J.CAC VOLUME 34 (2009)
Social Contexts for Conservators: Time, Distance, and Voice in Museums and Galleries
This paper explores developments in conservation influenced by social changes over the last fifty years, particularly by those changes occurring in conservation’s art gallery and museum milieu. These shifts include evolving concepts of time, distance and voice in museum practice, illustrated here in relation to the contemporary museum’s approach to research, access and exhibitions. These examples provide a reference point for discussing these concepts in relation to conservation. Comparisons are made with similar changes in perspective in the fields of history and, briefly, pain management in medicine. All these examples illustrate that the times conservators live in matter in their work, and not only in the sense of available technology, knowledge or materials.
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