Category: Specialties

44th Annual Meeting, May 16, Research and Technical Studies, Visible-Induced Luminescence Imaging: Past, Current and Future Applications in Conservation Research, Dawn Kriss and Anna Serotta

I was excited to see the most recent update on VIL imaging as it is an accessible imaging technique that can be used to localize pigments with specific characteristics. It is useful for anyone interested in painted surfaces, and can be used in conjunction with other multispectral imaging, or as a standalone technique.
The basic idea is that you need a light source to produce visible light, a camera with its infrared filter removed, and a bandpass filter to limit the type of light that gets to the camera sensor, along with some standards to help process the images. The pigment particles on the object are excited in the visible range, and emit infrared radiation which is detected by the modified camera. This technique can be used to detect trace remains of pigments that are all but undetectable to the naked eye. The technique was developed by scientists from the British Museum and the Courtauld Institute (see Verri et al., 2009) [1].
In the case studies shown in Dawn and Anna’s presentation the focus was on Egyptian blue, which produces luminescence in the infrared (~910nm) when exposed to visible light. Optimizing the capture and processing protocols will mean better results and hopefully, a means of standardizing and sharing information between conservators working in different labs.  While VIL is gaining popularity as more museums add it to their workflow (for example. as part of the APPEAR project spearheaded by the Getty), the technique is still being developed, with much more progress on the horizon. Dawn and Anna reported on results of a survey of VIL users to show where progress has been made and where we can still expect some improvements in the technique.

gif showing VIL and normal illumination images of Brooklyn Museum's portrait, Noblewoman, ca. 150 C.E. Encaustic on wood. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.1, image courtesy Brooklyn Museum
Click for larger image and to view transition! A gif showing VIL and normal illumination images of Brooklyn Museum’s portrait, Noblewoman, ca. 150 C.E. Encaustic on wood. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.1, image courtesy Brooklyn Museum
Capture: varying light sources
There are many options for lights used for excitation, so choosing a light source that is targeted to your research question is critical. As an example, the authors described work by my classmate Brian Castriota showing that red LEDs with an output centered at 630 nm caused greater luminescence of Egyptian blue compared to white LEDs. More research on the luminescence characteristics of other pigments will help users optimize their light sources to target specific pigments.
Processing: calibration, standards, and protocols 
While many conservators using VIL use the CHARISMA protocols (developed by the British Museum), others are using Photoshop to process the images. Egyptian blue VIL images are usually shown in monochrome, but as the technique is expanded different overlays or crossfades will help communicate the results by registering the images with other photographs, as Dawn and Anna did for the images shown in their presentation. This is one of the greatest advantages of VIL: it’s very easy to understand the images that are generated and easy to communicate the results to the public. However, capturing good metadata and using appropriate standards are critical for the intercomparability of these data in the future. It will be crucial to develop a luminescence scale or target in order to compare images from institutions who may not be using the exact same capture or processing parameters.
What do we have to look forward to? 
While its initial development as a tool for identifying Egyptian blue has led to its popularity among archaeological conservators, it seems like the technique is ripe for more widespread adoption for research into modern pigments, some of which also have unique luminescence properties.
Conservators can use a variety of wavelengths using targeted or tunable light sources (e.g. the CrimeScope, adapted from the forensics field) to survey visible-induced luminescent pigments (other examples of which include dragon’s blood, Indian yellow, Han blue, cadmium red and yellow). Dawn and Anna showed an example of imaging surveying cadmium pigments used in Stuart Davis’s Mellow Pad carried out by their Brooklyn colleague Jessica Ford. For more on the work from the team at the Brooklyn Museum, see their recent blog post here.
References.
[1] Verri, Giovanni, et al. “Assyrian Colours: Pigments on a Neo-Assyrian Relief of a Parade Horse.” The British Museum Technical Research Bulletin 3 (2009): 57–62.

