[PDF](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kWMjDnc818ucR-wc2BSE2g17Ojo0qJ9B/view?usp=drive_link) ![[TAP-crop.jpg]] Detail of *Museum Thinking: Version 3.0.* © Simon Fleury # Closing the museum//camera Two pivotal encounters shaped **relational conservation**. I don’t remember the exact chronology—whether the conservators' [[Opening museumcamera#A Question Stirring|encounter]] with Redgrave's report or this latest feral iteration of the condition report came first. As I begin to fold the museum//camera with care, my attention now shifts to the second encounter that was mentioned earlier, which is a clear indication of the unique "photospherics" of the museum//camera. ## Condition Report 3.0: a new lease of life ^64d65c >But can we say that the spider’s project is to weave its web? I don’t think so.^[Deligny, Fernand, Drew Burk, and Catherine Porter. 2015. _The Arachnean and Other Texts._ First edition. Minneapolis, MN: Univocal Publishing.] "We might as well say the web’s project is to be woven," writes Deligny, challenging traditional narratives of agency. Echoing this, my thesis pivots on a hypothesis: time and things are fugitive here in the museum. Dominant narratives like cause and effect lose their grip in the museum//camera. My institutional home, the Museum’s paper conservation studio, contains several large archival boxes, dedicated to the conservation documentation of the Raphael Tapestry Cartoons. Within these boxes are uncatalogued treasures of analogue photography—negatives, prints, x-rays, reports, and transparencies. This archive of residual material, resonates with Andrew Dewdney's reflections on the "afterlife" of the medium. Notably, these boxes included condition reports from a significant scholarly initiative in the 1990s. Given unrestricted access, I spent hours, somewhat purposelessly, fascinated with the conditions under which they produced these technical images. The first time I looked through the reports, a minute loss of registration between acetate annotations and underlying photographs caught my attention. This seemingly insignificant discrepancy disrupted the report's conceived "objectivity" and compelled a reevaluation of the intimate nexus between a museum-object and its documentation. A response that resonated with my opening [[Opening museumcamera|encounter]] with Redgrave's report. It drew me to an interstitial space, somewhere between the annotated acetate sheets and underlying photographic images of the cartoons. My hunch, following Donna Haraway, was to stay with, and pay attention to, what was going on.^[Haraway, Donna Jeanne. _Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene._ Experimental Futures: Technological Lives, Scientific Arts, Anthropological Voices. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016, 150.] Attuning to these interstitial affective and experiential dimensions, as they manifest themselves in the encounter. Gently teasing apart the tension between text and image, somewhat against the grain of conservations disciplinary constraints, I set about [[Encounters#^7cab7f|re-mixing]] the archival material through digital means. This **research-as-practice** approach breathed new life into these cultural artefacts. The process of transformation felt almost effortless. The tension was generative and responsive. Once freed, lines and text took on a life of their own, running feral. As if, waiting for over 160 years, they ran feral. These over-writings mapped a constituent liveliness in the most (un)likely of everyday situations. This process was seemingly in keeping with the cut and paste of the Cartoons, albeit made possible by a digital workflow. To reiterate, these Renaissance masterpieces were initially designs; cut, folded, and transported, to make tapestries, and later pasted and cut back together, and later, to make the artworks we see today. Unforeseen, but no less welcome: What emerged was a new lease of life for the condition report. It stands as a singular account of the museum//camera's unique "photospherics" thinking itself—self-reporting—responding otherwise. This encounter with the condition report, I affectionately call *Museum Thinking*, encapsulates the enigmatic and entangled relations between the museum and photograph, characterised by the "deeply felt everyday." A material/social togetherness that we will return to as I [[Closing museumcamera#Version 3.0. Closing the museumcamera|close this study]]. --- ![[Vortex - Time re-Mapping]] ### museum//camera Drawing upon my experience in museum-based conservation and art practice, **relational conservation** sets out to explore the intimate and entangled dynamics between the museum and the photography. Situated in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, it engaged an elusive, fugitive temporal anomaly manifest in the relation between a museum-object and its conservation-based documentation. Two pivotal encounters shaped the museum//camera, encapsulated by the ‘//’, a symbol that holds significant meaning as it expresses the entangled, reciprocal relations between the museum and photograph. This generative tension, denoted by the '//', creates the conditions for a unique atmospheric quality, what I term its unique "photospherics." This term characterises the complex relations of co-presence and co-dependence, especially in the context of the material saturation of the museum in images/photography, imagination and memory. Emerging from a series of related encounters and historical analysis, this version of **research-as-practice** deployed a relational and material-based model. The aim was to counter the dualistic and utilitarian conditions—what I term "default-modern"—that have dominated the institutional lives of these museum-based practices for over 160 years. By employing an encounter-based approach informed by both practical and theoretical dialogues spanning various fields, the study crafted a nuanced response to this problem, a vibrant material/social togetherness that resists easy categorisation and capture, what I term the "deeply felt everyday." ![[photospherics and the deeply felt everyday]] In reimagining these relations between the museum and