School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 33
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Speckle and Conservation
    Miles, E ; Roberts, A ; Tse, N ; Sloggett, R (International Seminars, 2008)
    The aim of this research is to demonstrate the usefulness of speckle, a trait of an expanded laser beam, for the non-destructive testing of artwork in both the imaging of subsurface structure and the quantitative detection of physical movement of canvas. Laser Speckle Contrast Method (LSCI) is a useful method for the viewing of subsurface layers and movement. By investigating the statistical properties of dynamic speckle it is possible to reveal drawings that are hidden beneath scattering layers such as the primary layer of paint or adhered paper. This is achieved by taking a series of speckle images captured in a short time frame and applying one of a number of post processing algorithms. We explore the limitations of this method when applied to various paper samples that have a sketch executed in various media beneath the top layer. The ability to resolve gray scale images was examined as well as looking at the dependence of the contrast of the revealed drawings to the temperature of the surface. Current work is being done on using LSCI to reveal indentations in artwork caused by the application process. The successful use of Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI) both in the laboratory and in-situ for the detection of in-plane movement of painted canvas due to humidity fluctuations and the out-of-plane movement of paint as it dries has also been demonstrated. Canvas paintings can be very susceptible to movement due to changes of the environment. ESPI is a non-destructive technique yielding sensitive results that can detect displacement on a surface of less than the wavelength of the illuminating coherent light source. While ESPI has been successfully applied to the in-situ study of painted frescoes, previous studies have employed tensile testers as a support for painted canvas. We have shown a portable version of ESPI to be of use in tropical environment in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore with original artworks where variations in humidity occur and the samples have not undergone special preparation before analysis, revealing significant directional movements. Furthermore, a simple variation in the direction of beams paths permits the characterisation of out-of-plane movement, specifically as the height of paint shrinks due to the drying process. We have used ESPI to view the drying process of alkyd resin paints over the time period of 24 hours.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Collections of paint colour charts, paint tins and paintings as a source for developing an understanding of paint making history
    Dredge, P (Museums Australia, 2011)
    A project looking at a collection of painting items from a studio used by the artist Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) from 1951 to 1953 is beginning to grapple with the subject of house paint technology from the pre World War II period up to the mid 1950s. Sidney Nolan was particularly engaged with house paint as an artist’s medium, and it seems sought information from paint makers to obtain a deep technical understanding of these complex paint systems. A number of additional collections of paint material held in Sydney museums have been identified that hold potential to provide new information on paint resins and pigments. A collection of historic paint colour charts which use the paint itself in the swatches of colour, and a collection of early synthetic paint resins from 1934-1937, are both valuable sources for analytical standards and the dating of technologies in Australia.
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Preserving the Past: How to ensure the development of the conservation profession in Australia is preserved for the future
    Pearson, C ; Lyall, J ; Sloggett, R ; Cook, I (AICCM, 2011-10-19)
    The first AICCM conference “Conservation in Australia”, which was held in Canberra in 1976 at the Australian National University, was organised by the few conservators located in Canberra. The intervening 35 years have seen changes in the organisation and conservation profession. This 2011 AICCM National Conference, “Conservation in Australia: Past, Present and Future”, now back in Canberra, will allow us to view where we have come from, and examine the challenges for the future development of the AICCM and Australian conservation profession.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Sacred Life of Trees: What trees say about people in the prehistoric Aegean and Near East
    TULLY, C (Monash University, 2012)
    The realistic nature of the glyptic idiom of Minoan Crete, as expressed in images of tree cult, has resulted in the general assumption that such illustrations depict real places within the Cretan landscape. Variously termed ‘rural sanctuaries’, ‘sacred enclosures’ or ‘open-air shrines’, glyptic iconography is the main source of evidence for this category of cult site and its supposed characteristics, thought to range from the architecturally elaborate to the ephemeral.1 This paper argues that, as a result of the miniaturisation process involved in the creation of glyptic motifs, it is more likely that images of tree cult are not scenes, but signs, comparable with more minimalist Cypriot and Israelite examples. In order to support this contention, the paper will initially contextualise the images chronologically and spatially.
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A preliminary understanding of oil paintings in tropical Southeast Asia
    TSE, N ; ROBERTS, A ; SLOGGETT, R (Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2008)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Southeast Asian Oil Paintings: Supports and Preparatory layers
    TSE, N ; SLOGGETT, R (Archetype Publications, 2008)
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Gender, Language and the Body: Manual Knowledge of Physical Culture in Postcolonial Laos
    CREAK, S ; Morrell, E ; Barr, MD (Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), 2010)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A contribution to ancient Near Eastern chronology (c. 1600 – 900 BC)
    FURLONG, PIERCE JAMES ( 2008)
    The chronology of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Near East is currently a topic of intense scholarly debate. The conventional/orthodox chronology for this period has been assembled over the past one-two centuries using information from King-lists, royal annals and administrative documents, primarily those from the Great Kingdoms of Egypt , Assyria and Babylonia . This major enterprise has resulted in what can best be described as an extremely complex but little understood jigsaw puzzle composed of a multiplicity of loosely connected data. I argue in my thesis [Furlong, P. J., Aspects of Ancient Near Eastern Chronology (c. 1600 – 700 BC), PhD Thesis, Melbourne University, 2007; available in full at The University of Melbourne e-Prints Repository: < http://eprints.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00003929/ >] that this conventional chronology is fundamentally wrong, and that Egyptian New Kingdom (Memphite) dates should be lowered by 200 years to match historical actuality. This chronological adjustment is achieved in two stages: first, the removal of precisely 85 years of absolute Assyrian chronology from between the reigns of Shalmaneser II and Ashur-dan II; and second, the downward displacement of Egyptian Memphite dates relative to LBA Assyrian chronology by a further 115 years. Moreover, I rely upon Kuhnian epistemology to structure this alternate chronology so as to make it methodologically superior to the conventional chronology in terms of historical accuracy, precision, consistency and testability.