44th Annual Meeting – Book & Paper Session, May 17, "Soft Matter: Gel development for conservation treatment," Mylène Leroux

Following Hughes and Sullivan’s talk,  Mylène Laroux, Master 2 Student at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, reiterated the composition and advantages of gellan gum other rigid gel systems, highlighting the fact that they are simpler and safer for both the object and the conservator. She then compared these physical gel systems to the newly-developed Nanorestore® gel.
Nanorestore® gel was developed by the Nanoforart project, whose main objective, according to their website, is “the development and experimentation of new nano-materials and responsive systems for the conservation and preservation of movable and immovable artworks.” Nanorestore® is a chemical gel with high internal cohesion. It is available in pre-made sheets which are ready to use for aqueous treatment or they can be soaked in organic polar solvents for 12 hours and then used as a solvent gel. As with other gel systems, the Nanorestore® (soaked in ethanol) allowed Leroux to perform local adhesive stain removal without the formation of tidelines. Initial studies indicate that Nanorestore® has higher liquid retention rate than the polysaccaride gels. It’s also a sustainable option, since the gel can be placed back into solvent and reused multiple times.
At this time, Nanorestore® is not widely available and only comes in a few small sizes, so practical application in paper conservation labs is currently limited. However, it’s exciting to see new products being developed and tested, since we conservators are always looking to expand our toolboxes.

Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Conference – Textile Session, May 16, "Vial Things: Preserving the Unexpected in the Occult Jewelry of Simon Costin", by Sarah Scaturro

To say Sarah Scaturro had me at “semen” is both entirely accurate and the oddest phrase I have ever put to virtual paper. To be precise, she had my interest at “Vials of evaporating semen…”, the jaw-dropping opener to her abstract, and she held it for her entire talk on the conservation of jewelry by Simon Costin contained within the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute collection.
The two necklaces of discussion were Memento Mori, made by Costin in 1986, and Incubus, made in 1987. Both presented unique preservation problems not frequently encountered by textile conservators. Faced with unfamiliar challenges, Scaturro sought first to better understand the mechanisms of degradation affecting the necklaces: this involved conducting artist interviews and consulting alternatives resources on taxidermy and liquid-preserved specimens.

Simon Costin, Memento Mori, 1986. Wood, metal, bone, claw, synthetic, jet, crystal, bone, hematite. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006.354a–c).

In the case of Memento Mori, the turkey feet and rabbit skulls, incorporated into the necklace’s design, had begun to degrade due to insufficient preparation methods. The fats contained within the skin of the turkey feet had oxidized leading to a rancid odor – a smell all too familiar to me having recently completed the degreasing of beluga whale jawbones. The oxidized fats were also pooling at the surface of the feet, risking degradation of the neighboring necklace elements. The rabbit skulls, which retained some bits of flesh and hair, suffered from discoloration and mold, negatively impacting the artist’s intended aesthetics. Swabbing with ethanol proved to be the solution for both of Memento Mori’s problems – ethanol was used to degrease the surface of the turkey feet while it also acted as a biocide, killing the mold on the rabbit skulls, in addition to reducing the discoloration. Scaturro also employed preventive strategies which included the use of barriers to prevent transfer of the turkey fats to other parts of the necklace and anoxia to slow the oxidation of the fats.
The treatment of Incubus, the inspiration for the talk’s title and my grim interest, was still in progress at the time of Scaturro’s talk. The necklace, which resulted in a charge of indecency for the artist at the time of its unveiling, contains 5 vials of semen, one donation having been made by the artist himself. Over the past 30 years, the semen has discolored and partially evaporated – how best to address this issue, Scaturro was undecided. She raised two amusing points while discussing her research into the degradation mechanisms of Incubus: one, there is little information available on how semen degrades over thirty years; and two, it would be interesting to understand what elements of the five donations were responsible for the variations in color and evaporation rate.
Simon Costin, Incubus, 1987. Silver, copper, glass, baroque pearls and human sperm. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006.364a, b).

Her first steps to the treatment of Incubus involved the creation of permanent upright storage for the necklace, thereby avoiding contact between the rubber stoppers on the vials and their contents. Scaturro made note that storage and display at a consistent temperature (as opposed to cold storage and room temperature display) was best practice for slowing the evaporation of the semen. She was also considering applying cyclododecane to improve the seal of the vials – the benefit of cyclododecane wax being its gradual sublimation at room temperature, making it possible to display the necklace without wax coatings affecting the aesthetics.
Scaturro concluded by noting that further interviews with Simon Costin were planned with the hopes that he might be able to offer direction as to the refilling or not of the vials of semen.
Overall, Scaturro handled the unusual topic with professionalism, inciting only minimal nervous giggling. The talk provided a window into the extremes of art and art conservation, and offered an example of how to approach the even the most macabre of objects.

