Workshop on examination and documentation with ultraviolet radiation

Workshop

"Examination and Documentation with Ultraviolet Radiation"
Art Conservation Department, SUNY Buffalo State
Buffalo, New York
July 27-31, 2015
(Monday, 1:30 pm to Friday, 12:20 pm)
(optional tour at 11:30 am Monday)

Instructors:  Jiuan Jiuan Chen and Dan Kushel

Registration Fee: $650 AIC members; $850 non-members
(includes refreshment breaks and lunches)

See

    <URL:http://www.conservation-us.org/uv2015>

Limit 12 participants.

This workshop is designed for conservation professionals who have a
basic understanding of digital photography and conservation
treatment/research experiences in materials and artifacts.  FAIC
reserves the right to limit the number of participants from a single
institution.  Space is limited, so early registration is strongly
encouraged.

About the Workshop:  Combining lectures, demonstrations, and applied
practice, this workshop will provide comprehensive coverage of the
use of ultraviolet radiation in conservation examination and
documentation.  Topics will include: ultraviolet sources and
applications, available tools and equipment, safety issues;
examination approaches, digital image capture techniques for
ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence photography, reflected
ultraviolet photography, and false-color ultraviolet imaging;
digital image workflow; and interpretation of results.

About UV Examination:  Ultraviolet examination and its accompanying
photographic documentation has been a basic tool of modern
conservation since the early part of the last century.  Its use in
recent years, however, has been greatly facilitated by the
profession's transition to digital documentation which has
dramatically simplified and improved ultraviolet photography for the
recording of both ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence and
ultraviolet reflectance.  It has also resulted in the development of
new techniques, such as false-color ultraviolet imaging, that can
provide additional tools for the characterization and
differentiation of materials and the documentation of condition.

Effective use of these new ultraviolet techniques requires a
consistent image capture and processing workflow.  Without such
procedures, efficiency will suffer, and more critically, results can
be misleading or confusing.  This workshop will help conservation
professionals to establish a standard and repeatable ultraviolet
examination and documentation workflow that can produce meaningful
images upon which sound conclusions can be drawn.

In addition to these photographic and imaging techniques, the
workshop will cover the types of ultraviolet sources available and
their proper use so that ultraviolet examination and documentation
can be used as a regular examination tool without compromising the
safety of the artifacts and the operators.  The workshop will also
focus on observation and interpretation of the response to
ultraviolet radiation of a wide variety of conservation materials.

What You Will Learn:

    The fundamentals of ultraviolet radiation, its applications in
    conservation, and safety issues for both conservator and
    artifact

    The application of ultraviolet to the examination and analysis
    of conservation materials and its limitations

    The knowledge required to choose appropriate tools and equipment
    for ultraviolet photography

    Techniques of ultraviolet photography with digital cameras
    through practical class experience

    The skills needed to assess observations and photographic
    documentation critically

General Outline of Course (preliminary):

    Introduction (lectures and demonstration)

        What is ultraviolet radiation
        Basic responses of materials to ultraviolet radiation
        Different ultraviolet sources and their proper use
        Safety issues and examination environment

    The application of ultraviolet to the examination of
    conservation materials (lectures and demonstration)

        Case studies
        Current research

    Tools and Equipment (lectures and demonstration)

        Ultraviolet sources
        Capturing devices
        Filtration
        Reference/targets
        Necessary accessories

    Ultraviolet photography with digital cameras (lectures and
    hands-on practice)

        Creating a workflow
        Placement of ultraviolet sources for photography
        Camera setup
        Image capture
        Image processing

    Assess Results:

        Presentation of results
        Group discussion

Instructors:

    Dan Kushel served on the faculty of the Art Conservation
    Department of SUNY Buffalo State, retiring in 2012.  Beginning
    in 1978 he taught technical examination and documentation and
    developed the unique two-year conservation documentation
    curriculum that has been offered by the department since 1993.
    Examination and Documentation with ultraviolet radiation is one
    of major subjects of this unique curriculum.

    A first recipient of the American Institute for Conservation
    Caroline and Sheldon Keck Award for conservation education
    (1994), he was appointed a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor
    in 1998.  He received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Exemplary
    Research and Scholarship in 2005, and the American Institute for
    Conservation Robert L. Feller Lifetime Achievement Award in
    2012.

    Professor Kushel has published and lectured widely on technical
    examination and documentation of cultural artifacts and is a
    co-author of the AIC Guide to Digital Photography and
    Conservation Documentation.

    Jiuan Jiuan Chen joined the faculty at the Art Conservation
    Department of SUNY Buffalo State to continue Professor Kushel's
    curriculum in Technical Examination and Documentation in the
    fall semester 2012.  She is a graduate of Class 2001 from the
    same program.

    Professor Chen's strong interest in using ultraviolet as a tool
    for conservation materials started from her senior research
    project on the use of different photographic techniques to
    characterize photographic materials that she undertook during
    her graduate studies under the mentorship of Dan Kushel and
    Irene Bruckle.

    From 2003 to 2007, she served as the Assistant Director for
    Conservation Education for the Advanced Residency Program in
    Photograph Conservation (ARP) at George Eastman House in
    Rochester NY.  There, she helped to enhance the facility and
    program for photodocumentation, including ultraviolet
    techniques.  She was the co-adviser with Dan Kushel to Claire
    Tragni on her ARP research project, "The Use of
    Ultraviolet-Induced Visible Fluorescence for Examination of
    Photographs," completed in 2005.  While working at Paul Messier
    LLC as a photograph conservator from 2007 to 2012, she was
    involved in the research and development of a reference target
    for ultraviolet induced fluorescence photography for which she
    and Mr. Messier co-hold a US patent (Fluorescent Color
    Calibrator for Calibrating RGB Pixel Values).

This program is supported by funding from the Foundation of the
American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artist Works
Endowment for Professional Development, which was created by a grant
from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and donations from members of
the American Institute for Conservation and its friends.  Courses
are made possible with the assistance of many AIC members, but no
AIC membership dues were used to create or present this course.

Questions?  Contact:

    Abigail Choudhury
    FAIC Development and Education Coordinator
    202-661-8070
    courses<-at->conservation-us<.>org


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:37
                 Distributed: Friday, February 27, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-37-019
                                  ***