Call for Papers: JAIC Special Issue on “Reflectance Hyperspectral Imaging to Support Documentation and Conservation of 2D Artworks”

The Journal of American Institute for Conservation (JAIC) seeks submissions for a special issue on the topic of “Reflectance hyperspectral imaging to support documentation and conservation of 2D artworks.” Two-dimensional artworks include paintings, works on paper, tapestries, and photographic materials. The focus of this special issue is on hyperspectral systems that provide continuous reflectance spectra over the portion of the spectral range from the UV to the Mid-IR.  Specific areas of interest include:

  • Description of the best methodologies and acquisition parameters of workflows for operating hyperspectral imaging cameras under museum conditions or in non-controlled environments such as when studying outdoor frescoes or murals;
  • Hyperspectral image cube processing workflows to mine datasets for useful information such as pigment or binder maps, or visualizing compositional changes or revisions;
  • Defining, testing, implementing, and developing specific criteria for optimizing the format of acquired data and processing procedures for analysis, storage, usage, and dissemination of hyperspectral imaging data and results;
  • Case studies on the identification of artists’ materials using reflectance hyperspectral imaging, mapping distribution or improving visualization of compositional paint changes or revisions.

Authors are invited to submit an abstract and article outline to the special issue organizers by January 31, 2018. Complete article submissions are due April 30, 2018. JAIC guidelines and its style guide are found at www.conservation-us.org/jaic. Articles selected by the guest organizers should be submitted through our online portal at jac.edmgr.com. Datasets can be included as supplemental information.

You may send inquiries about the issue to Julio M. del Hoyo-Meléndez, JAIC Editor-in-Chief, at jdelhoyo@muzeum.krakow.pl.

Send proposals to special issue guest organizers by January 31, 2018:

  • John K. Delaney at j-delaney@nga.gov
    Senior Imaging Scientist, Scientific Research Department,
    National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
  • Marcello Picollo at picollo@ifac.cnr.it
    Research Scientist, Institute for Applied Physics “Nello Carrara” (IFAC)
    National Research Council (CNR), Florence, Italy

ECPN Interviews: Electronic Media Conservation with Christine Frohnert

To promote awareness and a clearer understanding of different pathways into specializations that require particular training, The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) is conducting a series of interviews with conservation professionals in these specialties. We kicked off the series with Chinese and Japanese Painting conservation, and now we are focusing on Electronic Media Conservation (EMG). These conservators work with time-based media, which is characterized by artwork with durational elements, such as slide, film, and video, analog or born-digital materials, performance, light or kinetic art, sound or software-based art. We’ve asked our interviewees to share some thoughts about their career paths, which we hope will inspire new conservation professionals and provide valuable insight into these areas of our professional field.

In the first interviews for this series, we spoke with emerging conservators starting in the early stages of their careers working in time-based media, which included Alexandra Nichols, Nicholas Kaplan, Brian Castriota and Yasmin Desssem. In this interview, we hear from Christine Frohnert, a conservator who graduated in 2003 from the University of Arts in Berne, Switzerland, where she majored in the Conservation of Modern Materials and Media. Prior to establishing a private practice for Time-based Media (TBM) with colleague Reinhard Bek, Christine served as chief conservator at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany for twelve years and as chair of the AIC Electronic Media Group from 2008-2012. In 2012, she was named the inaugural Judith Praska Distinguished Visiting Professor in Conservation and Technical Studies at the Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (CC/IFA/NYU), where she now serves as the Time-based Media Art Conservation Curriculum Development Program Coordinator.

______________________________________________________________________________

Christine Frohnert and Reinhard Bek [Photo: Reinhard Bek]
Christine Frohnert and Reinhard Bek [Photo: Reinhard Bek]
ECPN: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your current position.

Christine Frohnert (CF): I am a conservator of contemporary art with a specific focus on technology-based art. Reinhard Bek and I founded Bek & Frohnert LLC in NYC in 2012- a conservation studio in private practice specializing in the conservation of time-based media (TBM). We are both German, have been trained in Europe, worked in leading positions in museums, and have been involved in international research projects.

