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"

    Eighteenth 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<-at->unam<.>mx> or 18coloquioconservacioniie<-at->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

    <URL:http://www.esteticas.unam.mx/cactividades/proximas.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


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:28
                Distributed: Thursday, December 6, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-26-28-006
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