in expectations for implementing transparent conservation and preservation strategies for their art collections, balanced with requirements for display and accessibility. Despite their permanent museum status, historical painting collections are not necessarily static as they continue to evolve over time and in tandem with current views and changes in perception. This phenomenon is reflected in the National Museum of Art’s collection of 57 Munch paintings, which has a collective display tradition in terms of the Munch Room. The following study addresses the challenges in designing a viable conservation decision�making model for an anachronistically displayed collection of paintings. In terms of conservation, the focus is on the non�original restoration varnish layers. Research methods include the creation of an updated survey of the 57 paintings and builds on two previous non-invasive scientific studies, which revealed that three-quarters of the Munch collection had
been varnished by the museum. A proposed decision-making design, based on contemporary art models, incorporates an extra visual overview of each painting’s historical trajectory. The theoretical framework of ‘object itineraries’ was adopted to both interpret and map the shifts in the core display of paintings between 1909 and 2019. This approach helped to highlight the recurring historical patterns related to the application of non-original restoration varnishes and physical
damages. Likewise, changes in the painting’s iconic status and shifts in popularity in terms of display context and demand (exhibitions and loans) are more easily discernible. Finally, the study accommodates the changing role of the institution’s decision-makers and stakeholders over the past 110 years and presents a useful format for the management of change in historic collections.
... There are historical examples of art meant to decay or artists that assign more excellent value to a concept than its material manifestation. Many studies present the paradox of willingness to preserve what was meant to vanish (Laurenson, P. and van Saaze, V. 2014;Santabárbara, C. 2021;Temkin, A. 1998;Wharton, G. 2018). The present paper explores the contradictions that conservation must face when the artist decides their work is not meant to last, and it is stated in a formal interview. ...
In an era of technology-based life, we might understand the language but not pay attention to the message. Conservators, historians, curators, collectors have been focusing their efforts on finding strategies to preserve, document, exhibit, sell and maintain the idea of authenticity. It is essential to discuss and re-define our limits, the ethics that concern these “new” languages. Languages have been around for almost half a century, but we still think they are new technologies. From the Performance Art, art-related professionals learned that sometimes art is like a smell; it is there, you can feel it, you can store it in your inner brain, describe it, and remake it, but it is not there. We accept strategies that help the market, the history, the institutions, the collectors. We all play the same game with different hats. However, what when the artist explicitly says no. In a previous Ph.D. research, a study on the use of the artist’s interview; the aim of this research was not to show how good the artist’s interview was, as it had been long proved, but to collect and compare the results, the mistakes, the human part of the creative process and the conservation field. Making questions is one of the essential parts of the research, and most of the time, not an answer can be found, not even the shadow of an academically accepted answer, but some other smells were found. This abstract wants to expose the case study of a piece made to stay for the period that technology and life permitted; an image made with an old technology telephone, one printed copy, on a low-quality paper, framed with an Ikea frame. No replacement is allowed, no treatments, no migration or storage of the file. The interview helped to understand the idea of deterioration. An idea linked to the durability and acceptance of its death. Are we ready to accept the real ephemerality? Do we understand the preservation of the idea of deterioration? Is the collector, the institution, ready to enjoy while it lasts? This presentation can be delivered as a talk or as a conversation with the artist involved in the study case.
... However, more contemporary pieces, such as abstract images, may be less consistent and thus create broader interpretation differences between inexperienced and experienced participants. The rising prevalence of degradation in modern and contemporary artwork (Wharton, 2018) may be cause for further research in this area. ...
Lacunae are the voids left by missing or damaged pieces of artwork, and their presence constitutes a central problem in the aesthetic experience of viewing artwork. However, we hypothesize that experience and knowledge of art might differentially modify viewer reactions to degraded artwork. Here, we investigated the implicit and explicit attitudes of art experts and non-experts towards the aesthetics of perfectly intact and lacunar artwork. Sections of Flemish oil paintings were displayed with or without a degradation mask, which mimics lacunae. Three groups differing in their interaction with art were assessed: art restorers, art historians, and art viewers lacking any art-related professional expertise. We found that (1) professional experience/expertise in art restoration affected implicit, but not explicit, attitudes among restorers, (2) art historians had positive explicit, but not implicit, attitudes toward intact artwork, and (3) it was difficult for non-specialist viewers to understand or appreciate artwork that was not perfectly intact. We further discuss the implications of these results to other forms of aesthetic evaluation and expertise. Modified preferences in experts may improve knowledge of the plastic changes that occur in the cognition of aesthetics and may thus be of significant relevance to enhance the effectiveness of art conservation programs.
