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I am convinced that the Internet offers immense potential, in many
ways, for the preservation of our cultural heritage. A few museums
and university departments (often connected), the major conservation
institutes, and several international organizations are already
making significant use of the Internet for conservation and preservation
(sorry, but one has to use both words to cover the field), with
a remarkable increase in the amount of information readily available
and in the speed with which questions and answers can be shared
internationally. In this paper, I wish to call attention to the
nature of these already impressive current uses; to examine a few
of the new types of internet use that have recently been implemented,
and especially to project types of uses not yet available, which
could be of immense value in preserving the art, architecture, and
other material culture of the world.
As far as I have been able to discover, nothing has been published
that is at all comprehensive in examining internet uses in this
field, and I am under no illusion that this paper can be more than
an initial sketch. Therefore, I think of this as a work in progress
which I intend to submit to my colleagues in all areas of conservation
and preservation, for their corrections, new information, and especially
for new ideas, for types of internet uses which they would find
of special value, even if these now seem remote, even unattainable.
Let us be clear about our subject, the Internet. In order to focus
on this subject, we must recognize that the many important uses
of computers in conservation laboratories, on university servers,
and museum kiosks, are relevant here only if they are available
on the Internet. Most of the advanced uses of technology in this
field are not. That, I am convinced, will change. In fact, it is
the existence of the Internet that justifies many of the innovations
that are now taking place.
But the Internet itself has a rather single and easily described
function. It makes possible the conveyance of information. It is
a network along which any kind of digitized information can flow.
To emphasize that it is simply a tube through which information
may flow, Jack Kessler, one of my most valued informants, would
say, "it is a pipe, just a pipe." This network of pipes, or tubes,
has certain well-known characteristics, which thus do not need to
detain us here: it reaches directly vast numbers of people around
the world, and it allows whatever information is transmitted to
go at lightning speed.
What does concern us here is the uses that these characteristics
facilitate in any specific field of human activity, especially any
highly desirable uses that they might facilitate, but at present
do not. To explore these in at least a semi-systematic fashion,
let us consider first the types of information it is desirable to
convey, second their degrees of permanence, and third the means
by which this information is exchanged.
The exemplary sites mentioned in this paper do not constitute a
review of internet sites in conservation and historic preservation.
There are other equally deserving sites not mentioned, and even
where a site is discussed to exemplify one type or another of internet
use, other features of the site go unmentioned. The aim of this
paper is to describe the various types of internet uses that exist
and should exist in the field, illustrated with a few examples.
2. TYPES OF INFORMATION
Because the Internet is itself content neutral, it might be thought
that the type of information conveyed on the Internet is irrelevant
to this paper, but internet technology and internet content are
interdependent. To make what I hope is an obvious point, much of
the important content already available on the Internet would not
even have been created had there been no opportunity for making
it available on the Internet. It would have been too expensive to
publish in print form, and the needs of the local community alone
would not have justified the time and expense in creating it. The
Internet is stimulating many institutions to organize their records,
to record their artifacts properly, to undertake research projects
that would previously have been considered unnecessarily specialized,
and to make available to the public previously behind-the-scenes
activities, conservation perhaps most notably.
I hasten to reaffirm that the least adventurous uses of technologically
may, in many disciplines, be the most valuable. The fact that such
uses may consist in simply making information in a few specialized
locations available internationally does not diminish the importance
of this use. It may be less fascinating technologically, but it
is often of immense value.
2. A. Text
2.A.1. Lists
Lists of web sites with hotlinks
Possibly the most used sites in each discipline are the lists of
organizations in each subject area, with urls and hotlinks. In conservation
and historic preservation, there are a number of exemplary, well-known
lists, and these lead quickly to other sites with their own lists
and hotlinks. One might begin with:
CHIN - RCIP (Canadian Heritage Information Network - RÈseau
canadien d'information sur le patrimoine): http://www.chin.gc.ca/
City University, London; Arts Policy and Management Department
http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/
CoOL (Conservation OnLine) http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/orgs.html
GCI (Getty Conservation Institute) http://www.getty.edu/gci/knowledge/index.html
ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of Preservation &
Restoration of Cultural Property, Rome; Web Resources) in English
or French http://www.iccrom.org/eng/SITES/web.htm
WWW (World Wide Web) VLmp (Virtual Library museum pages), supported
by ICOM (International Council of Museums) http://www.icom.org/vlmp/
IRG (Internet Resoucres of Heritage Conservation, Historic Preservation,
and Archaeology), NCPTT (National Center for Preservation Technology
and Training), NPS (National Park Service) http://www.cr.nps.gov/ncptt/irg/
ArchNet (World Wide Web Virtual Library for Archaeology) http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/ArchNet/ArchNet.html
These lists overlap in endless ways and may seem unnecessarily
repetitive, but the different organization of each site is instructive
and each has different types of peripheral links, demonstrating
once again the immense value of internet diversity, often mistakenly
described as chaos.
