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The Getty Conservation Institute Field Trip Report By F. LeBlanc, Head, Field Projects

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AIC members are practicing conservators, conservation scientists, educators, administrators, collections care professionals, technicians, and students; archivists, curators, and other museum and library professionals; architects and art historians

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) is the national membership organization of conservation professionals dedicated to preserving the art and historic artifacts of our cultural heritage for future generations. Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas on conservation, AIC advances the practice and promotes the importance of the preservation of cultural property by coordinating the exchange of knowledge, research, and publications. AIC's Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice defines appropriate conduct for the field. AIC conservation professionals combine unique skills in the arts and sciences gained through study and training in art history, chemistry, studio art, and related disciplines. They are experts in the conservation of paintings, paper, books, photographs, textiles, decorative arts, sculpture, and wooden artifacts as well as architectural, archaeological, natural science, and ethnographic materials. 1717 K Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-5346. Tel. 202-452-9545; Email: info@aic-faic.org

The Architecture Special-ty Group (ASG) was for-med in 1988 and has over 200 members. The ASG's primary goal is to ensure the best possible care for immovable cultural proper-

ties such as buildings, monuments, outdoor sculpture and heritage sites. The care of these sites takes into consideration their special needs and complex treatments. At present, ASG concentrates its efforts on drawing together conservators and historic preservation specialists at the specialty group session at AIC annual meetings, and through other regional and interdisciplinary events. In past years, sessions have coordinated with the overall AIC conference theme, or concentrated on a single theme and frequently explore collaborative efforts with other AIC specialty groups. Additional sessions

AIC Annual Meeting brochure

Hyatt hotel in Minneapolis, venue for the AIC 2005 Annual Meeting

Hyatt hotel hall and AIC reception desk at end

Singing the Blues on Nicollet Mall during the hot summer evenings Minneapolis is a lively city during the summer

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during annual meetings have included discussion groups on topics such or "tips sessions", and opportunities for presenting student research. ASG has also organized architectural walking tours at the annual meeting. Members of the ASG are very active within the larger AIC organization helping to organize the Annual Meeting, teaching workshops, and participating on some of the national AIC Committees. The group also tries to maintain a strong connection to allied organizations of the architectural conservation specialty such as the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS), the Association for Preservation Technology (APTI), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the Preservation Trades Network (PTN).

AAIICC AAnnnnuuaall MMeeeettiinngg This years AIC Annual Meeting was held in Minneapolis, the City of Lakes. The citys name is a combination of Minne, the Sioux word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. There probably has never been a city more appropriately named, for within Minneapolis city limits lie more than 22 lakes and lagoons.

More than 450 participants were registered for the Annual Meeting that lasted from June 8 to 13. This years theme was Documentation. Documentation in conservation is interdisciplinary in its attempts to categorize conditions, treatments, and site information. The advent of database and digital technologies has forever changed the documentation process. In 2005, the AIC annual meeting explored concerns that touch a wide range of conservation disciplines. During the conference, I presented a paper on the GCIs RecorDIM Initiative. I gave an overview of how it began, what international organizations are involved and more importantly what Task Groups have been created and are currently working to bridge some of the gaps between users and providers of documentation that have been identified during international workshops.

Downtown Minneapolis turn of the century architecture

Downtown Minneapolis2005

Warehouse built in 1902 converted to offices

Warehouse District

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Amel Chabbi, 2005 GCI intern, presented a poster on the Handbook for recording, documentation and information management of the built cultural heritage. The Handbook is being prepared under the direction of Rand Eppich, the publications Technical Editor. It will illustrate documentation tools through case studies. The publication will focus on mid-career architects, archaeologists, planners, and managers working in conservation who need to identify and select documentation tools.

Amel Chabbi, GCI intern presented a poster on the GCI documentation Handbook

GCI Poster on Handbook

The GCI booth in the exhibition hall was a busy place

Alison Dalgity and Tim Whalen discussing at the GCI exhibition booth

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GCI staff manned a booth offering information on AATA Online, GCI publications, activities and programs.

The GCI booth at the AIC Exhibition Hall

From the GCI, also present or actively participating in the conference were Mitchell Bishop, Alison Dalgity, Jim Druzik, Eric Hansen, Kari Johnson, Jeff Levine, Luke Swetland, Cameron Trowbridge, Tim Whalen, and Jackie Zak. Also registered at the meeting were colleagues from the GRI, the Getty Museum, Getty Publications and Getty Foundation.