Bek and I focus on the conservation of artworks with a durational element in our practice—such as sound, moving image, performance, light, or movement, that unfolds to the viewer over time via slide, film, video, software, or the internet. Since the studio’s inauguration, we have responded to individual needs for both TBM conservation treatments and consulting requests. However, over the last several years, we have experienced a rising demand to serve as consultants for different U.S. institutions without time-based media conservators on staff, as well as for collectors and artists. As many TBM art collecting institutions are facing rapidly increasing needs to adequately acquire, preserve, exhibit and store TBM works, we are responding to this development and our work is more geared towards long-term collection care and the development of preservation plans, as well as education.

ECPN: How were you first introduced to conservation, what contributed to your decision to specialize in time-based media, and why has been your training pathway?

CF: As with most of my colleagues, I started conservation being exposed to more traditional media such as paintings and sculpture. About 20 years ago, I realized that technology-based artworks can be seriously harmed or lost without a new conservation specialty being established. I became fascinated with TBM, and I learned about the newly established program ‘Conservation of Modern Materials and Media’ at the University of Arts, Berne, Switzerland. I graduated from there in 2003.

ECPN: Are there any particular skills that you feel are important or unique to your discipline?

Christine Frohnert [Photo: Marlies Peller]
Christine Frohnert [Photo: Marlies Peller]
CF: A complex range of skill sets are needed, which should be solidly grounded in the conceptual framework of contemporary art conservation as a whole. It requires knowledge in electrics/electronics and programming, and an in-depth understanding of each media category, technology and its preservation, documentation and digital preservation needs. As our profession is highly collaborative by nature, soft skills are equally important to collaborate with all the stakeholders in the institutions involved, as well as with affiliated external professionals such as engineers, computer scientists, and technicians. This is important when defining, communicating, and verifying goals with vendors.

As many museums recently formed or are currently forming ‘Media Teams’ in their respective institutions to tackle their individual TBM collections needs, we have witnessed a rapidly increasing need for skilled labor, dedicated TBM lab space, equipment, and the trustworthy storage and management of huge amounts of born-digital or digitized artworks.

ECPN: What are some of your current projects, research, or interests?

CF: Currently our recent projects include consultation with several institutions to analyze their TBM collections and develop custom-designed conservation strategies according to their individual collections needs and skill sets of staff. These consultations may include surveys, assistance with media acquisitions, exhibitions and artwork documentation, storage, and migration. Bringing in external expertise often provides the bridge that many museums and their TBM stakeholders do not find in-house or do not have the capacity to coordinate. This work helps to identify and structure these needs more clearly and often provides the basis for institutional development and the implementation of larger collection care projects.

Recent and current treatment-based activities range from analyzing the ‘mechanical’ programming of a light-based work, the conservation of a seven channel-video wall from 1998 consisting of 207 Cathode Ray Tube monitors, digitization of analog video, and  the reverse engineering of custom-designed large format slide projectors, to name a few.

Cathode Ray Tube monitor [Photo: Marlies Peller
Cathode Ray Tube monitor [Photo: Marlies Peller]
ECPN: In your opinion, what is an important need in your specialization?

CF: the most pressing need is education. Technology-based art is considered to be very sensitive to damage, loss, misinterpretation, and incorrect installation, due to its very specific and sensitive relationship to time, space, and concept. Damage or loss of a TBM work cannot be seen by simply examining the physical material and may not be immediately apparent unless the individual has received specialized training.

TBM conservation has been identified as a priority by many museums, collectors, and funding agencies. However, the educational opportunities are still limited, and there is currently no U.S. graduate program offering a degree in this specialty (but this will change soon!). As a result, a huge amount of our most recent cultural heritage is at risk, in an unknown condition, and/or not sufficiently integrated into museums’ missions of collecting, exhibition, conservation, research, and education.

However, thanks to the generous funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, started the TBM art conservation curriculum planning project in 2016.The new TBM specialization will be integrated within its current curriculum starting in fall 2018. This will be the first conservation program offering this specialty in the U.S. and the graduates will receive a dual degree: an MS in the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and an MA in the History of Art and Archaeology.

ECPN: Have you been involved in any advocacy, outreach, teaching or professional service roles in your specialization?