2.A.2. Straight text
As reaffirmed above, simply making previously local information
available internationally can be among the most important uses of
the Internet. The web is filled with such information, sites often
without a single image or hotlink, yet these pages are sometimes
written with the highest standards. This makes possible the distribution
of conservation information on an impressive range of specialized
topics. There is a site detailing "How to Collect Archaeological
Wood and Charcoal for Dendrochronological Analysis" http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/howto.html,
put on-line by the Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Laboratory for Aegean
and Near Eastern Dendrochronology at Cornell University http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/index.html.
The Scientific Photography Lab http://www.foto.unibas.ch/
at the university of Basel has created a web site featuring their
research on the digital restoration of color photographs and movies
at
http://www.foto.unibas.ch/research/research.html
.
The site includes a few excellent before-and-after examples of
digital restoration of faded photographs, faded 16mm color movie
frames, and broken glass pieces http://www.foto.unibas.ch/research/examples.html,
but these few illustrations are quite secondary to the extensive
text, providing a clearly organized, detailed introduction to the
subject, plus three lengthy papers, two previously published in
scholarly journals, one given at a scholarly conferences.
This calls to our attention the fact that it is now feasible to
publish on the web out of print books and articles previously published
in journals with limited circulation. Perhaps more importantly,
one can publish on the web important but specialized texts that
would not otherwise be published at all. This is especially valuable
in fields, such as conservation, where there is a large body of
highly specialized material, but where there is relatively little
funding.
2.A.3. Charts and forms
It would be of immense value if templates could be developed for
a variety of museum and conservation purposes, discussed, improved,
and agreed upon by professionals in the field, then made available
on the Web. This would make sharing of information more efficient
and reliable (we do not all take measurements or record data in
the same way, but this is not clear from a simple catalogue entry)
and would encourage conservators and historical preservationists
to study and record aspects of artifacts that they might otherwise
overlook.
Alpha Tec Ltd. http://www.alphatecltd.com,
in Thessaloniki, Greece, has made available on their Web site a
demonstration version of portions of their software package, 'EIKONA',
including various forms for data entry http://aias.csd.auth.gr/eikona/forms/en/forms.htm.
2.B. Text and images combined
Most web sites take advantage of the ease with which text and images
can be interchanged. The Preservation
Services Department of Dartmouth College Library has made available
their "Simple Book Repair Manual" http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/tofc.html,
funded by the National Park Service through their National Center
for Preservation Technology and Training. Such sites are of immense
value for those who otherwise might not have access to professional
instruction.
An increasing number of museums and conservation centers include
on their web sites clear descriptions with detail images explaining
a few of the conservation projects conducted on their collections.
The Krannert Art Museum http://www.art.uiuc.edu/kam/
of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with other departments
at the university, has created a web site, "Science in the Art Museum
http://www.art.uiuc.edu/kam/Explorer/ATAM/,
with an account of, among others, the conservation of a Peruvian
ceremonial Nasca ceramic drum. This includes separate pages on the
"conservator's overview," "procedures," "structural analysis," "x-ray
radiography and CAT scanning," and "compositional analysis," all
with small but clear photographs.