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Records Management for Conservation Workshop participants

The Instructor for this workshop was Mary Cooper, Information Services Consultant and Author of Records and Information Management: Order Out of Chaos and Records in Architectural Offices. Once you have documented your work, where and how do you keep it? For how long? Is it safe? Who has copies? Knowing the principles behind appropriate records and information management is part of sound conservation practice. With information in multiple formats, such as paper, film, or digital, affording quick information retrieval and providing legal protection has become even more important. The participants were introduced to basic records management methods and issues, and for those of us who were not familiar with it, to ARMA, the international association for records managers and archivists and their Journal entitled: The Information Management Journal.

Luke Swetland, GCI

Jeff Levine, GCI

Journal of the international Association of Records Managers and Archivists

Mary Cooper, Principal, Cooper Information, Cambridge MA Workshop Instructor

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ARMA International is a not-for-profit association and the leading authority on managing records and information paper and electronic. The association was established in 1955. Its approximately 10,000 members include records managers, archivists, corporate librarians, imaging specialists, legal professionals, IT managers, consultants, and educators, all of whom work in a wide variety of industries, including government, legal, healthcare, financial services, and petroleum in the United States, Canada, and 30-plus other countries. For more information consult their web site at http://www.arma.org Following are a few interesting points discussed during the workshop. What is the legal value of a digital image? Can it be considered as an official record? The answer is yes if the chain of custody can be established. For example, you take a digital picture showing the condition of an art object before you ship it; when it is returned, it is damaged. The digital image of its original condition can be used to establish its condition prior to shipment if you can ascertain who took the picture and when, and who kept the image without altering it while the object was away. Now, if the integrity of the image itself is challenged, it is possible to ascertain its authenticity by looking at the metadata stored in the image file. Thats a bit complicated for everyday users, and it requires the help of a specialist. In the private sector as well as with many other organizations cited during the workshop, the responsibility of creating a project record for archival purposes rests with the Project Manager. It is the PM who must decide what to keep and what not to keep. Mary Cooper, who has many years of experience, shared with us the lesson that if you want to keep everything, you will drown or you will take the chance that at one point in time someone in the organization will think that what you have left behind is really too much material and it is not worth spending anyones time or money to sort it out; and everything will be thrown away altogether. Guidelines on what to keep and what to discard are available through ARMA publications. It is easier to define an archives structure if the original purpose of the archive is clear to everyone in the organization. For instance, Williamsburgs records archive was designed to support management decisions; it is not primarily structured for researchers or for public access, as are the archives of many public institutions. It may eventually serve these purposes, but it is not structured to do so. Managers decide what to keep or discard on the basis of this premise.

Samples of ARMA Publications

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GGeenneerraall SSeessssiioonnss

General Sessions at the Hyatt hotel, Thursday June 9

The General Sessions lasted two days and covered a broad range of documentation issues and records creation, management and keeping. Following are some of the points I noted during the presentations. Conservators create records that have value. Documentation is an intrinsic part of the conservation process. During the past ten years, there has been significant changes in the

way we create, use, manage and store the information we produce. Photography was always an important part of the conservation

documentation process; our traditional way of documenting objects or our work using film is now virtually over. Kodak and Agfa have stopped the manufacturing of various types of film and discontinued the production of slide projectors. There are currently only a handful of laboratories across the US that can process slide film.

Standards concerning digital photography are being developed by national and international organizations and should soon be broadly applied. Remember that the first digital cameras for professionals only appear fifteen years ago on the market and the ones for use by the public only ten years ago. This is still a very young development.

Despite obstacles, we are solving documentation issues; access to records has increased; we are close to finding solutions for the long-term conservation of our digital records; we will continue to prepare records, but they will be better than the ones we prepared before.

Results from recent national surveys (15,000 institutions, in all States and Territories) show that collections of paintings, photos and objects in the US are not adequately protected.

Collections are generally held in inadequate storage. Institutions lack emergency or disaster plans. If they have such a plan, they lack staff training. There is insufficient expertise in US institutions to care for collections. 70% of US institutions say they need staff training to protect and care

for collections. Last year, 68% of American institutions have spent $3,000 or less for

the conservation of their collections. Digital cameras spectral sensitivity is greater than film and a group of

conservator researchers is developing camera filters that will enable conservators to easily capture ultraviolet, normal and near infrared light.

ARMA publications on Information Management

I just had to put this one in!

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The Sony Cybershot camera night shot setting does not work with flash... this was a design decision by Sony to prevent users from shooting through clothing!!

Recording and documenting objects is done in different ways according to the ultimate goal of the activity.

You can get a lot more out of your TIFF images if you learn a few of the tips shared with us by Tim Vitale who is a professional photographer who specialized in museum photography.

Digital offers many advantages over film: digital has a linear response whereas film does not; it has low noise (film ratio is 1:10 and digital is 1:100) and has a large gamut; gray scale steps (film 80, digital 16 bits is 65,000) etc.