photograph, this **research-as-practice** sought to not only challenge the master narratives but, ultimately, to shed new light on the conservation encounter with the museum-object. This study is not just an academic exercise; it is a lived experience, deeply influenced by my dual role as artist/researcher and conservator. It stands as a transformative exploration of the possibilities and complexities of the museum//camera, within the evolving landscape of conservation, art practice, and museum studies. Following this introduction, this closing of the museum//camera will unfold through several key thematic areas. We will revisit key encounters that shaped the study, deepen our understanding of the complex dynamics at play in "photospherics", explore the material and social dimensions of the "deeply felt everyday"' and reflect on how this research challenged entrenched assumptions in museum and photographic practices. Finally, we will round off with a reflection on the broader implications and future directions of the study, specifically noting the importance of a 'practice of attunement'—its implications for an expanded environmental sensibility in conservation-based encounters—and, the significance of cross-pollinating conservation and art practice in the museum. ### Call and Response Two pivotal encounters—Redgrave’s report on a Raphael Cartoon and the "Condition Report 3.0—served as the anchoring points. These encounters not only framed the study but also seeded its generative tensions that brought its unique "photospherics" to life. I don’t remember the exact chronology, I have already introduced version 3.0, let's revisit Redgrave's report. #### Question Stirring: The Enigma of Redgrave's Report Redgrave's condition report was a momentous invention, revealing intimate secrets and interpreting them through a utilitarian lens. However, my experience suggests something else: time and things are running away, elusive and "unruly." This study tests a hypothesis, inspired by Ariella Azoulay, of a fugitive temporality due to the intimate relations between the museum and the photograph. A question stirring—something untoward happening. What's [[Opening museumcamera#A Question Stirring|going on here?]] The object in question—an early condition report of one of the Raphael Cartoons—had not come through traditional curatorial pathways. This shift from an informational object to a museum object suggests not just materials but also value boundaries are in a state of flux. Was Redgrave loosening the categorial divisions between an artwork and its documentation? There was something more complex and dynamic at play in these encounters—something out of the ordinary. It felt as if the Museum's utilitarian approach was creating a temporal short-circuit, destabilising the "conventional" order of things.^[Haraway, _Staying with the Trouble,_ 2.] Could this suggest that something transformative is at play within the "deeply felt everyday"? Might this stirring of a question suggest that there was more to these conservation-based encounters than meets the eye? This study followed this stirring of a question with a hypothesis that there is a unique "photospherics" at play in these conservation-based encounters — that hints tantalisingly at the dynamic and transformative relations between the museum and the photograph. Having explored time, objects, and museum through these encounters, I now turn to my central aim: challenging the entrenched norms—what I identify as "default-modern" settings—that have governed museum-based conservation practices for over 160 years. I focused on the transformative potential embedded in documentation and material analysis practices — facets of the "deeply felt everyday." To do so, I employed a **relational encounter-based model**, influenced by both both practical and theoretical investigations. Coupled with a **historical analysis** of the conservation-based documentation, notably the condition report, I was able to reinterpret the boundaries and possibilities of conservation documentation. This transdisciplinary approach allowed me to respond to the interplay of image saturation and materials within the web-based museum//camera setting. The museum//camera actively probes the relational dynamics between museums and photographs, particularly from a conservation perspective, by using a series of encounters. Each Encounter explored the museum's unique "photospherics," enriching our understanding of its complex, entangled relations. Overall, this research arose from the generative tension instigated by these initial encounters. It subsequently aimed to counter the perceived neutrality of these practices, introducing alternative narratives that resonate with the "deeply felt everyday" experiences of life in a museum. ### Default-Modern (Problem) As this study comes to its close, I return to its foundational framework—Henry Cole’s 1867 Convention and its modern incarnation, the ReACH 2017 Declaration. Over this research, it has become increasingly clear how little has transformed in the 160-year span between these two points. Reflecting on my own encounters and experiences as both conservator and artist, the persistent dichotomy—classifying objects as either ‘Works’ or ‘Records’—underscores a [[Opening museumcamera#Problem Statement|mindset]] that still dominates the museum's operations, practices, and the lives of its objects. Despite the ReACH manifesto's audacious claims of revolutionising the cultural landscape in light of digital reproduction, I argued it fails to acknowledge the 'relational' transformative possibilities of image-based modes of knowledge production. Even as museums grapple with existential crises—late capitalism, colonial legacies, and climate emergencies—the "default-modern" mindset endures. At a time alive with the possibilities for transformation — my creative interventions set out to challenge this entrenched mindset, while opening the door for alternative, encounter-based interactions within museums, contributing to both conservation, and art practice within the museum context. It is precisely this endurance of the "default-modern" that I turned towards an encounter-based framework. Far