One of the most impressive sites of this sort is the recent effort
of Ron Spronk, Henry Lie, and Robin Marlowe at the Straus Center
for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums. "Investigating
the Renaissance" http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/renaissance/,
is an adaptation of a dazzling interactive computer kiosk focusing
on the technical examination and conservation of three Early Netherlandish
paintings in an exhibition at the Fogg. The site includes clear
explanations for methods of examination and progressive images of
a painting shown first uncleaned, then with the varnish half removed,
the overpainting removed, and finally after inpainting. There are
also sequential images of a painting seen under visible light, ultraviolet,
infrared, and x-ray, with a final image verso. See also the Fall
1996 issue of the Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin [2],
in which, among others, these three paintings are discussed and
illustrated, providing an instructive comparison between relatively
high quality print reproduction and either low quality digital images,
somewhat compensated for by helpful details (on the web pages) or
outstanding quality digital images (at the kiosk).
It is worth noting that even the best of these web sites do not
provide the option of opening a large, high-resolution image. Yet
it is quite easy and inexpensive to do this, and where would such
images be more useful that in explanations of technical examination
and conservation?
2.C. Images
Of all the uses of the Internet in the field of art conservation
and historic preservation, the sharing of images offers the greatest
potential benefits. Conservation and historic preservation concern
themselves not only with scientific data but also with historical
change and broad social issues, but all of these are focused on
physical objects, objects which for one reason or another are highly
valued by society. In nearly all cases, the visual appearance of
these artifacts and buildings is a major concern. We are especially
concerned with the visual changes these objects have undergone over
time and with how we wish them to appear today.
In order to consider these issues with care, it is essential that
we study the objects first hand. Nothing can substitute for the
in-depth study of the original objects, buildings and archaeological
sites. Especially for those who have not studied paintings in conservation
lab with conservators and conservation scientists or climbed around
cathedral vaults with engineers and stone technology experts, the
primacy of direct study of the original cannot be stressed too often.
Without study of the original, it is even difficult to understand
the other evidence.
But some aspects of their visual appearance are not available to
us. We cannot recapture the appearance of objects from times past,
nor can we see with our naked eyes the appearance of objects activated
by thermal neutrons. For these we are dependent on various types
of documents, especially images: 16th century drawings of famous
buildings, the working drawings of sculptors, nineteenth century
photographs, and autoradiographs of paintings. Moreover, it is not
possible to return to the Louvre or Kyoto every time we wish to
reconsider some aspect of the artifact or building. We are heavily
dependent on images.
The sites referred to below include some text, but for these sites
the focus is clearly on the images.
2.C.1. Still images
The press concerns itself primarily with multimedia developments,
understandably because these are the most innovative. For conservation
and historic preservation, however, the tremendous increase in the
availability of still images, especially high quality images, offers
the greatest immediate promise.
Basic compilations
In some cases, these are simply large compilations of images on
a defined subject, usually drawing on the research photographs taken
by a scholar over the years, now made widely available on the Web.
Axel Bolvig, research professor at the Institute of History, University
of Copenhagen, has created a web site, "Kalkmalerier i danske kirker"
http://www.kalkmalerier.dk/,
containing 5230 images of medieval wallpaintings in Danish churches,
based on photographs by Bolvig and five other photographers. Although
mixed in quality, the images are thoroughly documented and constitute
a previously unavailable and impressively comprehensive basis for
study of this surprisingly large body of material (and a lovely
Danish plainsong plays when one clicks on the angel).
Demonstrations
Some web sites demonstrate not the procedures for actual conservation
and restoration but the procedures for virtual restoration, for
computer manipulation of the images to show how works would look
if restored a certain way. At the Center for Computer-Aided Egyptological
Research at the University of Utrecht http://www.ccer.ggl.ruu.nl/ccer/default.html,
Han van den Berg has created a site describing his virtual restoration
of ancient Egyptian artifacts by computer http://www.ccer.ggl.ruu.nl/ccer/restore.html.
He provides here six excellent before-and-after examples of his
computer restorations, with details. Strangely, he writes that "by
means of manipulation of the photographic copy the object is restored
to its original and most perfect state, the way it used to be in
Ancient Egyptian days." But this is not at all what he has done.
In fact these are quite restrained and sensitive computer restorations,
in which the attempt is clearly to recapture the visual coherency
of the image. None of the examples reveal any attempt to bring the
image back to the object's original appearance.
