Home | Working Groups | Theory, History, and Ethics of Conservation | Theory and History in Conservation Working Group Triennial Programme 2020-2023

Theory and History in Conservation Working Group Triennial Programme 2020-2023

Specific themes for investigation

Sources for the History of Conservation: the Role of Practice

The working group will aim to discuss the history of conservation in the expanded sense of the discipline. In the context of this theme, the Working Group will focus on embodied practice of conservators, oral testimonies, and living practices as sources for conservation research to complement more traditional methods in the research of conservation history like archival research. We will look at alternative ways of understanding the notion of evidence, method, and practice in the field of conservation.

Transcultural perspectives on Conservation Theory

Drawing on the goals of the last Triennium (2017-2020), this theme concerns conservation theories and histories that fall outside a Western-centric perspective. Perspectives on intangible and living heritage theory and its applicability to conservation practice will be explored alongside critical rehearsals on conservation history, and contributions that expand the notion of conservation beyond its materialist tradition will be valued.

Standards of care across cultures of conservation

This theme will focus on the investigation of care practices across different cultures of conservation. Through this research, the Working Group will explore how conservation can be instrumentalised in discussions on restitution, the affordances of different care practices for the ways in which objects are conserved, and the possibilities emerging from intertwining different ways of seeing in conservation ethics. The Working Group is open to dialogues and connections with other ICOM bodies focusing on this issue.

Building Inclusive Conservation Theory and Practice

This theme aims at investigating the ways in which conservation theory, history, and ethics are rooted in the legacies of colonialism, gender-based inequality, and Western ethnocentrism. In what ways are these legacies perpetuated in current frameworks and practices, and how might the Working Group participate in substantively opening our profession to other epistemic traditions?

Projects:

Triennial Conference

The Working Group is looking forward to working towards the planning and delivery of our session at the ICOM-CC 20th Triennial Conference in 2023.

Interim Meeting

The Working Group is planning to host an Interim Meeting in 2022. We are still deciding on the themes that can be explored in the context of this Interim Meeting, and members will be consulted before committing to a specific theme or venue.

Get-together online

The Working Group will explore opportunities to deliver research, practice, and debates online. Besides hosting events via Zoom and social media, we want to find new spaces to highlight research in the theory, history, and ethics of conservation in various languages, across theoretical strands and geographies. The Working Group will additionally foster collaborations with other ICOM-CC Working Groups aiming to intersect theory, history, and ethics across conservation specialisms.

The Working Group will publish an annual Newsletter. Beyond the usual scope of the newsletter, we are also keen to make the newsletter a space for reflection for all Working Group members to publish pieces pertaining to the theory, history, and ethics of conservation.

Social Media

The Working Group will continue to use our Facebook page. We are keen to explore the potentials of social media in the delivery of research and to explore alternative communication formats for research in these platforms.

Oral History project

The Working Group will support the Foundation American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) Oral History Project. This began in 1975 and now contains nearly 350 transcripts of interviews. We will encourage members to actively participate in this project.

Collaborations

The Working Group will make an explicit commitment to explore possibilities for collaboration with other ICOM-CC Working Groups, ICOM committees, and outside of ICOM. The main focus of these collaborations will be on information sharing, mapping out forms of institutional practice, and fostering collaborations and intersections in the fields of theory, history, and ethics of conservation.

Toolkit for building inclusive practice

The Working Group will assemble a document for facilitating structured conversations between conservators, students, educators and other colleagues in museums and cultural heritage management to identify and address issues of inequity and exclusion in historical and current practices for conservation and the care of cultural materials. This tool is meant to initiate a local, community-based process for articulating causes, manifestations and solutions to structural, systemic inequities and prejudicial legacies.

ICOM-CC Publications Online Platform Project

The Working Group will assist with gathering information for the Publications Online Platform Project related to the Working Groups’ past publications, as well as any further work required to place publications generated in this triennium.

ICOM-CC acknowledges and highly values the contributions and additional efforts required by the Working Group Coordinators towards converting the Beijing 19th Triennial Conference to a fully virtual event. Additional workloads are being carried by Coordinators from both the past and current triennia to ensure a vibrant and exciting conference.

Terms & Conditions

LINK POLICY AND DISCLAIMERS
ICOM-CC is not responsible for the content of the web pages that the user can access through the links established on their websites and declares that under no circumstances won’t examine or exercise any type of control over the content of other web pages. Moreover, it does not guarantee the technical availability, accuracy, veracity, validity or legality of pages outside our property that can be accessed through the links. ICOM-CC declares that it has adopted all the necessary measures to avoid any damage that may arise from browsing its webpage. Consequently, ICOM-CC is not responsible, in any case, for any occasional damages that the user may suffer due to browsing the Internet. ICOM-CC is not responsible for damages or losses of any kind produced to the user that bring cause of failures or disconnections in the telecommunications networks that produce the suspension, cancellation, installation or interruption of the web service during or prior. The access to the website www.icom-cc.org does not imply an obligation on the part of the organization to control the absence of viruses or any other harmful computer element. In any case, it corresponds to the user the availability of adequate tools for the detection and disinfection of harmful computer programs. ICOM-CC is not responsible of the damage caused in devices or files that owned the users or third parties during the service in the website.

MODIFICATIONS
ICOM-CC reserves the right to make modifications without prior notice, as it deems appropriate in its website, and may change, delete or add both contents of the website, conditions of use or by general contracting conditions. Such modifications may be made, through their website, in any manner admissible by law and shall be binding during the time they are published on the website and until they are modified by subsequent ones.

RESERVATION OF COOKIES
ICOM-CC reserves the right to use cookies in the user's browsing through its website to facilitate the customization and convenience of navigation. Following the policy of protection of data of the company, (VIROTT & ASSOCIADOS, LDA.) informs that the cookies are associated to the anonymous user and to his computer and do not provide by themselves neither the name nor the surnames of the user. The user has the possibility to configure his browser so that he is informed of the reception of cookies, being able, if he wishes, to prevent them from being installed on his hard drive. However, in order to access the website of ICOM-CC the installation of cookies is not mandatory. The user undertakes to refrain from reproducing, copying, distributing, making available or otherwise publicly communicating, transforming or modifying the contents, unless the authorization of the owner with the corresponding rights is granted or it is legally permitted.

PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA
Please refer to our Privacy Policy text.

INTELECTUAL PROPERTY
The rights of intellectual property derived from all the texts, images, as well as the means and forms of presentation and assembly of their pages belong, by themselves or as an assignee, to ICOM-CC. They will be, therefore, works protected with intellectual property by the French legal system and they will be able to apply both French and European regulations in this field, as well as international treaties related to the matter and signed by France. All rights reserved. In compliance with the Intellectual Property Law, the reproduction, distribution, public communication and use of all or part of the contents of its website without the express consent of ICOM-CC is prohibited. Likewise, ICOM-CC reserves the right to present civil or criminal actions it deems appropriate for the improper use of its webpage and content or for the breach of these conditions.

LEGAL ACTIONS, APPLICABLE LEGISLATION AND JURISDICTION
The relationship between the user and ICOM-CC will be governed by current French regulations and will be competent to decide on any dispute that may arise between the user and ICOM-CC the courts or tribunals from the city of PARIS.