Printing slightly alters the colors captured by the digital sensor therefore, keeping the original TIFF image file is very important for long-term color accuracy.

HERICARE http://193.175.110.9/hericare/english/hericare-database_erkl.htm Hericare supports the international exchange of information between experts and facilitates the documentation of preservation projects. Hericare offers easy access to new insights and practical information from all lines of specialization in conservation-restoration. Hericare consists of a documentation software and an online-database. With the help of the documentation program hericare-docu a conservator can create documentation records of his/her current preservation projects in a fast, easy and inexpensive way. Hericare-database (online) allows conservators to view reports of conservation measures written by others and to exchange technical experience with these authors. The online-database also offers you an opportunity to publish your own work. The concept for hericare was developed in the Hornemann Institute between 1999 and 2001. During the development phase, experts working in the fields of conservation of monuments and sites, database development, software ergonomics and library systems supported the institute. Automatic generation of conservation reports CDS-D is a conservation report generator software designed to organize information about description, condition, treatment, analysis, past interventions, photography, and preventive conservation recommendations. The program uses many types of automation to speed data entry, while also conforming to your own preferences and specialty. CDS-D serves as both a practical vehicle for conservation documentation, and as a conceptual model. It provides an organized framework for recording and reporting all phases of conservation, from examination, to proposal, and final treatment. It produces reports for these phases separately, or integrates information from all phases in a single comprehensive report. CDS-D creates analytical reports and catalogs digital and analog photography, always linking such records to the correct context in the documentation. Additional information can be found at: http://ConservationDataSystems.com

Linnaea Dix Dawson, Silverlake Conservation, talked about low-tech documentation for the renovation work at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles

Judy Peters, University of Pennsylvania, Architectural Conservation Laboratory and Research Center talked about spatial documentation

Jeremy Wells, Private consultant, talked about solutions for the long-term preservation of digital documentation.

Alison Dalgity and Jeff Levine busy at the GCI booth

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OOppeenniinngg RReecceeppttiioonn

The opening reception was held in the new wing of the Walker Art Center that opened during April 2005

The Walker Art Center is internationally recognized as a leading venue for the presentation of the art of our time. Housed in its newly expanded facility designed by award-winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the Walker offers exhibitions of modern and contemporary visual arts; dance, music, and theater performances; film and video screenings; lectures and discussions with todays leading artists, designers, and critics; tours, classes, and workshops; and digital media projects that expand the Walkers resources and reach.

The Architecture Spe-cialty Group (ASG) met for a one-day session on Saturday, June 11. The session was lead by Dorothy S. Krotzer, Senior Conservator, Fairmount

Park Historic Preservation Trust. Kent Diebolt of Vertical Access LLC presented a recently developed system for preparing architectural condition reports making use in the field of digital tablets that run full versions of AutoCAD that incorporate standardized conservation condition terminology. With the use of Canon digital cameras that have remote capture systems, images taken in the field are immediately hyper linked to xyz coordinates in the drawing. Examples of this work can be consulted at: http://www.vertical-access.com. Linnaea Dix Dawson of Silverlake Conservation discussed the role of the conservator in the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory renovation and expansion project. In this case, the use of low-tech documentation techniques was the answer to the challenges of documenting the restoration work while helping the contractor and sub-contractors to do better conservation work. The 83 million dollars restoration work began in 2002 and is scheduled to finish in May 2006. The tendering process requested that the Contractor hire a professional conservator pre-qualified on the Citys list. 35mm slides, filed in three-ring binders, was the selected means for documentation. They dont require any special training to consult and a simple light table was available in the Contractors trailer to view the documentation. This documentation was very useful. For example, the main stairs had been dismantled by one sub-contractor and were to be re-installed by a different one who benefited greatly by looking at the original layout; when a water leak occurred, the slides were used to determine the extent of damage; when came the time to reinstall the doors that had been in storage for more than two years, the Contractor used the slides to