Constructed images (virtual reconstructions)
Learning Sites Inc., http://www.learningsites.com/index.htm,
a Williamstown, Mass. company marketing software of "digitally reconstructed
ancient worlds for interactive education and research," has parts
of several demonstration projects available on their web site. The
most extensive is for the Tsoungiza archeological site, from ancient
Nemea, in the northeast Peloponnesos of Greece. This includes three
constructed views of a house (from above, the front, and the inside),
drawn by Danial J. Pullen, Department of Classics, Florida State
University, Tallahassee, includes large, high resolution images
of the Tsoungiza site, with aerial photographs of site features
superimposed on drawn plans of a succession of eight periods uncovered
during the excavation. It is unfortunate that the case for virtual
recreations is so overstated in the company's accompanying text
("Computer technology can reunite elements from disparate locations
into a single model, creating a near first-hand experience of an
ancient world in its original complexity."), but the educational
value of digitally constructed, three-dimensional images of no-longer
existent buildings and archaeological sites, based on the most reliable
evidence is clear.
Laboratory quality images
A distinctive need for advanced work in art conservation and for
certain aspects of historic preservation is the availability of
high quality images. For modern laboratory purposes images must
be of extremely high quality and the exact methods by which the
images were made recorded. For this reason, standards for various
types of architectural rendering and photographic recording are
gradually being developed in this field. Moreover, if we are to
confer with experts in different parts of the world, reproductions
of these images must also be of very high quality. In the past this
has required use of the mails, physical transfer of photographs,
x-radiographs, etc. from one conservation center or technical lab
or to another, with the result that only the most important images
have been shared and of course without the immediacy of common discovery.
No form of telefax or other electronic transmission has been adequate
for the high quality, reliable images needed.
High quality digital images offer, for the first time, the
potential (already realized in a few high tech labs, though perhaps
not yet with the comprehensive controls needed for the most reliable
joint experiments) for experts in various parts of the world to
look at and discuss in real-time the same images, confident that
they are seeing exactly the same image under similar conditions.
2.D. Additional needs
The success of these types of internet sites should encourage
us to pursue databases that have been discussed from time to time
but have never been taken on by any individual or, more desirably,
any institution. One project that at least got underway was begun
in 1980 by Joyce Hill Stoner at the Winterthur Art Conservation
Program, Delaware, and lasted until 1994. Titled "The Artists' Techniques
Data Base", it eventually included more than a hundred entries about
artist's intent concerning varnish, etc., compiled from various
sources including discussions with artists [3].
Dr. Stoner tells me that, in 1994, three sets of 430 pages of entries
were sent off to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
the Tate Gallery, London, and the Getty Conservation Institute,
now in Los Angeles.
I have suggested two comparable databases, both of which seem worthy
of institutional sponsorship now that the Internet provides for
efficient, long-term development and prompt, wide-spread availability
of the information. In a 1984 document for a colloquium at the Center
for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., I recommended the creation of comprehensive archives
of information on the working procedure of individual artists and
on the visual appearance and physical character of their art [4].
If such an archive of information (which we would now call a "database")
were readily available for an artist, standard procedure would call
for the information to be consulted by curators and conservators,
even in provincial museums, before deciding how any work of art
should be treated or displayed; and art historians could be expected,
more than is now the case, to consult such information in interpreting
works by the artist.
In order that such information could be stored and retrieved in
a convenient, common-sense manner, I suggested that the data be
organized according to the various types of sources from which information
had been obtained, following an outline such as this:
I. INFORMATION FROM ORIGINAL PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS
A. Normal Viewing
1. Records of direct observation under normal conditions
2. Photographs and slides taken under normal conditions
B. Laboratory Examination
1. Written reports of examination under laboratory conditions,
with binocular microscopes, ultraviolet light, analyzing paint
samples, etc.
2. X-radiographs, infra-red reflectograms, neutron activated
autoradiographs, photographs under raking light, etc.
II. INFORMATION FROM ACCESSORY OBJECTS
A. Equipment Used by the Artist
B. Representations of the Artist at Work
III. INFORMATION FROM CONTEMPORARY WRITTEN DOCUMENTS
A. Correspondence, Inscriptions, etc. in the Artist's
Hand.
