Introduction to conservation and collection care

The aim of this module is for the student to understand the principles and practice of conservation. By presenting different aspects of collection management and use of collections from a conservation perspective, students will gain an introductory understanding of the purpose and difficulties faced when retaining cultural heritage assets for present and future generations.

The specific learning outcomes of this course are:

• Explain the basis for the concepts, principles and ethics of conservation
• Define conservation and describe its general approach to preservation of CH
• Appreciate why objects are preserved
• Recognise the social values of cultural heritage
• Obtain information from objects by means of investigation
• Distinguish between the different threats to Cultural Heritage
• Express the principles of collection care and stewardship of collections
• Adequately present academic arguments and discussions in writing
• Carry out a critical literature review

The course assumes a good proficiency in written and oral English.

Admission to the course is required.

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

The teaching consists of nine double hour lectures and one three hour seminar and groupwork. One of the colloquia will take place in a museum and one of the seminars will be taking place in a conservation laboratory.

Students have to submit 1 obligatory assignment which needs to be approved in order for the student to sit the exam. The requirements for approval will be supplied by the lecturer at the same time as the assignment is handed out. Students failing the first time can resubmit once. Dates for submission will be announced at the beginning of term.

The course uses Fronter as its learning environment for sharing teaching resources and colloquium group work, and hand-in of the qualifier.

There will be a 4-hour written exam at the end of the term. Once the course requirements have been fulfilled, they remain valid for the current and the two consecutive semesters when the course is given.

It is compulsory to attend to at least 75% of all teaching.

The course is assessed by exam that consists of two parts:

• Essay (3000 words) (70 % of the grade).
• Video about a conservation concept about 4 minutes (30 % of the grade).

Detailed information will be given in class and in Canvas. The candidate can chose to not appear on video if they wish to remain anonymous under the evaluation of the exam.

Dictionaries are allowed

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Specific criteria for grading

Students can ask for an explanation of the grade. This must be done within a week after the grade was made known to the student. To obtain the explanation a request must be sent by e-mail to [email protected]. The request must contain information of the students e-mail address and phone number he or she can be reached on. It is up to the sensor whether the explanation will be given orally or in writing.

English or Norwegian.

Other

The module is part of 80-group - Kulturarv og bevaringskunnskap (80KUBE) and 40-group - Bevaring og gjenstandskunnskap (40BEVG). Specific rules apply for admission to 80KUBE and 40BEVG.

A student may appeal against an awarded grade and/or file a formal complaint about exam procedures

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.

Evaluations

Syllabus/achievement requirements (KONS1000 - Autumn 2013)

Text books:

Caple, C. 2000. Conservation Skills. Judgement, Method and Decision making, London: Routledge. THE STUDENT NEEDS TO BUY THIS BOOK. THERE ARE A FEW COPIES IN THE LIBRARY.

* For articles that can be found on the web a link to the web-site is given.

Articles not available on the web are collected in a compendium that can be obtained from Akademika kopi-utsalg.

Lecture 1: Why is cultural heritage preserved? The occurrence and development of heritage preservation.

Caple, C. 2000.¿Chapter 2: `Reasons for preserving the past¿, in Conservation Skills. Judgement, Method and Decision making, London: Routledge, pp.12-28.

Ahmad, Y. 2006. The scope and definitions of heritage From tangible to Intangible in International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3, May 2006, pp. 292¿300.

ICOM News, No.2, 2004, The definition of the museum

Lewis, G.D., 2012. `The history of museums¿, i Encyclopaedia Britannica, [Online]. Accessible from http://www.muuseum.ee/uploads/files/g._lewis_the_history_of_museums.pdf (visited 16.04.2012).

UNESCO, 2012. World heritage. Accessible from http://whc.unesco.org/en/about/ [Online]. (visited 17,04.2012)

Unesco, 2012. 'The World Heritage Convention'. Accessible from http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/. [Online]. (visited 17.04.2012)

Total: ca 60 pages

Lecture 2: The nature and history of conservation.

Caple, C. 2000.¿Chapter 3: `The nature of conservation¿ and Chapter 4: `History of conservation¿, in Conservation Skills. Judgement, Method and Decision making, London: Routledge, pp.29-45 and 46-58.

ICOM Committee for Conservation 1984. <a href="http://www.icom-cc.org/47/about-icom-cc/definition-of-pro

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

A student may sit this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do so in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit the exam.