Call for papers--Colloquium of the Seminar on Conservation, Study and Defense of the Cultural Heritage
The Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas of the UNAM invites participation in the "Converging Views: Collaborations/Interrelations for the Study and Conservation of the Patrimony"
18th Colloquium of the Conservation, Study and Defense of the Cultural Heritage Seminar
Mexico City, May 6-8, 2013
Contemporary conservation's field of action has become an open space for the generation and interchange of knowledge, one in which a number of other disciplines--in particular, archeology, history, anthropology, history of art, physics and chemistry--collaborate in a natural way. As work on, about, and originating in cultural objects calls for a broader approach, the different actors involved in its carrying out contribute from within their own frameworks of thought and action to the object's dismantling and reconstitution. Hence it has becomes less and less unusual for the discipline of conservation to operate as a platform where interdisciplinary studies are carried out with the support of a variety of methodologies, theoretical approaches and scientific techniques.
Today, conservation presents complex needs for the formulation of its projects, involving at the same time the work of consciousness-raising and preservation of the set of cultural significances present in the cultural heritage. This requires an elaboration of more precise definitions of the status of the cultural object: location, tradition, surroundings, historicity, etc., in order to analyze and reformulate conservation practices. Hence, the generation of initiatives in which divergent views come together is crucial.
This type of interdisciplinary enterprise has led to the creation of policies and criteria for intervention that are more respectful of and sensitive to the object's integrity and history. On the one hand, this enterprise entails the execution of interventions supported by studies in which science, art, history and technology share a common space, while depending on interpretations regarding the sense of human expression materialized in a cultural object. On the other hand, the satisfaction of the objectives of conservation relies on an integrated analysis of the socio-cultural contexts, in which each item of the cultural heritage is located, as well as on the evaluation of future risks.
Another consequence of interdisciplinary work has been the generation of new specialties that cohabit a theoretical-practical space; hence specific analytic techniques from chemistry or physics have been developed for the study of constituent materials; photography has designed particular strategies for the recording of objects with precision and microscopic detail; at the same time art historians have laid greater stress on the analysis of and search for ancillary documents: the so-called "material culture". Nowadays, the various disciplines strive for a methodological confluence.
The eighteenth edition of the Colloquium of the Seminar on Conservation, Study and Defense of the Cultural Heritage invites the various specialists who have faced the challenge of working in an interdisciplinary manner on the study and conservation of the heritage to present cases exemplifying approaches, theoretical frameworks, practical solutions and challenges arising from the union, collaboration, interrelation or support between disciplines. Four discussion panels are proposed:
1. Interaction between history and conservation
When conservation calls for explanations from history in order to understand the present condition of a cultural object--without which any project of intervention or preservation would be impossible--a variety of approaches are available. These include analysis of written or printed sources, as well as formal, technological or scientific studies of the cultural patrimony. Historical analysis is also nourished by (and requires) the material and technological study of cultural objects, hand in hand with the history of art and technology. This panel aims to bring together cases that demonstrate an effective work of interdisciplinary collaboration focused on the historical study and conservation of the patrimony, with reflections that take into account concepts such as perception and reception, readings and re-readings, uses and alterations.
2. Interdisciplinary discoveries
In recent years collaboration between methodologies issued by both the sciences and the humanities for the study and conservation of the cultural heritage has been ever more frequent. This panel will examine work and research in applied science such as the experimental reproduction of techniques of the past in order to appreciate the way cultural objects were manufactured, and will consider cases arising from or explained by the link with physical, chemical or biological phenomena.
3. Theory and practice in the contemporary conservation field
This panel will orient discussion on the new frontiers of models, theories, trials, tests, actual cases and plans for evaluating practices and techniques of conservation. We will consider recent studies that demonstrate the construction of interdisciplinary models for the study of items of cultural heritage and procedures of intervention. It will also be of interest to receive reflections on the training of conservation professionals in interdisciplinary ambiences; we also welcome studies which examine past interventions from a contemporary point of view, as well as theoretical trials for formulating new approaches or guidelines for directing intervention and the study of the cultural heritage in terms of notions of integrity, durability and accessibility.
4. Intervention in architectural spaces and cultural environments
This panel seeks to reconcile conservation and restoration work with architectural considerations aimed at facilitating the present-day use of buildings and cultural spaces of the past. The concern is not only to conserve habitable spaces and urban contexts, but also to find new uses and possibilities for reconversion that these may offer; the proposal is to integrate reflections on present conservation policies and links between the different agents involved in the preservation of the architectural patrimony, taking into account the factors of time and change, permanence and impermanence, materiality and immateriality. Other themes, such as documentary and photographic support, salvage, sustainability, and changes of use in the light of local and international normativity will also be considered.
Abstracts should be sent to Organizing Committee of the Eighteenth Colloquium of the Seminar on Conservation and Study of the Cultural Heritage Technical Secretariat lupitaarronagmail.com
arrona@unam.mx or 18coloquioconservacioniie@gmail.com, before 18 January 2013
The selection committee will consider the abstracts and reach decisions by 1 February 2013
More information for presenters can be found at http://www.esteticas.unam.mx/cactividades/actividades/coloquio_conservacion_18.html
Other deadlines are:
Receipt of oral presentations for the coordinators of the discussion panels by 26 April 2013
Receipt of manuscript for publication by 7 June 2013
Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, UNAM
Circuito Mario de la Cueva s/n
Zona Cultural
Ciudad Universitaria
Coyoacan, 04510
Mexico, D.F.