B. Eyewitness Accounts, Reviews
C. Other Contemporary Reports
Parallel to this archive or database, I have recommended the establishment
of a directory of prime objects, listing, for each artist, those
works of art which could serve as touchstones for the study and
conservation of other works by the same artist. For the identification
of these prime objects, we would have to depend on those art historians
and conservators who have specialized in the work of individual
artists, those who have seen most of the artist's extant work, have
examined a significant number out of their frames in conservation
labs, have studied the available laboratory reports, have conferred
regularly with other experts in the field, have observed works by
the artist being treated in a variety of ways in conservation studios
or, in the case of conservators, have themselves treated a significant
number of objects by the artist. It would be especially important
to record those works that have survived with relatively little
natural deterioration or human intervention, that is paintings that
have not been relined, especially where the imposto has not been
compressed.
The need for these two databases gains in urgency as painting after
painting, sculpture after sculpture, and building after building
is cleaned and restored. Fortunately, the job of creating such databases
and of making them available at least to other experts is now a
vastly more practical enterprise, because of the Internet. These
databases could be formulated, built gradually over the years, and
made available immediately to those in charge of the conservation
and preservation of our cultural heritage. Also, aspects of these
databases would be invaluable in formulating exhibitions focusing
on "Art in the Making" and in meeting the increasing public interest
in conservation .
Undoubtedly, there are other types of additional needs which should
be discussed among conservation and historic preservation professionals
in order to recommend the types of internet uses that would best
provide for the preservation of the world's cultural heritage.
3. DEGREES OF PERMANENCE
3.A. Web sites with relatively permanent
information
The permanence of information on the Internet is one of the
central concerns of those involved in setting internet policies,
of librarians, archivists and - too often forgotten - end users.
Especially where major databanks are concerned, it is essential
that the institutions and persons responsible commit themselves
to maintaining a permanent record, which of course requires a commitment
to transpose data into new formats as they replace those currently
in use, and to document this evolution so that it can be confirmed
by later researchers.
Individual databases
The individual databases within the conservation and preservation
field are large and comprehensive in some cases, small and narrowly
focused others. SOS (Save Outdoor Sculpture) http://www.nic.org/sos/sos.html,
is "a private/public initiative to document all monuments and outdoor
sculpture in the United States." As reported on the SOS web site,
"In Phase I, 6,000 volunteers reported 30,000 publicly accessible
outdoor sculptures to the Smithsonian Institution's Art Inventories
datebase. Of that total, 45 percent were determined to be in critical
need of attention, nine percent requiring urgent treatment to survive
the coming century. In Phase II, SOS!2000, those volunteers and
other citizens . . . are working to preserve 10,000 sculptures and
monuments as a gift for the next century... Education about the
necessity of maintainance is a common message throughout Phase II."
The SOS records are searchable as part of the Smithsonian
Institution's Art Inventories Catalog.
Much more narrowly focused, but equally thorough within its area,
is the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB), http://tree.ltrr.arizona.edu/~grissino/itrdb.htm
providing "the only central repository for all types of dendrochronological
data from around the world." "Currently, the ITRDB contains over
6,000 data sets, including 2,804 raw measurement files, 3,275 tree-ring
chronologies, and numerous climate reconstructions derived from
these tree-ring data. These data were collected from over 1,500
sites around the world representing over 100 tree and shrub species."
It is reassuring to read that "the primary purpose for the ITRDB
is to provide a permanent location for the storage of well-dated,
high-quality dendrochronological data from around the world", and
"to assimilate tree-ring measurement and chronology data into a
central location for permanent archiving." Now housed at World Data
Center-A for Paleoclimatology at the National Geophysical Data Center
(NGDC) in Boulder, Colorado, USA, ITRDB records are freely available
to anyone with access to the Internet.
3.B. Relatively-permanent and
temporary data combined
Individual institutions
Nearly every institution seems now to have its own web site, providing
both relatively-permanent information regarding such its location,
hours, collections, etc. and temporary information about current
programs. For example, the Conservation
Department of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/
at Harvard has recently upgraded its web site to include not only
an introduction to the department, description of programs and services,
lists of available grants and awards, facilities and staff, but
also examples of their recent conservation treatment and research
projects, some elaborated as examples.
An exemplary conservation institution site, combining in-depth,
semi-permanent information and stimulating reports on current programs
is the web site of the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) http://www.getty.edu/gci/,
part of the Getty Trust in Los Angeles http://www.getty.edu/
or http://www.getty.edu/index2.htm.
