FUTURE TALKS 011: Technology and Conservation of Modern Materials in Design (Oct 2011, Munich)

Dates: October 26 to 28, 2011
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 March 2011
Contact: bechthold@die-neue-sammlung.de

The Conservation Department, Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich – is pleased to announce the subsequent event of our last year, very enthusiastically received, international conference FUTURE TALKS 009:
FUTURE TALKS 011. Technology and Conservation of Modern Materials in Design, to be held at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany.

Because of the great response to the first event (www.die-neue-sammlung.de/event, 200 participants from 15 countries), FUTURE TALKS 011 will discuss technology and conservation of modern materials over three days.
On the first day the conference will focus on technology, design and production processes of modern materials and their consequences on ageing, degradation and failure of design objects. The following two days will highlight the state-of-the-art of scientific research and focuses on practical treatments in the conservation of design objects made of modern materials.

Organiser

Die Neue Sammlung, The International Design Museum Munich (www.die-neue-sammlung.de) houses one of the world’s largest and most important collection of industrial design. The large number of objects reflects the technologies and materials developed in the course of the 20th century, attesting in particular to the use of plastics. However, unlike most traditional materials these are subject to a dynamic aging process and after only a short time often already bear irreversible traces of their age. Corresponding types of damage can hardly be reconciled with the respective designer’s original intentions and are often problematic in terms of conservation. The Conservation Department at Die Neue Sammlung has for years focused on the conservation of  degraded modern materials. Both knowledge and network expanded to the FUTURE TALKS, an international platform, initiating an intensive and profound discourse on practical conservation treatments of modern materials.

The conference and associated publication will be in English.
There will also be social events and opportunities to visit local conservation studios.

Topics

Papers outlining recent advances in this field, addressing technology, design and production processes of modern materials, new or innovative treatment methods for topics like cleaning, consolidating, retouching or material improvements are welcome. Preference for oral presentation will be given to papers dealing with current research. To cross-link conference participants to highly topical research, ongoing projects where final results have not necessarily been obtained are very welcome.
Knowing full well that the conservation of modern materials is not only limited to design objects, presentations of conservation projects on modern/contemporary works of art are very welcome, too.

Abstracts should include:

• The full title of the paper
• The full names, postal addresses and e-mail addresses of all authors.
• A summary of the paper in  no more than 500 words. It should not include graphs, pictures, tables or references.
• Papers for the conference should be tailored to a 25-minute presentation time frame.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31 March 2011 and authors will be notified of the result by 15 April 2011. Papers will be assumed to be offered for either oral or poster presentation unless otherwise stated. We will publish proceedings of the meeting. Authors will be required to submit a final paper to the organisers during the conference. As far as possible, communication relating to the meeting will be conducted by e-mail. Please provide an e-mail address when registering interest in the meeting or submitting an abstract.

Abstracts should be sent to:
Tim Bechthold [Dipl.Rest.Univ.] I Head of Conservation I
bechthold@die-neue-sammlung.de
Die Neue Sammlung I The International Design Museum Munich