By: Steve Bottoms

Steve Bottoms — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 22:48:51 +0000

Of course I’m now rather regretting my not particularly well-thought-through “Shrink wrapped” posting. But insofar that it has prompted some intriguing responses – especially this one from Baz – maybe initial fuzziness is not such a bad thing… (That’s the spirit of network discussion!) I’m particularly struck here in Baz’s post by the emphasis on the inherent theatricality of our chosen sites — very apparent at the Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal estate especially, which is essentially a giant, eighteenth-century stage set, built with living materials. And just like a very old stage set, it’s also very fragile, and so has to be preserved very carefully in the face of constant environmental pressures. More on that soon. But here’s a thought: on holiday in Italy recently (yes, I flew there), I saw Giotto’s extraordinary Chapel Scrovegni in Padua – gorgeous, 700 year old paintings from floor to ceiling on every wall, and across the vault. (A theatrical space if ever there was one.) Visitors are now admitted at 20 minute intervals having sat for the same period in a sort of air-lock space, watching a video, to filter the air they’ve brought in with them and thus protect what they call the “micro-climate” of the chapel itself. And thus preserve the pigments in the paint, etc, from external pollutants. An attempt precisely to *arrest* environmental change in a controlled, enclosed space. Of course, the same cannot be done for the similarly aged Fountains Abbey (bits have been falling off it as the medieval mortar expands and contracts with the rapid temperature changes this year), or indeed for the biosphere in general.

Comments on: Local~Global integrated?

By: Steve Bottoms