Donnerstags-Vortrag #65 Forkology: How conservators change the things they care for.

This talk is about conservation being a form of version control. I will argue that all artworks are 'forked-out' of being the creative output of a singular creative origin (viz. 'the sovereign artist') when conservators (& others) produce the next iteration of a work. I will illustrate how conservators engage in a form of what I call ‘ontological constructivism’ in which they use adversarial, anexact, and generative processes that in effect make them ‘art-developers’ when they commit to their version of a work. I will then demonstrate how conservation has parallels with software development, and as a result how conservation should be seen as a form of version control and that conservators create time-stamped ‘versions of record’ that persist until the next cycle of care. In the final part of the talk I will briefly describe a series real or hypothetical ‘endgames’ to illustrate how conservation as version control affords cultural heritage an ontological openness which in turn makes conservators complicit as art-developers whenever they are 'taking care of things'.

The talk will be held in english.

Speaker:
Dr. Jonathan Kemp 

Moderation:
Aga Wielocha and Emilie Magnin

Host: 
Institut Materialität in Kunst und Kultur (IMIKUK)