In addition to a list of GCI
publications, the site includes "Research WebStracts" http://www.getty.edu/gci/webstracts/index.html,
"a comprehensive list with abstracts of the writings of the Scientific
staff of the Institute", and access to IRIS http://opac.pub.getty.edu/screens/mainmenu.html,
the Research Library's online catalog. The GCI site includes also
complete versions of their extensive quarterly Newsletter,
in English and Spanish http://www.getty.edu/gci/newslettere.html,
featuring reports on collaborative activities around the world and
on current activities. All of this is presented with exemplary clarity.
3.C. Web sites with largely temporary
information
Interim project reports
We can follow the progress of the Nemea
Valley Archaeological Project through field reports from this
region in the northeast Peloponnesus of Greece, with some of the
finest 3-d photo-realistic reconstructioned images on the web. The
temporary nature of such information is emphasized by the warning
that "These pages have been developed for research purposes only;
the information contained herein is in no way to be construed as
an interim or final publication of the material." Intended as a
warning, this statement also demonstrates the value of the Internet
in encouraging interim reports, well before standard scholarly publication.
Notices of buildings and other cultural heritage threatened
with destruction
The ease with which information can be made available via the Internet
to large numbers of people gives temporary announcements a new status
as international education, not just for those directly concerned.
Thus we may all discover how situations are handled in Scotland
where historically important buildings are threatened, through the
various pages of the Architecture Survey http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/about/arch-survey.html
on the web site of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/.
Announcements of educational programs
Students may keep abreast of summer archaeological field school
opportunities, even the Urals and Western
Siberia field school offered by Ural State University http://www.usu.ru/eng/new/,
on a web site including photographs of students preparing their
meals and sitting around their tent camp.
4. CONCLUSIONS
A series of observations emerge from an exploration of the
interplay between web technology and discipline-specific content
in the field of art conservation and historic preservation. First,
it is important to reemphasize that there is no correlation between
degrees of technological complexity and content value. Simply having
an important new idea and making it available in a report on the
Internet may have more value for the preservation of our cultural
heritage than the most complex technological innovation. At the
same time, the immense technological advantages of the Internet
are having a profound effect on this field and it behooves us to
consider in what ways we might take advantage of these technological
wonders and in what ways the development of the Internet might itself
be stimulated by the potential for new uses in conservation and
historic preservation.
Most internet uses that we have reviewed are common to all disciplines.
Indeed we have argued that the relatively simple development of
immense databases which can be accessed as needed for information
of all types, a use common to all disciplines, is possibly the single
most valuable feature of the Internet as it now exists or as we
may conceive it in the future. The repository of human knowledge
is growing at an astonishing rate, especially in fields such as
conservation which depend on detailed and often specialized materials
science.
However, some uses of the Internet, although not unique to conservation
and historic preservation, are especially valuable because of the
character of the field. In this, we have found striking parallels
with some of the sciences, especially medicine.
Most notably, conservation is dependent on photographic images,
especially large, high resolution images. Moreover, these need to
be taken not only by natural light but also under various laboratory
lighting conditions, such as x-rays and infra-red light, not to
mention neutron activated autoradiography. We need the conditions
under which these photographs are taken to be carefully recorded,
the process by which the images are digitized to be known and recorded,
and we need any alteration in the digital images to be carefully
tracked. We must know exactly what we are looking at, what we can
depend on and what not.
In order to share these images over the Internet with other experts,
we need to have a system which allows us to be certain that experts
in different locations are looking at exactly the same image under
as nearly similar conditions as can be achieved.
Because we are dealing with one-of-a-kind objects, some of which
cannot be moved (buildings and cultural landscapes), and others
of which are too fragile to move, it is especially important that
experts in other parts of the world be able to study these images
and to share their observations in as collegial and confidential
a manner as possible. This requires real-time collaboration and
absolute confidentiality. For these reasons and others, the development
of next generation internets is crucial to research in conservation
just as it is in medicine and military research. We need to be able
to carry out joint experiments, using expensive, specialized equipment
perhaps located in only one or two laboratories.
At the same time, we need to take advantage of the Internet as
it now exists and is evolving for most of the needs in the field.