CF: During my time as EMG (Electronic Media Group) board Chair from 2008-2012, we received numerous request from the membership to offer continuing education opportunities, and in response EMG launched the conference series entitled TechFocus in 2010. The series is designed to provide hands-on guidance and systematic education on different media categories (TechFocus I: Caring for Video Art, Guggenheim Museum, NY, in 2010; TechFocus II: Caring for Film and Slide Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, 2012; TechFocus III: Caring for Software-based Art, Guggenheim Museum, NY, in 2015). In addition, the first periodical worldwide that focuses on TBM art conservation was launched by the EMG in 2012, The Electronic Media Review.

At the (CC/IFA/NYU) I have offered instruction in TBM conservation art in different capacities, including the course Art With A Plug: The Conservation of Artwork Containing Motion, Sound, Light, Moving Images and Interactivity (Fall 2012 and Spring 2015).

Several professional organizations and initiatives have created additional targeted educational opportunities and collaborations. However, despite all these good developments, further training is needed at the graduate level, as well as in continuing education for professionals, to address the fast-increasing demands of TBM conservation.

Under the leadership of Dr. Hannelore Roemich, Professor of Conservation Science and TBM program Director, I have also served as TBM Program Coordinator to assist in identifying skill sets and core competencies of TBM conservators that translate into the educational needs to develop a TBM curriculum. In the fall of 2016 the Conservation Center offered the course and public lecture series Topics in Time-based Media Art Conservation, which included ten lectures by leading art historians, artists, computer scientists, and conservators. These events were an important outreach component of the curriculum development project, and they created the opportunity to promote the field, foster the dialogue between TBM professionals, and build a community.

We are now organizing the upcoming symposium It’s About Time! Building a New Discipline: Time-based Media Art Conservation to be held in May 2018. The two-day symposium will provide a forum for educators, artists, art historians, museum curators and directors, collectors, gallerists, engineers, computer scientists, and conservators to promote TBM art conservation as a discipline on an international level and will conclude the TBM curriculum planning phase.

ECPN: Do you have any advice for prospective emerging conservators who would like to pursue this specialization?

Cathode Ray Tube monitor [Photo: Christine Frohnert]
Cathode Ray Tube monitor [Photo: Christine Frohnert]
CF: While I am not comfortable issuing general advice, I can say that I personally appreciate working with students and colleagues in our field, and that this has shaped and enriched my professional life. If you are a strong communicator who is interested in the intersection of art and technology, art conservation, and art history– and maybe you even have a background in one or more of the related media fields–why don’t you join the EMG sessions at the AIC annual meetings and/or attend the upcoming NYU symposium to engage with the TBM community and find out if this specialty may be just the right fit for you?

ECPN:  Please share any last thoughts or reflections.

CF: We currently see an extremely high demand for trained TBM conservators. This can be measured by the exponentially increasing job offers worldwide and the challenges many institutions face to find qualified candidates. So, it is safe to say that this is the best moment in time for becoming a TBM conservator in this country. If you are interested in pursuing a career in TBM conservation- check out the new TBM curriculum page at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.

 

 

Daguerreian Society 2017-2018 Call for Papers

$2000 in Awards for Writers

The Daguerreian Society invites authors to submit original papers that address and advance the understanding and appreciation of 19th century photography. Possible topics include the art, history, social impact, and practice of the daguerreotype and other photographic processes of this period.

All submissions will be considered for publication in the 2017 Daguerreian Annual.

Award for New Contributors
A $500 award will be given to the paper selected as best submission from an author who has not previously published in The Daguerreian Annual.

The Julian Wolff Awards for Student and Graduate Student Authors
The author of the highest-scored paper accepted for publication from a student or graduate student will receive $1,000, and second-highest scored paper will receive $500.  The two winners will also receive complimentary registration to the 2018 Daguerreian Society Symposium in New York City.  The prizes for student and graduate student authors are offered in memory of the late Julian Wolff, an educator, collector and dealer whose love for the daguerreotype contributed to many private and institutional collections.

