Looking Ahead to Future Challenges

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CCI Newsletter, No. 30, November 2002

Looking Ahead to Future Challenges

by Ian N.M. Wainwright, Manager, Analytical Research Laboratory

Conservation science and archaeometry are constantly expanding our knowledge of the materials of artifacts and works of art as researchers worldwide grapple with these often complex studies. The Analytical Research Laboratory (ARL) simply could not function without this collective wealth of shared data. In the future, this now vast collection of information will continue to provide the basis for the kind of problem-solving and investigative research ARL undertakes: history and characterization of artists' materials; the study of the materials used by Canadian Aboriginal cultures; the study of corrosion and deterioration products of alloys, paint, and rocks; authenticity and art fraud investigations; the detection and identification of toxic or corrosive materials or accretions in collections.

As conservators, curators, and law enforcement agencies require increasingly detailed analysis of materials to solve materials science problems, the demands on analytical chemists will grow. This will require more collaboration between laboratories, and more precise, accurate, and sensitive instruments. The use of digital imaging technology will increase as resolution and colour accuracy capable of meeting the needs of conservation become available. The trend to miniaturization and automatization of analytical and imaging equipment will also continue.

Analytical problems associated with contemporary art and non-traditional materials will become more commonplace, as will the study of the materials and artifacts of the space age. The investigation of art fraud will become even more complicated, especially in the graphic arts, by the arrival of new replication and reproduction technologies. More sophisticated procedures for determining the attribution of museum objects with scientific methods and expert systems will be developed. The Internet and complex database management systems will provide new and better tools for analysing and sharing scientific knowledge and images.