bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sharing Knowledge in Art Conservation: From Repository Building to Research Publishing
Authors: Barok Dušan 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAs contemporary art makes its way into museum collections, knowledge sharing between organisations is important for developing a common frame of reference and identifying best practices in an evolving field, but is hampered by ethical, legal and technical complexities. In this article, I ask how constraints to knowledge and documentation sharing between institutions can be overcome. Over the past decades, there have been a number of initiatives for the inter-institutional exchange of documentation and research materials on the conservation of contemporary art. I focus on an online database project created by the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA) to share conservation documentation among practitioners in a semi-public setting. The main success of the INCCA database appears to have been to provide access to templates of forms and reports used in emerging practice, and to enable networking and increased exchange between members. I further identify the network as a research-based initiative and recognise its role in consolidating the conservation of contemporary art as a discipline. I conclude that this shift has precipitated the movement of knowledge exchange away from the circulation of data in the network to publicly oriented knowledge production.
Collections of (An)archives: Towards a New Perspective on Institutional Collecting of Contemporary Art and the Object of Conservation
Authors: Wielocha Aga 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe immanent features of contemporary art, understood as a new paradigm of artistic practice, call for new approaches to the institutional collecting and all interrelated practices, including conservation. The identity of a contemporary artwork is distributed between physical objects and processes, and concepts and contexts, which shape an artwork throughout its career. These intangible agents often exist in, and thus might be transmitted only through, various kinds of documents. The resulting documentation does not only contain information about an artwork’s provenance, history, meanings and character but it hosts an important part of the artwork itself. As decisions about the future presentations of artworks, and hence their interpretations, are made on the basis of documentation, the latter not only shapes but also determines the future of contemporary artworks. Still, in today’s museum practice the documentation is often secondary when compared to physical objects and undervalued within the hierarchy of museum priorities. This essay traces emergent institutional attempts to link, both conceptually and practically, museum collections and collection-related documentation. Its aim is to demonstrate that these approaches, while initially developed to address needs differing from traditional conservation, can serve as sources of inspiration for the development of long-term preservation strategies for contemporary art.
The Living Process of Conserving Performance: Theory and Practice in the Conservation of Performance-Based Artworks at Tate
Authors: Lawson Louise , Harvey Duncan , Ribeiro Ana , Marçal Hélia 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe development of the documentation and conservation of performance-based artworks has been a key priority for Tate’s Conservation department. The rise in complexity of the relationship between the institution and the artworks entering the collection prompted the development of current practices relating to the documentation and conservation of performance within the time-based media conservation team. This chapter explores the development of the current documentation strategies for the conservation of performance at Tate, by highlighting not only the impact of collecting practices in the development of knowledge, but also how the process results on the creation of both theoretical and practical forms of practice. The chapter will focus on the development of core documentation tools and theoretical models for understanding performance art and how it relates to the museum.
Integrating Front-of-House with Behind-the-Scenes Practice in Contemporary Art Conservation
Authors: Spangler-Bickell Caitlin 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe “biographical approach to contemporary art conservation” has highlighted the efforts required by professionals to maintain the identity of complex artworks, given the changes that occur when they move between biographical stages such as creation, acquisition, installation and storage. Although this model indicates that every life phase should be a locus of professional attention, conservation practice is concentrated more on the transitional phases before and after exhibitions than on the exhibition period itself. Because conservators must turn their skills and energy to preparations for the next exhibition soon after an installation is complete, the exhibition period is an underrepresented biographical phase in conservation—an especially urgent deficiency for works that are only fully “activated” when on display. To remedy that, this chapter argues for expanding the collections care remit to integrate the “front-of-house” with behind-the-scenes conservation practice by making use of “ethnography for conservation” during the exhibition life phase. A participant observation study in the gallery space of the interactive exhibition Take Me (I’m Yours) at Pirelli HangarBicocca illustrates how this methodology, as well as an amplified role for invigilators, can help understand and assess risks, generate mitigation tactics and improve collections care.
Doing Ethics in Practice: SBMK Platform Meetings
Authors: van de Vall Renée 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis 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.