Requirements

  • Authors are responsible for securing all necessary rights and releases for images used as illustrations
  • Authors must grant permission for both one-time print publication and for future electronic access
  • Papers must be in English and may range in length from 500 to 8,000 words

Selection Process
Juror Keith F. Davis (Senior Curator of Photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum ) and the Society’s Publications Committee will use a blind peer review process to select papers for publication and to choose New Contributors and Julian Wolff awards. Authors will be eligible for only a single award. The decisions of the Publications committee will be final.  Judging criteria include:

  • Scope and Quality of Research
  • Contribution to Existing Knowledge
  • Potential for Future Development/Seeding New Research
  • Clarity of Writing
  • Use of Original Historical Sources
  • Use and Interpretation of Photographs As Primary Source Documents

Timeline

  • Submission of a 300-word abstract by January 15
  • Review and notification by February 1
  • Submission of completed manuscript with illustrations by March 1
  • Review process and notification of final selection by April 1

Submissions

Send electronic submission to: Diane Filippi diane_dagsoc@comcast.net

Questions: Please contact Jeremy Rowe Jeremy.rowe@asu.edu

Please include in the subject line: Submission for 2017 Daguerreian Society Call for Papers

ECPN Interviews: Electronic Media Conservation with Yasmin Dessem

To promote awareness and a clearer understanding of different pathways into specializations that require particular training, the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) is conducting a series of interviews with conservation professionals in these specialties. We kicked off the series with Chinese and Japanese painting conservation, and now we are focusing on practitioners in AIC’s Electronic Media Group (EMG). These conservators work with time-based media, which can include moving components, performance, light or sound elements, film and video, analog or born-digital materials. We’ve asked our interviewees to share some thoughts about their career paths, which we hope will inspire new conservation professionals and provide valuable insight into these areas of our professional field.

This is the third post from ECPN’s EMG blog series, for which we first interview Nick Kaplan and more recently, Alex Nichols. For our third interview from the EMG series, we spoke with Yasmin Dessem, currently Head of the Audiovisual Preservation Studio at UCLA Library where she serves as the technical lead as the library continues to develop its program of preservation, digitization and access of its moving image and sound holdings. Previously she managed archive deliverables for new feature releases at Paramount Pictures. She has experience working with a wide variety of moving image and sound formats, as well as pre-film animation devices, silent-era cameras, costumes and paper collections. Yasmin holds Master’s degrees in Art History and Moving Image Archive Studies from UCLA.


Yasmin Dessem (left) and Allie Whalen (right) cleaning and relubricating a Betacam deck. [Photo: Walter Urie]
Yasmin Dessem (left) and Allie Whalen (right) cleaning and relubricating a Betacam deck. [Photo: Walter Urie]
ECPN: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your current position.

Yasmin Dessem (YD): I oversee the preservation of moving image and recorded sound materials at the UCLA Library’s Preservation Department. For nearly 90 years, the UCLA Library has collected audiovisual materials with content such as home movies, oral histories, and radio broadcasts. Examples are home movies of Susan Sontag’s parents sailing to China in the 1920s and field interviews with Watts residents after the 1965 riots. Audiovisual preservation (AV) at the library is a relatively young unit—a dedicated AV preservationist first came on board in 2011. We offer a number of in-house digitization and preservation services and are currently focusing on increasing our capacity and launching a survey.

ECPN: How were you first introduced to conservation, and why did you decide to pursue conservation?

YD: The 1996 re-release of the restored version of Vertigo first made me aware of film restoration and preservation as an actual practice. Later, as I was finishing my Masters in Art History at UCLA, I took a wonderful class on restoration, preservation, and conservation with Professor David A. Scott. The course covered the material care issues and decision-making ethics for a wide breadth of cultural heritage materials. The class struck a deep chord with me, but I was eager to graduate and start working. After graduation, I ended up working in the film industry for about six years. I was tracking down historic stock footage at one job when my mind circled back to the preservation field as I considered how the films were stored and made available. I had entertained the idea of potentially returning to graduate school to study art conservation some day, but around that time the idea of film preservation as a possible career path began to fully materialize for me. As a result, I began exploring potential graduate programs.

ECPN: Of all specializations, what contributed to your decision to pursue electronic media conservation?