44th Annual Meeting, Textile Session, May 15, "The Creation of a Digitally Printed Reproduction Sleeve for and Eighteenth-Century Painted Silk Dress", by Miriam Murphy and Alexandra Barlow

When I heard the title of this talk, I must admit images of laser scanners and super computers came to mind.  And while the technology is doubtlessly impressive, I was relieved to learn that it is far more accessible (and much less sci-fi-esque!) than I had originally imagined.
The dress at the center of this talk was a silk taffeta Robe à la Polonaise, circa 1780, that had been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1976, sans one proper left sleeve.

The dress on display in 2004's Dangerous Liaisons exhibit. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.
The dress on display in 2004’s Dangerous Liaisons exhibit. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.

Because the silk was hand painted, the best option for recreating it in the 1970s was to hand paint a new sleeve as well.  However, after four decades, and three exhibits, the reproduction had become damaged.  Before being featured in the 2015 show China: Through the Looking Glass, it was decided a new sleeve would have to be made.  For the 2004 show, Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century, an entire reproduction petticoat had been digitally printed, so it was not a technology with which the Met was unfamiliar.  Digital printing has also, in recent years, been used to create fabric for mounts, upholstery for chairs, and a dress for a historical interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg.
The first step in the process was to get a good digital image of the fabric, ideally through scanning.  As luck would have it (or so they thought) a flat pattern piece of the same fabric was at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.  Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that there were subtle but definite differences between the two.  Because of the 3-D nature of the dress, scanning was not an option, so digital photography had to be used instead.  The petticoat was selected for this process, rather than the present sleeve, because it offered a large, flat expanse, and the majority of the pattern repeat.  The image was taken at the Met’s photography lab and sent to Dyenamix textile printing, for image manipulation. This proved more difficult than expected because the undulations of the petticoat, visible in the photograph, had to be removed, and the full pattern repeat stitched together.  Another stumbling block was what part of the repeat to print?  Should they go with a mirror image of the extant sleeve, or could it be assumed that such expensive fabric was used conservatively, without an attempt at symmetry? Ultimately, the former path was selected.
The next step was to find a suitable base fabric.  Although the fabric texture can be printed, the best results are achieved when a close match is found, which was a challenge since 18th century taffeta was finer than that available today.  When a good approximation was sourced (from Manhattan’s Garment District), both white and ivory was purchased.  Dyenamix first sent the fabric to Jacquard in California for pretreatment, to prepare it to accept the ink.  When the fabric returned, it was ready for the printing process. The printer prints ¼” at a time, going over each section eight times.
It took many attempts and many weeks to get the colors exactly right. Most of the early attempts were too bright and saturated, qualities prized by industry clients, but not by conservators. Once the fabric was printed, a pattern was taken from measurements and multiple mock-ups were made before the final sleeve was constructed. All-in-all, the process took six weeks and $2,400 (not including the time of the Met staff) to complete. Interestingly, roughly half of that seems to have been because Dyenamix did the image manipulation, judging by a similar project done in the Met’s upholstery department.
The subject of the talk, center, on exhibit in China: Through the Looking Glass. From QMIN magazine.
The subject of the talk, center, on exhibit in China: Through the Looking Glass. From QMIN magazine.

Dyenamix had claimed that their inks were archival and because the dress needed to be ready for exhibition, no further tests were performed beforehand. However, after the exhibition closed, the fabric was given the Oddy test, which it failed. In response, the sleeve was removed from the dress and stored separately.
I would be interested to know what caused the sleeve to fail the Oddy test: was it the pretreatment done by Jacquard to ready the silk for the ink, or the ink itself? This process is a great tool for any conservator to have and (as always!) more research is desired!

Sustainable preservation survey for library and archive collections

This survey focuses on sustainable preservation methods that can create efficiency, environmental consciousness, and effective management to maintain libraries’ and archives’ collections. The Sustainable Preservation Survey is an effort to continue the conversation about sustainability and where preservation needs are most apparent within libraries and archives. Lindsay Schettler, Special Collections and Content Management Librarian and the 2016 ALCTS’ Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant recipient, will present this survey data and illustrate holistic sustainable preservation practices at the 2016 ALA Annual Conference Poster Session.
As preservation standards and practices are crucially embedded in library and archival workflows, understanding all sustainability options is vital. This survey will assess current sustainable preservation practice and evaluate the future role of sustainability in library and archives preservation programs. General preservation topics are explored, focusing on basic sustainable preservation practices offering the library and archive community an idea of current practices.
Preservation is a core function in collection care and management, providing longevity and access for materials found in special collections and archives. Preservation practices include several steps during the physical processing of the material, including description, condition reports, stabilization, reformatting, and rehousing. Sustainable preservation initiatives derive from a holistic approach to collection care and management, providing a chance to understand the breadth of a preservation program, and find the areas that can be adjusted to incorporate sustainability, such as recycling, slow conservation, supply waste, climate control, processing strategies, reusable methods and material, local partnerships and programs, and community engagement.
The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Only one person from each institution is needed. Your feedback is vital.  Participation is voluntary and the survey can be stopped at any time. Please send any questions to Lindsay Schettler.
This survey will close June 3, 2016.
Sustainable Preservation Survey HERE!