The Enfolding Object of Conservation: Artwork Identity, Authenticity, and Documentation
Authors: Castriota Brian 
Published: December 2023

AbstractConservation approaches for contemporary artworks have increasingly turned to a work’s identity as the object of conservation and perpetuation. Within the “performance paradigm” of conservation (van de Vall, Revista de História Da Arte 4, 7–17, 2015a) authenticity is often predicated on a manifestation’s compliance with an artist’s explicit directives. In practice, this paradigm is challenged by works of art that unfold in protracted states of creation and accrue new modes of presentation. This chapter reads notions of artwork identity, authenticity, and documentation for conservation purposes through poststructuralist, feminist, queer, and agential realist discourses. It troubles the assumption that conservators have access to a “view from above” (Haraway, Feminist Studies 14(3), 575–599, 1988) and that the boundaries or properties of an entity are determinate prior to and separate from our observation and description. Within Karen Barad’s agential realist framework, the documentation of artwork identity is reframed as a perspectival and partial representation of significances, which are made determinate through—and therefore entangled with—the specifics of our measurement or observation. This chapter shows how, through both our investigations and the documentation we create and leave behind, conservators and conservation researchers are enfolded with the entities we seek to know and care for, and how their boundaries and properties are continually enacted and reconfigured through these material-discursive practices. The objective referent of conservation documentation is therefore refocused as and around the phenomena produced through conservation research and practice.
When Old Was New: Rethinking Traditional and Contemporary Art and Their Paradigms of Care
Authors: Tom Cybele 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe widespread belief that old and contemporary works of art are fundamentally different from each other, warranting distinct and separate conservation approaches, needs examination. Immateriality and mutability, two qualities considered to be unique to contemporary artworks of unconventional object ontology, are also features of old objects and artefacts, especially when considered in their original contexts. The chapter argues that the perceived differences between old and contemporary are neither inherent nor fundamental, but arise from an under-examined tendency to identify a traditional work with a more or less fixed material character, while ignoring its functionality and complex multivalency. Once we recognize that both old and new artworks have intangible and variable essential characteristics, the theories and paradigms of care that have hitherto been considered exclusive to each are at the disposal of all conservators no matter their field of specialty: a traditional paradigm that focuses on material preservation and, what will be called here, a contemporizing paradigm that allows the perpetuation of essential immaterial aspects. The chapter urges a reconsideration of old artworks when they were new, aimed at increased relevance of contemporary art conservation theory to the care of old, “traditional” artworks, and in turn, innovative research of old art that may contribute to theories of contemporary art conservation.
Languages of Conservation: A Comparison Between Internet-Based Art and Built Heritage
Authors: Roeck Claudia 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAs relational, social practices in a changing environment, internet-based art and built heritage require a substantial effort to maintain functionality. This chapter explores the hypothesis that architecture conservation and conservation of internet-based art encounter the same challenges and follow the same principles. The comparison allows one to articulate the materiality of internet-based art, which may not be obvious at first glance. Most important, it suggests that conservation approaches for built heritage may expand the conservation options for internet-based art. To substantiate the hypothesis, I analyse the significant properties of an internet-based artwork, TraceNoizer (2001–2004) by LAN, according to the same criteria used in built heritage conservation. After demonstrating that I can describe internet-based art using categories from built heritage, I apply conservation strategies for built heritage to internet-based art to discover new conservation approaches. The pursuit of a common language for the conservation of built heritage and software-based art is another goal of this comparison.
Conceptual Art and Conservation
Authors: Stigter Sanneke 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis chapter addresses the function of a “conservation research approach” in the study of conceptual art in combination with the role of the curator’s expertise, advocating an autoethnographic approach in relation to contemporary art conservation as a function of museum practice. This approach is exemplified by means of the author’s personal testimonies of encounters with artworks by John Baldessari and Ger van Elk. These accounts help to provide a better understanding of the shaping of an artwork’s physical form in various contexts, while also laying bare the conservator’s personal bias as revealing traits of the profession. In addition, histories of works by Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner and Sol LeWitt are used to develop the argument that although conceptual artists set out to dematerialize the object in art, they chose their materials and techniques carefully to underline their ideas.
Develop Liberal Statecraft
Authors: Karlson Nils 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis chapter presents a fourth kind of counterstrategy against populism. I argue that a liberal statecraft should be developed that not only promote a liberal economy but also a civil and open society, and perhaps most importantly the liberal spirit. All the strategies presented in earlier chapters should be included. Its success requires the conquering of the idea arena, the promotion of liberal policy entrepreneurs, and the investment in power resources that can change institutions and policies. To embrace and promote the liberal spirit as a collective legitimizing identity is a central task for liberal statecraft.