YD: My longtime love for film and music intersected with my curiosity for all things historical and technology-related. These were topics that in one form or another always interested me, but I don’t think I had a full grasp on how to combine them meaningfully into a profession. Preservation was the missing key. My exposure to preservation and conservation while studying art history and my later experience working at film studios both helped direct me towards the specialization.

ECPN: What has been your training pathway?  Please list any universities, apprenticeships, technical experience, and any related jobs or hobbies.

YD: I pursued my studies in the Moving Image Archive Studies (MIAS) Program at UCLA—which persists today as a Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) with a Media Archival Studies specialization. While in the program, I completed internships with Universal Pictures and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and volunteered at the Hugh Hefner Moving Image Archive at the University of Southern California. Throughout the two-year MIAS program, I also worked as a fellow at the Center for Primary Research and Training program at UCLA Library Special Collections, where I learned archival processing. My experiences weren’t limited to preserving moving image and sound media, but included paper-based collections, costumes, and film technology. After graduating I attended the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Film Restoration Summer School hosted by the Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata.

ECPN: Are there any particular skills that you feel are important or unique to your discipline?

YD: Digital preservation will continue to be a key area of expertise that’s needed in museums and archives. Preserving the original source material and digitizing content is not enough. There are more resources than ever for strategies and tools for digital preservation, and it’s important to seek them out. Another valuable skill is developing a level of comfort with handling and understanding the unique characteristics of a wide variety of physical analog formats  such as film, videotape, audiotape, and grooved media (LP, 78s, lacquer discs, wax cylinders, etc.). Similarly, it’s helpful to have a familiarity with playback devices for these obsolete media formats (equipment like open-reel decks or video decks.) Lastly, metadata can be an unsung hero in media preservation. Often, we’re the first to see or hear a recording in decades, so capturing metadata around the point of transfer is critical. Metadata standards can be a rabbit hole of complexities, especially when it comes to describing audiovisual media, but understanding their application is an essential skill.

Lacquer disc cleaning and transfer workshop at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba in Havana, Cuba [Photo: Yasmin Dessem]
Lacquer disc cleaning and transfer workshop at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba in Havana, Cuba [Photo: Yasmin Dessem]
ECPN: What are some of your current projects, research, or interests?

YD: We’re just wrapping up digitization of materials from the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company (GSM), an African American-owned and operated insurance firm established in Los Angeles in 1925 in response to discriminatory practices that restricted the ability of African American residents to purchase insurance. GSM operated for 85 years and their collection is a vibrant resource documenting Los Angeles and the empowerment of a community. We received grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation to support this work. The digitized collection is now available on Calisphere. We’ve just started a crowd sourcing project working with former GSM staffers to describe any unidentified content. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career, hearing everyone’s stories and seeing how much it means to everyone involved to have this collection preserved and made available.

We’ve also been in preparation to launch a large-scale survey that will help us gather data on the Library’s audiovisual collections that can be used for long term-planning. Outside of UCLA, we’ve been involved with ongoing work with cultural heritage institutions in Cuba. Last February, I set up equipment and held a workshop on the digitization of radio transcription discs held at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba (IHC) in Havana. I’m heading back there next week to begin a project to transfer IHC’s open reel audio collections.

ECPN: In your opinion, what is an important research area or need in your specialization?

YD: It’s crucial to preserve the expertise related to the operation and repair of playback equipment. Playback equipment will become more and more difficult to source in the future. Engineers, whose entire careers are dedicated to the use and care of this equipment, are some of the best resources for this knowledge. Their knowledge is shared through conversation, YouTube videos, social media, and professional workshops. Documenting the skills required to handle, maintain, calibrate, and service this equipment in a more formalized way and sharing that knowledge widely will ensure that the preservationists can keep their equipment viable for longer.

ECPN: Do you have any advice for prospective emerging conservators who would like to pursue this specialization?

YD: Try everything. Media preservation requires a wide variety of skills from computer coding to soldering decades-old circuit boards. Depending on where your career takes you, it’s good to have at least a passing familiarity with the full range of skills you may need to call upon. Apply for internships or fellowships with organizations, like the National Digital Stewardship Residency. Volunteer at community-based archives that need help getting their collections in order. Join professional organizations, like the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) or the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Attend conferences like code4lib, the Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG), or the Digital Asset Symposium (DAS). Network with engineers or preservation professionals to continue to grow your own expertise, but also share your own skills when you can. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing are a fundamental part of the profession.

