Orphaned Objects

Audiences waited seven years between ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’ for the continuing adventures of Sigourney Weaver IN SPAAAAAAAAACE, so two years ‘twixt instalments of my journey through the International Academic Projects ‘Chemistry for Conservators’ course is nothing to complain about. So there. This course was not intended to crank out a newly-minted Conservator at its conclusion, rather it was aimed at people like me with rusty GCSE Chemistry who wish to understand more about the application of basic scientific principles in a museum context. Similarly the purpose of this series is not to analyse in any particular depth the format and delivery of the course, but to outline what’s involved along with any musings and highlighting some of the… highlights as we go. The TLDR version (how frightfully hip and with it) is that I very much enjoyed this course, and while I wouldn’t say it gave any earth-shattering new insights it was a fascinating exploration of the chemical principles underp...

  ‘Chemical processes underlie many of the practices and techniques used in conservation. From environmental control in preventative conservation to practical conservation and restoration, chemical interactions take place between the object and the outside world. These interactions may be harmful or benign, and need to be understood in order that they be controlled’. (Introduction, Chemistry for Conservators IAP) Everything is going to fall apart. Entropy’s gonna git ya! At least, that often felt like the central theme of the ‘Chemistry for Conservators’ course I undertook in 2021. The good news is the course also tells you how to, like, stop that happening. As a Curator I’ve been fascinated with how objects are preserved (‘for future generations to enjoy’ is how that phrase usually ends when writing funding bids), which is just as well as looking after the precious things is kind of fundamental to the job. This art, which is actually a science, is called... Conservation. PAY...

Bit busy lately writing a major funding bid for my day job so there's not been much progress with the digitising of my family negatives. However, the mountain of job specs, tender briefs, budget spreadsheets and myriad other supporting documents I've been accumulating for this application has made me consider how much paperwork even a small museum can generate. I'm thinking particularly of ...museum policies. Policies, policies, policies. Museums have policies for everything - a policy for what you collect, a policy for looking after the stuff you collect, a policy for cataloguing the stuff you collect, a policy for training people to look after the stuff you collect, a policy for disposing of things you no longer collect, a policy for engaging visitors with what you collect, a policy for making sure what you collect doesn't get stolen or go on fire or get wet, a policy for planning what you're going to do with the stuff you collect over the next five years, a polic...

 I love cataloguing. There, I said it. Which is for the best really as if you’re going to work with museum collections and you don’t love cataloguing, well, you’re probably not going to have a good time.  Archiving cataloguing is a time-intensive and, yes, at times tedious job. Before I hit the scanner for my family photo digitising project I need to decide how to catalogue the images - after all scanning thousands of photos isn't much use without an easy means of navigating them. I’m creating a catalogue from scratch which is tremendously exciting but can also lead into bad habits which will waste time and compromise the final product if not set up right. It’s critical at this early stage to establish a system that will record an appropriate amount of information in a logical and useable way, so it’s worth sitting back and considering the options. Daunting. This is a daunting spreadsheet, alive with potential, the bleak white wilderness piercing my soul. Or similar. In pr...