Topics in Photographic Preservation now available online

pmg-siteDear colleagues,

It is with great enthusiasm that we announce Topics in Photographic Preservation, the Photographic Materials Group (PMG) biennial publication since 1986, is now available online: http://resources.conservation-us.org/pmg-topics/ 

To date PMG has published 15 volumes of Topics in Photographic Preservation with volume 16 to be printed soon. This new website, managed by PMG with AIC support is hosted by CoOL (Conservation OnLine), and makes volumes 1-14 available to the public online for the first time. Future volumes will continue to be added 2-3 years after their initial publication.

This new Topics website also points users to additional photographic preservation articles published in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC), and other resources created by PMG available for sale via the AIC store (www.conservation-us.org/shop/store-catalogs).

Completing this project has taken significant commitment during our tenures as PMG Chair and Publication Committee Coordinator. That said, there are many that assisted in making this valuable resource possible both before and during our tenures and we would like to thank all those who contributed over the years, especially Brenda Bernier, Paul Messier, Lisa Duncan, Brian Raniewicz, and Bonnie Naugle.

Enjoy!

Sylvie Penichon
PMG Chair

 Jae Gutierrez
PMG Publications Committee Coordinator

Please also note these conservation publications are freely available on CoOL:

See more at http://cool.conservation-us.org/publications.html, and learn more about AIC’s specialty group publications on our website! 

 

Call for Papers: ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting 2016 (Due: January 15, 2016)

ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting 2016
September 21-24, 2016, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Meeting theme: Uniques & Multiples
Call for Papers
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Photographic Materials Working Group of ICOM-CC are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the 2016 Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting, scheduled for 21-24 September 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This meeting is an important gathering of photograph conservators and historians from all over the world. Past meetings have been held in Wellington, Athens, Rochester, and Paris, among other locations. The 2016 meeting will be comprised of two days of workshops and tours (21-22 September, optional) followed by two days of lectures and a poster display (23-24 September).
Lecture Day 1 will be dedicated to the meeting theme: Uniques & Multiples.
The joint contemplation of the unique and the multiple touches upon the very essence of photography, from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. While seemingly contradictory, the two concepts are actually inextricably linked and can be explored on many levels. Nicéphore Niépce, for example, was concerned with the reproduction of works of art in order to multiply and disseminate images of them, and yet in fact very few photographic artefacts form his legacy. Daguerre’s process produced a unique photographic object, but many thousands of daguerreotypes can be found in collections today. Early pioneers duplicated daguerreotypes by etching and printing from them or by creating galvanic copies; these techniques then became obsolete within years of their invention.
In our digital era of mass photography, unique analogue processes such as ambrotypes and tintypes are flourishing. Most recently, a 20th century photographic unique, the instant print, teetered on the brink of obsolescence as a result of the takeover of digital photography, but it has been revived and is currently thriving. Many questions remain unanswered on the materials and techniques, but also on the conservation and exhibition of unique photographs, such as daguerreotypes, photogenic drawings, colour screen plates, and contemporary prints with applied media; and serial objects, such as numbered editions of colour photographs and inkjet prints, may pose ethical and practical questions of reprinting and replacement. These and other technically and temporally recurrent variations of the unique and the multiple will be studied in breadth and depth on the first day of the conference.
Lecture Day 2: Free conservation topics
All original submissions covering topics relevant to the analysis, treatment, study and care of photographic materials will be considered.
Key dates to remember:
January 15, 2016        Submission deadline for abstracts for talks and posters
March 1, 2016            Notification of speakers and authors
March 15, 2015          Announcement of programme, Registration opens
Sept. 21-22, 2016       Workshops and tours
Sept. 23-24, 2016       Interim meeting
Conference Websites
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/icom-cc.pmwg
http://www.icom-cc.org/52/event/?id=260
Greg Hill, Coordinator ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group
Martin Jürgens, Conservator of Photographs, Rijksmuseum
Email: ICOM-CC.PMWG.2016@rijksmuseum.nl
 

43rd Annual Meeting – Textile Session, May 30, "A Turkish Kilim: Analysis, Stabilization, and Loss Compensation” by Cathleen Zaret.

