Activities of the Art Technological Source Research

The activity of the ATSR group is described as Art Technological Source Research and defined as follows:

Art Technology:

knowledge concerning the production of works of an art or a craft, i.e. knowledge concerning materials, tools, machines, sites and techniques used in making objects with a certain cultural value / from cultural heritage.

Types of Sources:

the object itself,
information given (in)directly by the artist or craftsman of the object,
realia,
contemporary information,
modern studies and secondary literature. The emphasis of this group will be on primary, documentary information (textual and visual) of types 2) and 4).

Research:

professional research, done institutionally and/or privately, continuous and/or in projects, based on primary sources; thus not incidentally and not relying on secondary literature, translations, reprints or facsimiles only; evaluating secondary sources and relating them to primary ones is of importance, too.

Period Covered by Research: up to the present day, with an emphasis on pre-20th century.

Type of Art or Craft Discipline:

any type, although it will be noticed that the participants have their expertise mainly in the field of painting, illuminating and the graphic arts. Note: When your research into one particular discipline gets more intense you will notice how close materials, tools and machines from different arts and crafts are related.

Contexts of research:

the history of art, economy, restoration and conservation, science, or technique, the modern practices of artists and craftsmen, and the restoration and conservation of historical objects.