Death and the conservator

[Dennis Piechota]

I find it helpful sometimes to say the obvious; it can be the first step in punching your way out of a bag you didn't even know you were in. So here goes:

On death and the object

We die; they don't. 

That's the crux of an important asymmetrical relationship we have with the objects we treat. "To treat" implies that embarrassing analogy with the actions of medical doctors. But both the patients and their doctors eventually die.

On death and the treatment

When a treatment goes wrong we go through the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance (DABDA) So treatments that go bad are like the dead; we remember them vividly but rarely bring them up.

On happy endings -ish

The internet however may change all of this, making us all near immortal: our artifacts, our treatments and even us! I think of this whenever I visit the CDLI* and see one of my forever young post-treatment images.

*Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative

Dennis

Dennis Piechota

Archaeological Conservator

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

ALTCONS Group Admin

an Alternative Conservation Discussion