A Classical Liberal Revival
Authors: Karlson Nils 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe last chapter summarizes my conclusions by asking for a revival of liberalism itself. While populism for several reasons may be self-defeating in the longer run, the costs may be exceedingly high. Classical liberalism is a much richer tradition than the strawman of neoliberalism that many left-wing populists and social scientists have constructed. It is not only able to offer prosperity and security, but also a sense of belonging and community that is superior to what the right-wing populists and nationalists are asking for. It is a tradition that needs to be developed and revitalized.
Populism: Defining Characteristics
Authors: Karlson Nils 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis chapter explores and synthesizes the defining characteristics of left- and right-wing populism in previous research. In conclusion, populism has three modes. A first that emphasizes the use of unserious and ill-founded policy solutions to complex social and economic problems, and a second that focuses on a specific set of political strategies which use a distinct rhetorical style and discursive frame to deliberately polarize society, and a third that stresses the autocratic institutional orientation that follows. The three modes often go together and form the political strategies that populists use.
Embrace and Promote the Liberal Spirit
Authors: Karlson Nils 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn this chapter a third kind of counterstrategy against populism is presented and discussed, namely, to embrace and promote the liberal spirit. Building on the tradition from von Humboldt and Mill, I argue that it is possible to develop a liberal politics of recognition and identity that gives credit to the different lifestyles and conceptions of a good life that characterize a liberal society. Such politics could offer emancipation, meaning, and community, a sense of purpose and belonging, and human flourishing in a broad sense. In addition, the need for a liberal collective legitimizing identity and for liberal narratives are discussed.
Everyday Design: The Aesthetic Dimension of Alternative Use
Authors: Favara-Kurkowski Monika 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe Functional Account of Design Aesthetic Appreciation (FADAA), a recent position on design in analytic aesthetics, attempts to establish a sui generis aesthetic theory of design that is somehow distinct from that of the fine arts. This account recognizes that, in evaluating the aesthetic dimension of design, not only form but also function and use are critical variables. However, FAADA has yet to question the status of being a user—usership—as well as the aesthetic strategies we use in our everyday interactions with designed objects.I will look into the possibility of broadening the FADAA debate on design appreciation by (1) acknowledging the role of the perceiving subject in interacting with design objects and (2) including instances of alternative use as possible critical use practices without diminishing the aesthetic significance of function. To this end, I will introduce the concept of “everyday design,” which refers to an interpretative act by the user that generates an excess of function in relation to the context of use and the user itself.
The Value System of Objects Through the Interpretation of Photographic Language
Authors: Proverbio Paola 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe design object finds in photographic representation a way - parallel to that of graphics - to the indispensable process of design reading. Photographic research has long been intertwined with the process of cultural qualification of the design object. The project that photography brings to bear on design is a visual narrative which, through an immediately comprehensible language, stands as a true parallel narrative, interrelated, yet not necessarily coinciding altogether with that of the written word. The object begins to circulate through the different channels of communication - from corporate catalogs to advertising pages and magazines - reaching distant people and places, sometimes even before the physical object enters the channels of distribution. This symbiotic relationship means that the object is very often accompanied by a valuable wealth of images, documenting and communicating its value system and its design, production and commercial processes, enriched over time by the shots taken by several ‘hands’, that is, by different authors who offer the opportunity for a multifaceted reading of the product. This text intends to give an example of the added value that photography represents for design through a series of paradigmatic cases (such as Gio Ponti’s Superleggera or Ettore Sottsass’s Valentine), which traverse the history of Italian industrial design from its early stage.
The Evolution of Yacht: From Status-Symbol to Values’ Source
Authors: Ansaloni Giuditta Margherita Maria , Bionda Arianna , Ratti Andrea 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn addition to fulfilling their primary function, the so-called “status-symbol” objects also vehicles of deeper meaning. Among them, yacht have been often seen as a tool to convey messages of different content throughout the years. The aim of this study is twofold: to show the evolution of yacht design meaning during the last decades, and to outline the future one, according to the redefinition of the concept of luxury goods, category of which yacht belong. The study results confirm that the yachting sector is starting to adopt new perspectives toward sustainability and that, to succeeded in this, the multidisciplinary of design is an essential aid, if not the only possible way to tackle the challenge to convey new messages.