The Walker Art Center

Contemporary art in the museum

Window in Walker Art Center new wing

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near Spoonbridge and Cherry

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refresh his memory of what had been taken down and to program the re-installation. Dean K. Koga and Christopher J. Gembinski of Building Conservation Associates talked about the maintenance work at New Yorks Grand Central Terminal. Their main point was that it does not suffice to have a good maintenance plan; it has to be implemented using a system that is easy to use and efficient. An extensive maintenance plan for the Terminal was prepared in 1999 (3 inches thick) but the computerized system to implement it was so complicated that when the technicians that knew how to operate it left, there was no one to continue its use and critical maintenance tasks began to fall through the cracks. Koga and Gembinski demonstrated how with the use of a simple calendar feature in File Maker Pro v. 7.0 they were able to create a maintenance schedule that was simple to use by the workers and easy to update by the managers. Martin Perschler of HABS/HAER/HALS, National Park Service described how historic monuments records were prepared in his agency until recently. Architects would produce drawings made by hand; photographers would produce images and historians would write historical reports. All this data was brought together into binders that were then sent to the Library of Congress. They constituted the official record. In 1999, the decision was made to digitize the collection and make it available on the web to the general public. A substantial backlog of files and documents had been accumulated. Martin explained the major challenge that his organization faced to migrate the collection from paper & film support to a digitized archive. Jeremy Wells, a private consultant, offered various options for the long-term conservation of digitized documentation. Concerning format of digitized documents, he suggested that copies of the original documents be kept in formats that are non-proprietary. For example, the Microsoft Word (.doc) format is a proprietary format and the company has modified it 23 times since its creation in 1980. The current version of Word does not read several of the early versions of the software, and information prepared by those versions cannot be accessed anymore. On the other hand, the .txt format is non-proprietary and stands a chance of being readable for a very long time. Jeremy suggested that if we use open file formats that our data may survive much longer without having to be migrated to other formats. Concerning media, he gave the following longevity projections for supports: Floppy disks: 5 years Magnetic tape: up to 20 years Hard drives: up to 10 years Zip disks: unknown CD-R & DVDs: longevity depends on the dyes used to make them; Azo or cyanide dyes: 2 to 10 years; Pthalicyanine dyes: decades. Concerning equipment, it seems that tape reading equipment is the one that is replaced the sooner and that CD & DVD drives stand a chance of being around for quite a while because there are so many of them on the market. Solutions: Migrate data at least every 5 to 10 years to new media and formats Dont rely on tape backups for long-term storage Use CDs & DVDs with Pthalocyanine dyes Make multiple clones of critical data and store it in different locations

Dorothy S. Krotzer, Architecture Specialty Group session organizer

Kent Diebolt of Vertical Access LLC

Dean K. Koga and Christopher Gembinski of Building Conservation Associates

Martin Perschler, HABS/HAER/HALS, National Park Service

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MMiinnnneeaappoolliiss BBeeccoommeess PPaarrtt ooff tthhee UUnniitteedd SSttaatteess

Minneapolis panorama 1912

Downtown Minneapolis skyline, June 2005

From the 1680s forward, the area to include Minneapolis was "on paper" under the European rule of the countries of France, England, and Spain until finally becoming a part of the United States of America in 1784. France's occupation of the area came from the visit made by Father Louis Hennepin in 1680. By the operation of the Franco-Spanish Treaty of 1762, the area of Minnesota west of the Mississippi and south of the Hudson Bay watershed passed from the dominion of France to that of Spain. For the next 40 years it was under the proprietorship of Louisiana. In 1803, after briefly returning to French control, these lands were purchased from France and thereafter called the Louisiana Purchase (this was the area west of the Mississippi including part of the area to become Minneapolis). The area to the east of the Mississippi passed to England at the close of the French and Indian War (1763). This area, including parts of Minnesota (and Minneapolis), became part of the United States after the War of Independence. When the United States accepted the Virginia Colony's deed of cession (1783), the area became the (old) Northwest Territory. Out of this area were later carved the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and part of Minnesota. To demonstrate the western reach of United States' power and the northern reaches of the Louisiana Territory, the U.S. military established Fort Snelling. The Fort Snelling site was formally acquired by Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike from some of the Dakota chiefs in 1805. The land Fort Snelling encompassed took in nearly the complete area of present-day Minneapolis and almost half of the present-day city of St. Paul. The original Fort Snelling, headquartered at the junction of the Minnesota and the Mississippi Rivers, was established in 1819 to meet the rapidly changing conditions in the Northwest Territory. The first commanding officer was Henry Leavenworth; Josiah Snelling replaced Leavenworth in 1820. Dates and Events 1671 France claims the interior of North America 1680 Father Hennepin, while a captive of the Dakota, sees St. Anthony

Falls and names it after his patron saint. 1762 France cedes North America west of the Mississippi to Spain.

Father Louis Hennepin (circa 1683)

Minneapolis Hotel 1905

Minneapolis Station 1912

Downtown Minneapolis, Nicollet Mall 2005

One of many Minneapolis famous pedestrian elevated walkways

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1763 France cedes North America east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, to England.

1783 England recognizes United States sovereignty from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River.

1787 The area east of the Mississippi becomes part of the old Northwest Territory.

1803 Lands west of the Mississippi purchased from France (referred to as the Louisiana Purchase).