+52 55 5665 2465
+52 55 5665 7641
Fax:+52 55 5665 4740
The Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas of the UNAM invites participation in the "Converging Views: Collaborations/Interrelations for the Study and Conservation of the Patrimony"
18th Colloquium of the Conservation, Study and Defense of the Cultural Heritage Seminar
Mexico City, May 6-8, 2013
Contemporary conservation's field of action has become an open space for the generation and interchange of knowledge, one in which a number of other disciplines--in particular, archeology, history, anthropology, history of art, physics and chemistry--collaborate in a natural way. As work on, about, and originating in cultural objects calls for a broader approach, the different actors involved in its carrying out contribute from within their own frameworks of thought and action to the object's dismantling and reconstitution. Hence it has becomes less and less unusual for the discipline of conservation to operate as a platform where interdisciplinary studies are carried out with the support of a variety of methodologies, theoretical approaches and scientific techniques.
Today, conservation presents complex needs for the formulation of its projects, involving at the same time the work of consciousness-raising and preservation of the set of cultural significances present in the cultural heritage. This requires an elaboration of more precise definitions of the status of the cultural object: location, tradition, surroundings, historicity, etc., in order to analyze and reformulate conservation practices. Hence, the generation of initiatives in which divergent views come together is crucial.
This type of interdisciplinary enterprise has led to the creation of policies and criteria for intervention that are more respectful of and sensitive to the object's integrity and history. On the one hand, this enterprise entails the execution of interventions supported by studies in which science, art, history and technology share a common space, while depending on interpretations regarding the sense of human expression materialized in a cultural object. On the other hand, the satisfaction of the objectives of conservation relies on an integrated analysis of the socio-cultural contexts, in which each item of the cultural heritage is located, as well as on the evaluation of future risks.
Another consequence of interdisciplinary work has been the generation of new specialties that cohabit a theoretical-practical space; hence specific analytic techniques from chemistry or physics have been developed for the study of constituent materials; photography has designed particular strategies for the recording of objects with precision and microscopic detail; at the same time art historians have laid greater stress on the analysis of and search for ancillary documents: the so-called "material culture". Nowadays, the various disciplines strive for a methodological confluence.
The eighteenth edition of the Colloquium of the Seminar on Conservation, Study and Defense of the Cultural Heritage invites the various specialists who have faced the challenge of working in an interdisciplinary manner on the study and conservation of the heritage to present cases exemplifying approaches, theoretical frameworks, practical solutions and challenges arising from the union, collaboration, interrelation or support between disciplines. Four discussion panels are proposed:
1. Interaction between history and conservation
When conservation calls for explanations from history in order to understand the present condition of a cultural object--without which any project of intervention or preservation would be impossible--a variety of approaches are available. These include analysis of written or printed sources, as well as formal, technological or scientific studies of the cultural patrimony. Historical analysis is also nourished by (and requires) the material and technological study of cultural objects, hand in hand with the history of art and technology. This panel aims to bring together cases that demonstrate an effective work of interdisciplinary collaboration focused on the historical study and conservation of the patrimony, with reflections that take into account concepts such as perception and reception, readings and re-readings, uses and alterations.
2. Interdisciplinary discoveries
In recent years collaboration between methodologies issued by both the sciences and the humanities for the study and conservation of the cultural heritage has been ever more frequent. This panel will examine work and research in applied science such as the experimental reproduction of techniques of the past in order to appreciate the way cultural objects were manufactured, and will consider cases arising from or explained by the link with physical, chemical or biological phenomena.
3. Theory and practice in the contemporary conservation field
This panel will orient discussion on the new frontiers of models, theories, trials, tests, actual cases and plans for evaluating practices and techniques of conservation. We will consider recent studies that demonstrate the construction of interdisciplinary models for the study of items of cultural heritage and procedures of intervention. It will also be of interest to receive reflections on the training of conservation professionals in interdisciplinary ambiences; we also welcome studies which examine past interventions from a contemporary point of view, as well as theoretical trials for formulating new approaches or guidelines for directing intervention and the study of the cultural heritage in terms of notions of integrity, durability and accessibility.
4. Intervention in architectural spaces and cultural environments
This panel seeks to reconcile conservation and restoration work with architectural considerations aimed at facilitating the present-day use of buildings and cultural spaces of the past. The concern is not only to conserve habitable spaces and urban contexts, but also to find new uses and possibilities for reconversion that these may offer; the proposal is to integrate reflections on present conservation policies and links between the different agents involved in the preservation of the architectural patrimony, taking into account the factors of time and change, permanence and impermanence, materiality and immateriality. Other themes, such as documentary and photographic support, salvage, sustainability, and changes of use in the light of local and international normativity will also be considered.
Abstracts should be sent to Organizing Committee of the Eighteenth Colloquium of the Seminar on Conservation and Study of the Cultural Heritage Technical Secretariat lupitaarronagmail.com
arrona@unam.mx or 18coloquioconservacioniie@gmail.com, before 18 January 2013
The selection committee will consider the abstracts and reach decisions by 1 February 2013
More information for presenters can be found at http://www.esteticas.unam.mx/cactividades/actividades/coloquio_conservacion_18.html
Other deadlines are:
Receipt of oral presentations for the coordinators of the discussion panels by 26 April 2013
Receipt of manuscript for publication by 7 June 2013
Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, UNAM
Circuito Mario de la Cueva s/n
Zona Cultural
Ciudad Universitaria
Coyoacan, 04510
Mexico, D.F.
+52 55 5665 2465
+52 55 5665 7641
Fax:+52 55 5665 4740