Changeability, Variability, and Malleability: Sharing Perspectives on the Role of Change in Time-based Art and Utilitarian Machinery Conservation

Abstract

This paper explores concepts of changeability, variability, and malleability in the different heritage genres of time-based artworks and utilitarian machinery. Case studies bring to the surface differences in understandings, norms, and boundaries, but also demonstrate similarities between the two areas of practice, showing that they can be viewed as poles of practice within a shared field of theory and practice rather than as separate and unrelated endeavours. The key issues for all communities caring for changeable objects are how to preserve the intangible sensory, cultural, and immersive experiences created by change, and how the practical actions required to maintain this intangible heritage interact with concepts of authenticity, performativity, and intention. This paper explores how these relationships evolve as time and contexts change, and how best practice in the conservation of changeable objects must acknowledge and manage the tension between the activation that preserves intangible, embodied experience, and the static maintenance that preserves the tangible components of an object with minimal physical change. Viewing objects through the lens of change opens the door to the development of a new field of conservation expertise, one focused on the challenges and opportunities presented by an object's changeable qualities rather than by its original field of use. A lens of change has the capacity to draw together not only those working with time-based artworks and utilitarian machinery but also other communities of people caring for and activating changeable objects, such as horologists, roboticists, musicians, car enthusiasts, people activating historic costumes, and people managing still-active historic utilities such as water and transport infrastructure.

Disruptive Conservation: Challenging Conservation Orthodoxy

“…It becomes an individual concept understood through many layers of knowing, certainties and uncertainties. Wain and Sherring write that a 'perfect authenticity' cannot be achieved and must always be an approximation, based on what is considered most important in the present (Wain and Sherring 2020).…”

“…If we question any unexamined assumption that our intervention exists at an end point and locate our intervention as part of a fluid and flexible history (Weiss 2020) generating authenticity as a process of linked functions, we need not attempt to reflect a specific historical point in time through our interventions. As heritage ceases to be used for its original function, its new primary function becomes the transmission of messages about heritage (Wain and Sherring 2020). Wain and Sherring argue that both artwork and functional objects can be understood as performative objects and that the authenticity must 'happen' to be experienced (2020, 7), observing that whilst the tangible heritage of an object can be treated by a conservator the intangible nature of an object needs to be performed (2020).…”

Marcas do corpo - Problemas de conservação de um filme de Ana Mendieta

“…A necessidade de disseminação, curadoria e conservação carrega a ideia de mutabilidade enquanto possibilidade de transformação de uma mesma obra de um estado para outro (Wain et al, 2020) e, como referido, foi determinante para valorizar esta fatia do trabalho de Mendieta e para revelar, em parte, a sua 'massa crítica', principalmente no que respeita à visão da própria artista acerca dessas filmagens enquanto obras distintas, e não como documentos de processo artístico. Neste âmbito, sabemos que Mendieta adiantou que a transcrição de película para vídeo lhe tinha sido conveniente, rejeitando as complicações técnicas associadas à projecção de Super 8.…”

“…Ainda, o caso da mutabilidade associada à obsolescência do equipamento de leitura, que é aqui invocada, nega que se crie oportunidade e condições favoráveis à gestão deste equipamento e das competências técnicas de uma comunidade a ele ligada. Sem esse esforço por valorizar determinado equipamento, ele tornar-se-á mais facilmente obsoleto e as competências técnicas poderão desaparecer em apenas uma geração (Wain et al, 2020;Westphal, 2014).…”

“Rare and vital”: positive terminology, contemporary relevance and robust teaching options for heritage maker trades

“…This paper draws together interdisciplinary knowledge from the three authors' backgrounds in heritage preservation, Australian manufacturing and design, and heritage skills training. First author Alison Wain specialises in the preservation of large heritage machinery, engaging with tradespeople who have the knowledge to maintain such machinery and keep it operational, thus preserving both the tangible and intangible aspects of machinery heritage [5]. Second author Jesse Adams Stein is a design researcher who has spent the past 12 years undertaking empirical research into manufacturing tradespeoples' experiences [6][7].…”