Cathy Zaret presented on the techniques and challenges she encountered during the conservation treatment of a large Kilim. The Kilim was a 6 x 8 ft fragment from a private collection. After the completion of her treatment, the fragment would be returned to the private collector where it would be displayed over the back of their sofa.
Cathy’s introduction to Kilims provided helpful terminology and historical context. Kilims are woven tapestries, hangings, or rugs. They have non vertical panels with slits in the weave, but the design is such that the slits are small. Kilims formed part of the dowry of women in Anatolia and were made for personal use. Women wove many different designs and motifs into their Kilims and the choice of design does not appear to be geographically associated. Cathy searched through the literature to find a Kilim that appeared similar to hers and could only find one other similar example.
The Kilim fragment had a number of distinct manufacturing and condition features. The yarn in the fragment exhibited color variation and the condition of the yarn seemed to relate to the color. For example, the brown weft was most susceptible to loss, possibly because it had been dyed with iron oxide, rendering it vulnerable to additional damage. There had been many previous campaigns of restoration, all of which were documented as part of this treatment.
The goals for this treatment were to stabilize the Kilim and perform loss compensation on the largest areas of loss while being aware of the future use of the item. Since the prior repairs were in good condition and part of the history of the object, they were left intact.

  • Cathy lined the fragment with net for structural support during cleaning and removed it after cleaning.
  • The kilim was cleaned with a surfactant and then rinsed repeatedly before rolling it in towels and laying it out to dry. This successfully removed most of the soiling from the tapestry.
  • The kilim was mounted on a saw horse tensioning frame for treatment.
  • Used a whip stitch to stabilize the lower edge.
  • Repaired or replaced warp with handspun singles. Introduced the new warp into an undamaged area near the loss and wove it through the area of loss and then moved the yard to an adjacent warp and wove it back across the loss.

Cathy overcame many challenges during this treatment related to the size of the object and its context. To keep track of her treatment on a fragment of this size (6 x 8 ft), Cathy divided the kilim into six sections and worked on one section at a time. She also learned how to manage her treatment when the cost of conservation is higher than the perceived value of the textile.
I primarily work on objects but have occasionally had the opportunity to work with a textile conservator on something that crosses the line between textile and object. Cathy’s talk was comprehensible to conservators well versed in textiles and applicable for those of us who work on the fringes of textile conservation. I look forward to using her conservation techniques and well-organized approach in the future.

43rd Annual Meeting – Electronic Media Session, May 16, "Tackling obsolescence through virtualization: facing challenges and finding potentials” by Patricia Falcao, Annet Dekker, and Pip Laurenson

The presenters began by explaining that they had changed the title to reflect the emphasis of presentation. The new title became "An exploration of significance and dependency in the conservation of software-based artwork."

Based upon their research, the presenters decided to focus on dependencies rather than obsolesence per se. The project was related to PERICLES, a pan-European risk assessment project for preserving digital content. PERICLES was a four-year collaboration that included systems engineers and other specialists, modeling systems to predict change.

The presenters used two case studies from the Tate to examine key concepts of dependencies and significant properties. Significant properties were described as values defined by the artist. Dependency is the connection between different elements in a system, defined by the function of those elements, such as the speed of a processor. The research focused on works of art where software is the essential part of the art. The presenters explained that there were four categories of software-based artwork: contained, networked, user-dependent, and generative. The featured case studies were examples of contained and networked artworks. These categories were defined not only in terms of behavior, but also in terms of dependencies.

Michael Craig-Martin's Becoming was a contained artwork. The changing composition of images was comprised of animation of the artist’s drawings on LCD screen, using proprietary software. Playback speed is an example of an essential property that could be changed, if there were a future change in hardware, for example.

