The Object of Conservation: An Ethnography of Heritage Practice

Abstract

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Chapter 0: Introduction -- The work of conservation -- Situating conservation -- Theorising objects in practice -- Approaching conservation ethnographically -- Note on the text -- Note -- Part I: People -- Chapter 1: Present pasts -- Re/valuing the past -- Expertise in question -- "Going deep with the paper" -- "Change fatigue" -- Ambivalent nostalgias -- Crisis and continuity -- Conclusion: shadowed by the past -- Note -- Chapter 2: Working from the past -- Humility -- Patience -- Pragmatism -- Restore or preserve? -- Conclusion: working from the past -- Note -- Chapter 3: Organising knowledge -- Site meeting -- Characterful contexts -- Office meeting -- Conclusion: the place of organisational knowledge -- Chapter 4: Subjects as objects -- Direct experience -- Professional judgement -- Aligning perspectives -- Negotiating external interests -- Detaching through practice -- Conclusion: objects in action -- Chapter 5: Life and work -- Living with history -- Vocation -- Being interested -- Ambivalent interests -- Becoming the person you are -- Conclusion: interests in conservation -- Part II: Things -- Chapter 6: (Dis)Ordered things -- Ordering things -- Grappling with profusion -- The work of stabilisation -- Follow the documents -- "Unmuddling" through fieldwork -- Conclusion: the dialectics of order and disorder -- Notes -- Chapter 7: Crafting authenticity through skilled practice -- Working out intervention -- Fabric and form -- Craft and conservation -- Skilled vision and the practice of stonemasonry -- Negotiating authenticity -- Conclusion: working with multiplicity -- Note -- Chapter 8: Material transformation and scientific conservation -- Making fast "the look of age".