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1/56 Research Report 1992 Message from the Director Research Report Research Report 1992 Message from the Director Research Report 1990 Message from the Director During the last two years the question of whether or not the Victoria and Albert Museum can maintain its profile as a leading centre of research in the history of the applied arts, as well as of acquisition, display, and public interpretation, has been the subject of much, and sometimes acrimonious, public discussion. I hope that this document will help to alleviate the fears of those who believed that the proposals for reorganisation in the museum would lead to an instantaneous collapse of all scholarly activity within it. What it shows is the incredible range of academic research and scholarship which goes on throughout the Museum, and the distinctive strands within it. The last two years have seen notable scholarly achievements. It is always invidious to pick out individual examples, but two publications especially stand out: Oliver Watson's catalogue of the Museum's collection of British studio pottery and Philippa Glanville's 'Silver in Tudor and Stuart England: A Social History and Catalogue of the National Collection 1480- 1660', which received a Special Commendation in the NACF awards for outstanding Achievements in the Arts. At least as important as the high points of individual publications are the contributions that Museum staff make at conferences, the papers written by junior curators, and the plans for future publications. In the past, the full range of this work has not always been well recorded. One of the purposes of reorganisation was precisely to ensure that the academic role of the Museum has a higher public profile. I am delighted therefore to introduce the first edition of an annual research register. 1/56 Directorate Staff Research and Publications John Murdoch Assistant Director (Collections) Mr Murdoch continued work on his forthcoming catalogue on 17th century miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. During the year, he attended a number of conferences that were museological/ art historical in nature. 1990 Publications: • 'A Villa in Arcadia.' In: Simon Pugh, ed. Reading Landscape: Country-city- capital. Manchester and New York : Manchester University Press. pp.121- 144, ill. • 'The Landscape of Labor: Transformations of the Georgic'. In: Kenneth Johnston, Gilbert Chaitin, Karen Hanson and Herbert Marks, eds. Romantic Revolutions: Criticism and Theory. Indianapolis Indiana. University Press. 448p. 2/56 Collections Department Staff Research and Publications Gwyn Miles Surveyor of Collections Mrs Miles is actively involved with the development of international standards for the recording and interchange of museum information. As Coordinator for the International Council of Museums (ICOM)Conservation Committee Documentation Working Group she chaired the Documentation session of the triennial conference held in Dresden in August 1990 and edited the documentation section preprints. As Secretary for the ICOM International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) Working Group on the Reconciliation of Standards she attended the annual conference held in Nafplion in October, 1990, and chaired a session at the Greek National Forum on Documentation held in Athens also in October. She was invited to participate in a seminar on data modelling hosted by the NARCISSE project in Paris in November 1990. As a member of the International Standards Organisation Ad Hoc Group on Conservation Terminology she took part in working sessions held at the Public Record Office, London during the year. She also attended and presented a paper 'Responding to Structural Change' at the MDA Conference on Staff development and training: meeting the needs of museum documentation, held in Cambridge in September 1990. She completed a chapter for the second edition of the Manual of Curatorship on Handling and Packing Objects. 1990 Publications: • 'Conservation Terminology.' In: D.A. Roberts, ed. Terminology for Museums. Cambridge: MDA. pp.469-472. • 'Condition Reporting at the V&A.' In: D.A. Roberts, ed. Terminology for Museums. Cambridge: MDA. pp-497-503. Alan Seal Head of Records Mr Seal is developing specifications for object documentation systems within the Museum and has particular interest in multimedia technology and public access systems. He has undertaken research and has published in the areas of bibliographic documentation and online public access systems. As one of the original members of the Larger Scale Systems Initiative, he is actively participating in a project to assess the degree of commonality of collection management requirements in the national and regional museums in the UK. A major current project is to identify a set of core fields to facilitate the transfer of object data between