Conservation in an uncurated world

[Dennis Piechota]

Social media has moved deeply into our daily lives. This move towards greater democratization and connectivity is also a move towards the uncurated. While the size of their readerships will vary anyone from an American president to my grandson can tweet with equal accessibility. As this Google Group shows any conservator can start posting about the future of our field. Not to limit this to textual media one can and, I think, should follow the podcast, C-Word, also started by the initiative of individual conservators. 

As a spin off of this individual empowerment our information sources become less institutionally curated and curation itself, in the form of appeals to external authority, cannot help but be devalued. All of our work till now has been in service to such authorities, whether they be the original artists, art history curators, archaeologists, collection stewards and others. As these social conditions persist this essential relationship cannot help but deteriorate.

What will conservation be in a world where traditional curation is devalued? One needs a magic wand to predict that but extrapolating from current trends in graduate programming it may include a new 'tech-ademy' where the lines between the technical and academic are blurred and ultimately erased. This may lead to a new type of conservator's curation that removes the artificial and self-limiting structure of our contact with culture from that of the "BEFORE and AFTER" narrative to become part of one long and continuous DURING.

Image source: 6th Moscow International Biennial for Young Art
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Dennis

Dennis Piechota

Archaeological Conservator

Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
UMass Boston
Office: 617-287-6829

ALTCONS Group Admin

an Alternative Conservation Discussion