This chapter investigates a process of deliberation about the conservation of a contemporary artwork, organised in the form of two “Platform meetings” by the Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK). It argues that: 1. SBMK Platform meetings help to bridge gaps between conservation theory and practice by constituting “middle-ranging” practices of ethical deliberation; 2. this middle-ranging ethical work proceeds through a combination of various, theoretically contrasting deliberative techniques; 3. investigation of the values implicitly articulated in the deliberation process suggests that the kind of ethics at work in the practice of conservation of contemporary artworks may be fruitfully understood in terms of posthumanist care ethics. By articulating the role, dynamics and values of the Platform meetings, the chapter aims to clarify why and how such meetings can contribute to both professional conservation practice and the development of theoretical conservation ethics.
While the uncertainty from COVID-19 persists throughout the globe, the impact it triggered is not only limited to physical health issues. The pandemic forced people to adapt in many aspects. People’s behaviours and perceptions has shifted throughout the pandemic. Though, inhabitants of distinct culture perceive and react to things differently. There are findings that culture strongly influences both individuals and society perception of events and this pandemic is not an exception. Leisure is one of an autonomous way to express culture. This research is intended to spot global connection patterns in hobby interest and learn how the patterns has changed by the occurrence of COVID-19 with network graphs visualization. In the last decade, Google Trends has been proven to be a promising tool in behavioural
science studies. It allows researchers to draw summarized time-series data from the sample size of global Google users for free. One of its tools accumulates different search queries that belong to the same topic in different synonyms and languages as a topic which is essentially useful. This research has collected scaled data of ten selected hobbies, in fifty top GDP (2020) countries from January 1st, 2018 thru March 31st, 2021 with Google Trends topics. This work marks the period before March 11th,2020 as pre-pandemic and the period from this date as post-pandemic according to the World Health Organization’s announcement. This paper then calculate correlation matrices and visualize with network graphs. The analysis shows significant adjustments in global relationship patterns affected by the pandemic in most search topics.
Internet-based art is deeply embedded in the online behaviours, customs and traditions that are constantly emerging through user interaction and engagement. As such, user experience should be considered a fundamental aspect of the artwork in need of considered documentation. This paper provides a historical overview of Internet-based art, that presents the broader socio-cultural aspects of Internet-based art, as experienced by the user. This paper argues that Internet-based art requires the same conservation considerations as more accepted aspects of time-based media art documentation: source-code analysis, materials and equipment lists, variability and artists’ intent. By documenting user experience, it enables opportunities to navigate the culturally-embedded principles of Internet culture and contemporary technological standards that may be lost if preservation strategies utilise a more material/code specific preservation strategy. Highlighting experience as a necessary pillar of the identity of Internet-based art, in conjunction with other widely accepted aspects of time-based media art documentation approaches, allows for a richer picture and understanding of defining qualities of works, whilst providing further evidentiary activation into preservation approaches.
International conservation codes ask practitioners to treat historical objects and buildings with ‘respect’. What does this mean? The question has received comparatively little theoretical treatment in conservation literature. Taking a philosophical stance on the issue, this paper suggests that we cannot grasp how respect delineates ethical obligations for professionals in the field if we do not unearth the sources of these obligations, i.e. what counts as respectful behaviour and to whom respect is owed in the first place. Questioning the widespread understanding of respect as ‘preservation of the object’s integrity’, it proposes a model in which respect is interpreted as a form of preservation of meaning. On this model, respect is directed not so much to the artefact itself, but to the person, community, or culture that take interest in it, those for whom the object is especially meaningful.