systems within the Museum, and ultimately externally. As a member of the ICOM International committee for Documentation (CIDOC) 3/56 Working Group on Terminology Control he is working on a directory of thesauri which can be used for object names. He is supervising several multimedia projects being undertaken as postgraduate projects. These are being used to explore new methods of accessing object information. Anne Buddle Registrar Miss Buddle was the curator of the exhibition Tigers round the Throne, held at the Zamana Gallery, 2 August - 14 October. The exhibition consisted of about 120 objects - prints, watercolours, paintings and decorative arts - associated with Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), and including loans from HM the Queen, national and non-national museum, a private individuals. The exhibition was well reviewed in the national press and in Asian periodicals. In addition, she researched and advised on the V&A video, Tippoos Tiger, working with Deborah Swallow. Her own CTs and the text for the Zamana catalogue formed the backbone for this production, in which she discussed historical and artistic aspects of objects associated with Tipu. During the year she gave lectures on the following topics: Aspects of collections management, Renaissance cassoni, and Tippoos Tiger. She attended the following conferences: Arts without Frontiers, Glasgow, Arts Council, March; American Association of Museums: Annual Conference, Chicago, where Miss Buddle was a Session Chair and a Speaker on 'The European Common Market and Implications for Object Movements', May; Church Monuments Society Symposium: A Decade of Discovery, London, for which she arranged the programme, speakers, excursions and accommodation, September; Museum Documentation Association Annual Conference, Cambridge, at which she joined a group focussing on Training and Management, September. 1990 Publications: • Tigers Round the Throne. The Court of Tipu Sultan. (1750-1799). London: Zamana Gallery Limited. 95p., ill. Catalogue of the Exhibition held at the Zamana Gallery, 2 August - 14 October, 1990. Helen White Inventory Officer (Records Section) Ms White started a project concerning Location Control and Stockchecking Systems in the Museum, with the final product being a written strategy for the V&A and a possible conference paper and article. 1990 Publications: Snuff Bottles from China, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd. in association with the Victoria andAlbert Museum. 292p., ill. 4/56 Alice Grant Documentation Officer (Records Section) Ms Grant researched the communication of fashion: a study of the way in which change in fashion is communicated from eighteenth century magazines to television and film today - particular concentration on fashion magazines and their role. The study asks such questions as 'how does the process affect / is it affected by: issues of sexuality, class, etc.?' She also investigated the use of thesauri in classifying art and design objects. Maria Blyzinsky Inventory Assistant (Records Section) Ms Blyzinsky researched semiotics in museum work. Fiona Leslie Inventory Assistant (Records Section) Ms Leslie is looking into connections, if any, between early English frescoes (church, religious frescoes) of the 13th century and their counterparts in Southern Europe, i.e. Greece and Turkey, of the same period. Andreas Petzold Museum Assistant 1990 Publications: • 'Colour Notes in English Romanesque Manuscripts.' British Library Journal. spring, pp.16-25. 5/56 Furniture & Woodwork Collection Staff Research and Publications Christopher Wilk Curator Christopher Wilk continued research into the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames through visits to the Vitra Design Museum, Basel (Eames Archive) and a lecture on the subject at the RIBA. He completed the writing of 31catalogue entries for the forthcoming exhibition catalogue, What Modern Was: Design 1935-1965 (Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal) and travelled to Prague on the British Council Cultural Exchange programme to research a possible V&A exhibition on Czech Cubist design, 1911-1914. 1990 Publications: • (Review). Design After Modernism, London, 1988. Apollo. March pp.210- 211 • (Review). 'Office Work.' (Neuhart, etc. Eames Design, London 1989). Apollo. May, pp.351-352 Clive Wainwright Deputy Curator Following his participation in the International Symposium 'Fake?: The Art of Deception' held in June 1990 at the British Museum in conjunction with the exhibition of that name, Mr Wainwright was asked to expand and write up the paper he gave to the Symposium. The paper is entitled 'The Importance of Provenance' and examines the history a Romanesque ivory liturgical comb possibly mentioned by the Venerable Bede. It will be published by the British Museum in the proceedings
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