Perforation repair of 16 mm film [Photo: Yasmin Dessem]
Perforation repair of 16 mm film [Photo: Yasmin Dessem]
ECPN: Please share any last thoughts or reflections.

YD: One thing to be aware of, if you’re a woman in the field of audiovisual preservation, is that you may occasionally run into people who are surprised to see a woman working with technology (much less wielding a screwdriver!). This response persists to some degree despite the presence of many successful female professionals in the field. What’s encouraging, however, is seeing the growth of groups like the Women in Recorded Sound collective at ARSC providing support.

Audiovisual preservation is such a gratifying profession. Having the opportunity to make historic content available is incredibly meaningful work that I feel lucky to be a part of everyday. On an even more basic level, figuring out a new workflow or getting a piece of equipment to finally work is just so viscerally satisfying. I’m part of an amazing team whose passion, humor and willingness to try out new things inspires me every day and makes me feel so lucky to be doing this work.

AIC’s 45th Annual Meeting – Last Call, Get Your Papers In Before September 23rd!

There are only 2 days left to submit your specialty, joint, pre-session and workshop papers.
We would like to remind you that the final deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Friday, September 23, 2016. You still have time to submit your 500-word maximum paper abstracts, workshop proposals, and pre-session programming.
How to apply
For more information on the theme of the Annual Meeting, the different types of programing and how to submit, please visit the Annual Meeting webpage. If you are ready to submit your abstract, pre-session, or workshop proposal please follow the links below to submit directly to our online system:

  • Submit an abstract for a General, Specialty, Joint Specialty, Interest Session, or Poster presentation
  • Submit a proposal for a Pre-session presentation
  • Submit a proposal for a Workshop

Questions?
For questions regarding abstracts, contact Ruth Seyler at annualmeeting@conservation-us.org.
All inquiries related to workshops must be addressed to Sarah Saetren at courses@conservation-us.org.

Interventions Journal seeks submissions

intervention finalCall Extended – Submissions due October 24, 2014
Fall 2014 CALL FOR CONTENT Interventions Volume 4, Issue 1
Object Lesson: Conservation and Art History
Interventions is the online journal of Columbia University’s graduate program in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies. They are seeking content for our next issue, focusing on relationships between art conservation and art historical, curatorial, and artistic practices. Submissions can be in the form of artist projects or essays. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

  •  Works that are open-ended, unfinished, in process, or require replenishment
  • o   Use of organic materials
  • o   Web-based works of art
  • Works that are no longer extant
  • o   Installations dismantled and/or dispersed into fragments
  • o   Performances, actions, and events
  • Works recycled or re-purposed into new works of art
  • Use of untested or volatile materials and processes
  • Exhibiting “relics,” ephemera, or documentation in lieu of works of art
  • Exhibiting copies, replicas, or facsimiles
  • Works of art that thematize physical/material change
  • Conservation of time-based media
  • o   Discontinued technologies needed to display or play back encoded media
  • Architectural preservation
  • Technical art history
  • Collaborations between conservators and artists
  • Collaborations between conservators and curators

They encourage submissions that approach this topic across artistic, critical, and curatorial frameworks. For this issue, they are specifically inviting submissions from conservators of modern and contemporary art and architecture. To submit content, please email an abstract of approximately 300 words, as well as a bio of no more than 100 words, to moda.interventions@gmail.com by Friday, October 24, 2014. Submissions will be reviewed and those whose proposals have been selected will be notified by October 31, 2014. Full texts must not exceed 4,000 words and should follow Chicago Style. Images should be 400 x 600 pixels, 72 dpi, and saved as a .jpg or .gif. Contributors are responsible for copyediting their texts prior to final submission and for attaining rights to all images provided for publication.
Interventions Journal is a curatorial platform featuring essays, interviews, web-based art projects, and experimental investigations of the implicit cross-sections between these practices. Flexible in format, the project aims to cultivate dialogue amongst a diverse body of participants including curators, artists, and art and architectural historians in order to establish a common space and archive of exchange.
Launched in 2011 within Columbia University’s graduate program in Modern Art: Critical & Curatorial Studies (MODA) by Ceren Erdem, Jaime Schwartz, and Lisa Hayes Williams, Interventions is currently edited by Béatrice Grenier, Anna Linehan, and Amber Moyles.

