Ysbrand Hummelen

In this project the technological mediation and materiality in the networks of contemporary art works will be followed during the stage of conservation in the biography of artworks by Piet Mondriaan (1874-1944), Peter Struycken (1938) and Hooykaas (1942) & Stansfield (1945-2004) as case studies.

The study will focus on this mediation during the historical and the qualitative research of the artists practice and in the scientific and technological investigations of the art works.

In a participative research position I will follow how the inevitable articulations in this mediation are negotiated and practiced in the entangled network of people and technologies, leading to the construction of the works as "the conservation object" and how these articulations will be  "performed" by this network in the practice of conservation treatments (preservation /restoration/ reinstallation and presentation). This process will be studied as ''a complex of socio-technical assemblages and networks'' applying and examining methodologies and insights from current Science and Technology studies.

Part of the Research Programme New Strategies in Conservation of Contemporary Art