Public education, so essential in the drive to save what remains
of the world's cultural heritage, requires use of the modes of communication
available to the largest numbers of people. We must also be able
to reach people in distant locals, quickly, especially when emergencies
require immediate advice. In this also, we can follow the lead of
the medical profession, which is already making emergency medical
advice available to people in the outbacks.
To return finally to images, the recognized need for the ability
to search images by visual characteristics is one of the challenges
that the field of art conservation and historic preservation poses
for the field of computer technology.
5. ENDNOTES
(1)
Charles S. Rhyne, "Student Evaluation of the Usefulness
of Computer Images in Art History and Related Disciplines," Visual
Resources, Vol.XIII (1997), pp. 67-81.
_ _ _ "Images as Evidence in Art History and Related Disciplines,"
Museums and the Web 97: Selected Papers, ed. David Bearman
and Jennifer Trant (Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics,
1997), pp. 347-361.
_ _ _ "Rethinking Research: The Immense Potential of Museum Web
Sites for Research." Museums and the Web: An International Conference
(Los Angeles, 16-19 March 1997), posted on www site <http://www.archimuse.com/mw97>.
_ _ _ "Computer Images for Research, Teaching, and Publication
in Art History and Related Disciplines," Visual Resources,
Vol. XII (1996), pp. 19-51. Republished under the same title as
a separate report by the Commission on Preservation & Access
(Washington, DC: January 1996), 12 pages. Back
(2)
Ron Spronk. "More than Meets the Eye: An Introduction
to Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Paintings at the
Fogg Art Museum" Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin,
V, 1 (Fall 1996), 64 pages. Back
(3)
Joyce Hill Stoner, "Ascertaining the Artist's Intent Through
Discussion, Documentation and Careful Observation," The International
Journal ofMuseum Management and Curatorship, 4 (1985), pp. 87-92. Back
(4)
Charles S. Rhyne. A Proposal for the Creation of Comprehensive
Archives of Information on the Working Procedure of Individual Artists
and on the Visual Appearance and Physical Character of their Art.
Published by the author as "The History of Technique: John Constable,
A Trial Study," Washington, D.C., 1984. Slightly revised under the
present title, Portland, Oregon, 1990. Back
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the past three years, my research on high quality digital
images and the potential of the Internet for research and teaching
has been funded by the Mellon and Culpepper Foundations, through
grants to Reed College. As in the past, my primary debt is to my
associates in Computer and Information Services at Reed, especially
Martin Ringle, Director, Marianne Colgrove, Associate Director,
Jo Meyertons, Instructional Technology Specialist, and Christopher
Lasell, Macintosh Support Coordinator.
In carrying out research for this paper, I have had the benefit
of advice from colleagues too numerous to mention, but the following
must be mentioned.
Professor William Allen
Art History
Arkansas State University
Jonesboro, Arkansas
wallen@aztec.astate.edu
Professor Axel Bolvig
Institute of History
University of Copenhagen
Denmark
bolvig@coco.ihi.ku.dk
Patrick J. Boylan
Professor of Arts Policy and Management
City University
London, UK
P.Boylan@city.ac.uk
John Cupitt
Scientific Department
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London, UK
john@giorgio.hart.bbk.ac.uk
Jim Druzik
Conservation Scientist
The Getty Conservation Institute
Los Angeles, California
jdruzik@getty.edu
Jack Kessler
FYI France (sm)(tm) Online Service
Internet Training and Consulting
San Francisco, California
kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Walter Henry
Assistant Conservator
Preservation Department
Meyer Library
CoOL (Conservation Online)
Stanford University
whenry@lindy.stanford.edu
Willard McCarty
Senior Lecturer in Humanities Computing
Centre for Computing in the Humanities
King's College London
Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk
James D. Myers
Collaboratory Group Leader
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
Pacific Northwest Laboratory
Richland, Washington
Jim.Myers@pnl.gov
Mark R. Schurr
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Notre Dame
Mark.R.Schurr.1@nd.edu
Ron Spronk
Research Associate for Technical Studies
Straus Center for Conservation
Harvard University Art Museums
spronk@fas.harvard.edu
Joyce Hill Stoner,
Director, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation
University of Delaware
Joyce.Stoner@mvs.udel.edu
Dr. John Unsworth
Department of English
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
University of Virginia
jmu2m@virginia.edu
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