Environmental Re-design of the Top San No Touch 2.0 Portable Toilet: The Contribution of the Bio-inspired Approach
Authors: Balsamo Mariangela Francesca 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis research is part of the scientific discipline of Design for Environmental Sustainability and Industrial Design, and deals with the topic of the relationship between bio-inspiration and ecodesign as a promising synergy for the design of industrial products.This contribution describes the methodological process addressed to investigate, analyse and quantify the contribution offered by bio-inspiration, an approach considered to be a driver of innovation aimed at increasing the environmental sustainability of products.In order to understand and verify the real advantages that the bio-inspired approach can offer, in terms of environmental sustainability, to the design of industrial products, a bio-inspired redesign of a sustainable product in possession of environmental quality certification was undertaken, in order to quantitatively assess the product’s life-cycle environmental impacts through the standardised LCA methodology.In order to achieve the stated objective, the research was conducted with different methodological approaches and operational tools according to the research phases, interacting with experts from different fields and scientific disciplines which allowed the acquisition of complementary technical-scientific knowledge.
Toward Paris! 45 Years of Domus for a Design à la Français
Authors: Dellapiana Elena 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBetween 31 May and 23 September 1973, the exhibition Domus: 45 ans d’architecture design, art,1928–1873 was held in Paris. It occupied an entire floor of the Pavillon Marsan in the Louvre, involving the entire editorial staff of the magazine. The exhibition, subdivided by decades, used panels, a collection of objects, and original artworks to illustrate the history of Ponti’s magazine from its foundation to 1973.It presents different levels of interpretation that are exemplary of the way of telling the Italian design in an international framework practised since the years of the first issues of “Domus”. On the one hand, the placement of the magazine’s interests in a temporal flow, in the form archive. On the other hand, the curatorial choice clearly privileges the cotè reserved for the visual arts, both in the reproduction of articles and reviews published over the years and thanks to the extraordinary contribution of exhibited artworks by Marino Marini, Max Bill, Renato Guttuso, Ben Sahan, Chillida, Tinguely, Armand among others.The thesis of the paper is that this has been a mode of the Italian project that shapes its narrative code as a transformism calibrated to the culture and mood of the host countries with the aim of presenting a compact and coherent image (the Made in Italy, the Italian way or the Italian line depending on the situation) but also to adapt it to the foreign public, both the generalist -and possible buyer- and the specialist.
Working in Regress and Beyond, with Rural Material Culture [1]
Authors: Rattalino Elisabetta 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis contribution brings together and compares selected works by artist Claudio Costa, architects collective Superstudio, and photographer and designer Mario Cresci. It discussed the way in which they engaged with rural material culture in 1970s, a time when Italy was rehabilitating its pre-industrial heritage. Despite their respective differences, these works adopted multiple media to make rural artefacts talk and provide existential, educational, socio-political, and cultural models.
Environmental Affordances: Some Meetings Between Artificial Aesthetics and Interior Design Theory
Authors: Gay Fabrizio , Cazzaro Irene 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe contribution supports the following thesis: the use of semiotic methods of the structural school in applications of Artificial Intelligence allows to deal with aesthetic and historical-critical issues with greater documentation capability. In particular, the contribution concerns an actualisation of the axiology of spatial enhancement built by Jean Marie Floch assuming it as a fundamental semantic framework to construct an interior morphology valid in the various areas of interior design.Floch’s semiotic analysis allows us to better specify the notion of “environmental affordance” developed in James Gibson’s phenomenology of ecological perception. Following Gibson, the authors indicate an ‘environmental’ specification of the “affordances” and pose the question of their objectification and measurement.For the purpose of this objectification and measurement of environmental affordances, the contribution advances the hypothesis of using some Artificial Intelligence applications usually employed, nowadays, in the processing of large data sets of digital documents, to achieve creative, critical, historical-archival aims.In conclusion, the contribution outlines some fundamental conditions of possibility of such an objective measurement by describing some initial characteristics of an artificial system of recognition of morphological categories of interior spaces starting from huge data sets of documents.