Call for Papers for the 7th Volume of Preservation Education & Research

Deadline for submission: February 15, 2014
The editors of Preservation Education & Research (PER) invite article manuscripts and Forum essays for the seventh (2014) volume of the journal.
PER disseminates peer-reviewed scholarship relevant to historic environment education from fields such as historic preservation, heritage conservation, heritage studies, building and landscape conservation, urban conservation, and cultural patrimony. The National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE) launched PER in 2007 as part of its mission to exchange and disseminate information and ideas concerning historic environment education, current developments and innovations in conservation, and the improvement of historic environment education programs and endeavors in the United States and abroad.
Examples of previously published articles include:

  • “Landscape Preservation Education in the United States”
  • “Industrial Archaeology and Brazilian Industrial Heritage”
  • “Current Trends in Historic Preservation Education at the Primary and Secondary School Levels”
  • “Meiji Restorations: Defining Preservation, Education, and Architecture for Modern Japan”
  • “‘So, Can You Revit?’ Historic Preservation Design Education and Digital Media”
  • “The Status of Professional Career Openings in Historic Preservation in the United States”
  • “The Value of a Preservation Field School Learning Experience”
  • “Reflections on Eight Semesters of Employing Service Learning in an Undergraduate Historic Preservation Course”
  • “Preservation Engineering: Framing a New Curriculum”
  • “Domesticating the ‘National Optic’ after the Third Reich: Preservation and Morale Building in Postwar West Germany”
  • “Learning Among Friends: Using Heritage-Based Educational Practices to Improve Preservation Law Pedagogy”

We also encourage readers with an interest and expertise in the topics covered in previous PER volumes to consider writing a PER Forum essay. The PER Forum contains short essays (800-1000 words) that respond to or critique reports or articles in previous volumes of the journal and encourage a constructive and scholarly dialogue. The deadline for PER Forum contributions is May 1, 2014.
All manuscripts and Forum essays should be submitted by email as an MS Word or PDF attachment to the co-editors of PER: Jeremy Wells (jwells [at] rwu.edu) and Rebecca Sheppard (rjshep [at] udel.edu). Refer to the journal’s publication guidelines at www.ncpe.us/publications/manuscript-submission-guidelines for more information. All manuscripts are peer reviewed in a double-blind process while Forum essays may be subject to peer review on a case-by-case basis. Manuscripts are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, but submission by February 15, 2014 will help assure that accepted manuscripts are published in the next annual volume of PER.
PER is currently indexed in the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals and the EBSCO database; the full-text of articles is available from EBSCO and the NCPE web site (www.ncpe.us/publications). For more information about NCPE and PER, visit www.ncpe.us.
-Jeremy Wells, Roger Williams University
Co-editor, PER
jwells [at] rwu.edu

Call for Papers: ASOR 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS
“Conservation and Site Preservation in the Near East”
American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting
San Diego, CA, Westin Hotel, November 19-22, 2014
This session will be co-chaired by Suzanne Davis davissl@umich.edu and LeeAnn Barnes Gordon leeannbarnes@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact them to discuss possible paper proposals or to request further details regarding the session.
The goal of the session is to create a forum where archaeologists and conservators can share research, exchange ideas, and discuss issues impacting the conservation of Near Eastern artifacts and sites. Contributors’ presentations will examine regional and national trends in conservation as well as site-specific programs. Presenters will also consider how political instability and the need for economic development are impacting the preservation of archaeological heritage in the Near East. Generous discussion time will engage the contributors and the audience, creating a dialogue that will ultimately improve conservation of artifacts and sites in the Near East.
This session will be the third of four in a series on conservation at the ASOR annual meeting. To read AIC blog posts about previous sessions, follow these links: 2012 in Chicago, IL: http://bit.ly/1f0H2iL and 2013 in Baltimore, MD: http://bit.ly/1mmiAgU.  The ASOR annual meeting also features sessions on cultural heritage management, ethics and policy, and museum collections, in addition to sessions focused on archaeology and site preservation in specific geographical regions. The full list of sessions for 2014 can be found here: http://www.asor.org/am/index.html
Interested speakers should submit a talk title and abstract (max. 250 words) by February 15th via ASOR’s online abstract submission system, a link to which can be found here http://www.asor.org/am/2014/call-2.html. Membership in ASOR is required for submission. 

