COST Action G8 : Non-destructive Analysis and Testing of Museum Objects

COST Action G8 (2000-2004) aims at creating a Europe- wide network that would enable co-operation and interaction between two groups of professionals: people directly concerned with the maintenance of our cultural heritage – conservators, curators, art historians, archaeologists – and analytical scientists, including chemists, physicists, geologists, metallurgists, mineralogists and microbiologists. The main objective of the action is to improve preservation and conservation of our cultural heritage by increasing knowledge of museum objects through non-destructive analysis and testing. The scientific activities of COST G8 include organising short-term scientific missions to train scientists of both groups in the other's field as well as to transfer practical experience among the European countries. Regular meetings in the form of workshops are organised in order to exchange the obtained knowledge in a broader group, and six working groups are active, which allows close collaboration in a specific field

Television, identity and diaspora youth: a visual ethnographic study

Media discourses and popular culture offer a broad range of symbolical sources on which teenagers can rely to give meaning to their everyday life experiences and by consequence play a possible role in the identity constructions of young people (Brown; Arnett; Durham). Since adolescent diaspora television use is characterized by hybridization in terms of program preferences and choice as they watch transnational, global as local television content, the possible role of discursive practices in their identity constructions is complex and lacks in academic research. This article tries to understand how second generation diaspora girls (age 14-16) from Turkish descent in Belgium give meaning and negotiate media representations of gender and ethnicity and whether such representations play a constitutive role in girls' identity constructions. Moreover, in an increasingly multicultural society, where racial and ethno cultural divisions are complicating the social picture, there is a great necessity for research that offers a contextually nuanced exploration of girls’ socialization and its impending outcomes. To this end, we will use extensive visual ethnographical methods. European research recently started to employ 'visual ethnographical methods' (Buckingham & De Block; Niesyto, Buckingham & Fisherkeller) or 'visual creative methods' (Gauntlett & Awan), where participants produce their own media in order to give explanations for the role of media in everyday life and their construction of identities. Especially adolescents’ identities are subject of this stance of research because "If somebody-in nowadays media society-wants to learn something about youth’s ideas, feelings and their ways of experiencing the world, he or she should give them a chance to express themselves also by means of their own self-made media products" (Niesyto 137). The study contains four creative research stages and will last about one month (November 2010). In the first exploratory phase, the girls are asked to make a collage representing their 'ideal television program' by using magazines, drawing material and Polaroid photo cameras. Afterwards, collages are presented and discussed in group. In the subsequent phases, the participants get an introductory course on camera use where basic filmmaking principles are learnt. Respondents are then divided in groups and asked to film a trailer for their ideal television fiction program where they present characters, themes, title, genre, music, etc. Afterwards, the films are edited based on choices made by the girls themselves. In the end, the videos are presented to each other and their families. During all research stages, conversations, negotiations and discussions are audio-taped. This research provides rich, various and in-depth material that is not solely 'verbal' but provides 'non-verbal', 'creative artifacts' as well. Moreover, the process of video production involves negotiation and interaction with others contributing to social identity constructions. Furthermore, participants are given time to reflect on their thoughts and feelings about representations on the television screen before producing a response. Next to methodological relevance, this research empowers young people who risk social and political disempowerment. Also, it enables youngsters to develop technical skills and experiment with different forms of representation which can result in an augmented media literacy (Buckingham)

The glocalised telenovela as a space for possible identifications for diaspora girls in Northern Belgium: an audience cum content analysis of Sara

Because research on glocalised telenovelas in Western Europe is absent in literature and telenovelas seem highly popular among diaspora girls from Moroccan descents living in Northern Belgium, this paper studies the embedded themes and identification possibilities of telenovelas and explores its thematic interest and meanings for diaspora girls. By means of an audience cum content analysis on the case study Sara, text and audience are combined. Sara is predominantly a ‘Cinderella story’ with a clear ‘love’ and ‘class and social mobility’ discourse where emotional identification is triggered through different parameters. Belgian girls from Moroccan descent mainly watch the Sara for reasons of entertainment and escapism. They negotiate between lived and telenovela-created experiences and consequently formulate aspirations and dreams for future partners, gender roles, careers and (family) life

Ontogeny of the osteocranium in the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus burchell (1822) (Siluriformes: Clariidae): Ossification sequence as a response to functional demands

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Cell for simultaneous synchrotron radiation x-ray and electrochemical corrosion measurements on cultural heritage metals and other materials

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Applications of SIMS to cultural heritage studies

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In-situ spectroelectrochemical studies of the removal of chlorides from copper

This paper describes corrosion potential measurements of corroded copper samples taken whilst acquiring timeresolved X-ray diffraction or X-ray absorption data in a synchrotron beam line. The surface structure of the samples and its evolution, whilst under simulated conservation treatment in sodium sesquicarbonate, were examined using X-ray diffraction. The fluid chemistry over the sample was monitored during identical experiments using X-ray absorption. All measurements were carried out with the sample immersed (i.e. without the need to expose the sample to air). Processes were followed from initial wetting of the surfaces through to the cessation of measurable change. A webcam was used to make a simultaneous visual record of the sample and its environment. The experiments aim at contributing to the improvement of conservation methods for cupreous artefacts recovered from marine environments