Jose Carlos Martinat Mendoza's Brutalism: Stereo Reality Environment 3 was the second case study discussed by the presenters. This work of art is organized around a visual pun, evoking the Brutalist architecture of the Peruvian “Pentagonito,” a government Ministry of Defense office associated with the human rights abuses of a brutal regime. Both the overall physical form of the installation, when viewed merely as sculpture, and the photographic image of the original structure reinforce the architectural message. A printer integrated into the exhibit conveys textual messages gleaned from internet searches of brutality. While the networked connection permitted a degree of randomness and spontaneity in the information flowing from the printer, there was a backup MySQL database to provide content, in the event of an interruption in the internet connection.

The presenters emphasized that the dependencies for software-based art were built around aesthetic considerations of function. A diagram was used to illustrate the connection between artwork-level dependencies. With "artwork" in the center, three spokes radiated outward toward knowledge, interface, and computation. An example of knowledge might be the use of a password to have administrative rights to access or modify the work. A joystick or a game controller would be examples of interfaces. In Brutalism, the printer is an interface. Computation refers to the capacity and processor speed of the computer itself.

Virtualization has been offered as an approach to preserving these essential relationships. It separates hardware from software, creating a single file out of many. It can act as a diagnostic tool and a preservation strategy that mitigates against hardware failure. The drawbacks were that it could mean copying unnecessary or undesirable files or that the virtual machine (and the x86 virtualization architecture) could become obsolete. Another concern is that virtualization may not capture all of the significant properties that give the artwork its unique character. A major advantage of virtualization is that it permits the testing of dependencies such as processor speed. It also facilitates version control and comparison of different versions.The authors did not really explain the difference between emulation and virtualization, perhaps assuming that the audience already knew the difference. Emulation uses software to replicate the original hardware environment to run different operating systems, whereas virtualization uses the existing underlying hardware to run different operating systems. The hardware emulation step decreases performance.

The presenters then explained the process that is used at the Tate. They create a copy of the hardware and software. A copy is kept on the Tate servers. Collections are maintained in a High Value Digital Asset Repository. The presenters also described the relationship of the artist's installation requirements to the dependencies and significant properties. For example, Becoming requires a monitor with a clean black frame of specific dimensions and aspect ratio. The software controls the timing and speed of image rotation and the randomness or image changes, as well as traditional artistic elements of color and scale. With Brutalism, the language (Spanish to English) is another essential factor, along with "liveness" of search.

During the question and answer period, the presenters explained that they were using VMware, because it was practical and readily available. An audience member asked an interesting question about the limitations of virtualization for the GPU (graphics processing unit). The current methodology at the Tate works for the CPU(central processing unit) only, not the graphics unit. The presenters indicated that they anticipated future support for the GPU.

This presentation emphasized the importance of curatorship of significant propeeties and documentation of dependencies in conserving software-based art. It was important to understand the artist's intent and to capture the essence of the artwork as it was meant to be presented, while recognizing that the artist’s hardware, operating system, applications, and hardware drivers could all become obsolete. It was clear from the presentation that a few unanswered questions remain, but virtualization appears to be a viable preservation strategy.

New JAIC issue online now

JAIC coverThe latest issue of JAIC (Journal of the American Institute for Conservation) is now online, and print copies are mailing shortly. This issue, Vol. 53, No. 2, features the following articles:

  • EDITORIAL, by Julio M. Del Hoyo-Meléndez, Editor-In-Chief
  • SHORT COMMUNICATION: GOBERGE, SHIMBARI, GO-BARS: THE USE OF FLEXIBLE STICKS FOR CLAMPING, by Tristram Bainbridge, Shayne Rivers, Yoshihiko Yamashita, Andrew Thackray, Nicola Newman
  • CHOOSING AN ADHESIVE FOR EXTERIOR WOODWORK THROUGH MECHANICAL TESTING, by Rian M. H. Deurenberg-Wilkinson
  • SOURCE CODE ANALYSIS AS TECHNICAL ART HISTORY, by Deena Engel and Glenn Wharton
  • RAISING MERET-IT-ES: EXAMINING AND CONSERVING AN EGYPTIAN ANTHROPOID COFFIN FROM 380–250 BCE, by Kathleen M. Garland, Johanna Bernstein, Joe Rogers
  • BOOK REVIEWS, by Vanessa Muros and Cybele Tom

AIC members and journal subscribers have online access to these articles now, before the print issue arrives. We hope you enjoy these articles, which bring some very interesting techniques and research to light.

Read more about the journal at http://www.maneyonline.com/loi/jac, or review the submission guidelines and JAIC style guide at http://www.conservation-us.org/jaic.