Electronic Media Group Call for Papers, AIC 2014 Meeting

The Electronic Media Group (EMG) of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is calling for papers about the preservation and conservation of electronic media for the AIC annual meeting, May 28-31st 2014 in San Francisco, California. http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=482&parentID=476
The theme of the meeting is Conscious Conservation: Sustainable Choices in Conservation Care. Topics could include sustainability of analogue media formats, migration and emulation strategies, approaches to digital asset management and preservation, care of electronic media collections, and case studies of particularly challenging artworks.
If your paper is accepted, you are expected to secure funding for your registration and travel expenses to attend the conference. See the AIC webpage for more information about grants and scholarships. – http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=474
Please join the conversation – Submit an abstract by Friday, September 13.
Abstracts will be considered for:
General Sessions – General Session papers must specifically address the meeting theme. General Session papers will be considered for one of three categories: all attendee sessions, concurrent sessions, and concurrent interactive/discussion sessions.
Specialty Sessions – Specialty Session papers are encouraged to address the meeting theme but may also explore other topics relevant to that specialty, including: Architecture, Book and Paper, Collections Care, Electronic Media, Objects, Photographic Materials, Paintings, Research and Technical Studies, Textiles, and Wooden Artifacts.
Poster Session – Posters may address the meeting theme, but presenters can also address their current research interests. Posters are presented in the Exhibit Hall.
Submission Guidelines
You may submit an abstract for a combination of the three session types: General Sessions, Specialty Sessions, or Poster Session. You may submit your presentation to only one or two sessions if you so choose.
If you are submitting a Discussion/Interactive Session, please submit only for that, since the format is not compatible with the other General Session choices
Please indicate on the abstract the session/sessions for which you want the paper to be considered.
Please limit your choices to three sessions and rank them in order of preference. For example, your preferences could be one of the following:

  • 1st Choice: General Sessions, 2nd Choice: Electronic Media Specialty Session, and 3rd Choice: Book and Paper Specialty Session
  • 1st Choice: Electronic Media Specialty Session, 2nd Choice: Photographic Materials Specialty Session, and 3rd Choice: Research and Technical Studies Specialty Session
  • 1st Choice: Electronic Media Specialty Session, 2nd Choice: Electronic Media Specialty Group Session, 3rd Choice: Electronic Media Specialty Session
  • 1st Choice: General Sessions – Concurrent Interactive/Discussion Session

How to Submit an Abstract
Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words, along with a bio of no more than 300 words by Friday, September 13, 2013.
Email it to Ruth Seyler, Membership and Meetings Director, at rseyler@conservation-us.org
In the case of multiple authors please list all authors and include an email address for each author.
For further information, please contact Rose Cull – EMG Program Chair – roseemilycull@gmail.com

Call for Papers for the Electronic Media Group at the 2014 AIC annual meeting

The Electronic Media Group (EMG) of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is calling for papers about the preservation and conservation of electronic media for the AIC annual meeting, May 28-31st 2014 in San Francisco, California.
The theme of the meeting is Conscious Conservation: Sustainable Choices in Conservation Care. Topics could include sustainability of analogue media formats, migration and emulation strategies, approaches to digital asset management and preservation, care of electronic media collections, and case studies of particularly challenging artworks.
With a great location like San Francisco, we would like to engage with the local electronic media community and encourage first-time submissions from professionals involved in the preservation of electronic materials.
If your paper is accepted, you are expected to secure funding for your registration and travel expenses to attend the conference. See the AIC webpage for more information about grants and scholarships.
Please join the conversation – Submit an abstract by Friday, September 13.
How to Submit an Abstract
Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words, along with a bio of no more than 300 words by Friday, September 13, 2013.
Email it to Ruth Seyler, Membership and Meetings Director, at rseyler@conservation-us.org