from accepting this stagnation, this study served as an intervention, a rupture in the 160-year-old narrative. Pivoting away from these universal narratives this research enters a realm where the textures of everyday life are palpable, acknowledged and cultivated. ### Encounter (a relational model) In this PhD, the generative tension at the heart of the museum//camera unfolds as a crucial site for reimagining conservation practices. The study aimed to "over-write" 160 years of what I term the [[Opening museumcamera#^19c12f|default-modern]] settings, urging us to go beyond utilitarian and instrumental perspectives on these modes of documentation and material analysis. Beginning with the complexities outlined in ***Digital Photospherics***, the [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)|relational model]] navigated the ambivalence of digital artifacts that are both static and fluid. It invites us to consider how digital transformations in museum practices introduce both challenges and narrative possibilities. Affect and experience intersect in ***Digital Environments: Attunement, Experience, Affect***, where the study reveals the digital as an "active participant," redefining conservation as an "affectively charged and relationally constituted" interaction. The focus of ***Conservation, a material creative concern***, is on how conservation converges with ethics, aesthetics, and material history. It argues that object-based conservation is far from a neutral act; it calls for a slowing down, to truly 'breathe,' capturing Duchamp's notion. This dovetails into ***Duchamp, Photography, and the Infra-Photospherics***, where the ineffable 'infrathin' connects with the "photospherics," lending depth to the concept. In ***Plural Empiricisms***, I introduce a new version of the Condition Report. It urges for a novel **research-as-practice** approach that captures not just the physical conditions but the "deeply felt everyday." This new mode of documentation employs 'over-writing' and 'attunement' — a multi-modal, ad hoc method that captures the intricacies of "what's going on" in museums. In revisiting the aim of this transdisciplinary model, the crossing of conservation with art practice and theory challenges the "default-modern model that dominated museum-based practices for over a 160 years. A 'relational' ***encounter-based framework*** allowed the research to transition from a focus on fixed objects and linear time to immediate, dynamic engagements within unfolding relations. The resulting [[Closing museumcamera|Closing of the museum//camera]] serves as a tangible outcome of this shift, offering a renewed practice attentive to the social and material life often glossed over. By employing this framework the study contributes to a developing dialogue between conservation, photography, media theory/practice, and museum studies. ### Condition Report (a history) Since its inception in the 1860s by Richard Redgrave, the [[Condition Report (a history)|condition report]] evolved into an integral part of both museum conservation and institutional commerce. However, this PhD suggests that this practice is far from a mere functional utility. Rather, it performs dualistic operations, separating art/cultural objects from technical informational objects, while simultaneously embodying a material/social agency that transcends its traditional institutional roles. By tracing this evolution, this historical inquiry ventured to achieve two key objectives. First, I aimed to examine the dualistic function of the report as it exists in a historical modern context. Second, to counter the "default-modern" conditions by foregrounding the material/social agency that emerges from these reports. I set out to move them towards a new, encounter-based perspective, one that falls within the wider concerns of this study: making explicit the museum's "photospherics" and the associated "deeply felt everyday." This account is composed of four thematic sections. It initiates with the condition report's historical backdrop ('**1.0 Up close to an object and in doubt**'), as it laid the groundwork for all that followed. The second section ('**2.0: A luxury of time**') highlights not only the conservator's "expert eye" but also the notion of "deep hanging out," a long-form engagement that allows for a more intimate relationship with objects. The third section ('**2.1: Life support system**') focuses on challenges of the digital age, particularly the "breakdown" that disrupts these reports' traditional function. However, in the context of this study, this breakdown isn't a hindrance; it functions as a catalyst for re-envisioning these reports within the museum's unique saturation in images—a condition I described as "photospherics." Finally, the concluding section ('**3.0: A new lease of life**') aimed to foster new relations with these technical image-based reports, anchoring them firmly in the "deeply felt everyday," a space that is saturated with the affective and sensory experiences of caring for objects. As we come to the end of this PhD journey, what emerges is a multi-valent understanding of the condition report as more than a utilitarian tool. The condition report is no longer seen as just a utilitarian tool, but as a [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#Condition Report 3.0 a new lease of life (Attunement (not a method))|creative]] modality that attunes to the complex relations at play in the conservation-based encounter with objects, giving it a new lease of life. In a museum’s world that is increasingly governed by digitisation, reproducibility, and accelerated tempos [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#Attunement (relations not method)|attunement]] encourages us to slow down and hang out deeply. It compels us to become aware of the museum’s precarious saturation conditions, and move beyond the "heavy weight of instrumentality," that often shrouds these practices.^[Latour and Porter, *An Inquiry into Modes of Existence,* 231.] It asks us to attend to our common lived experience, not just human but also the more-than-human material/social realms that we encounter. Within this study, the encounter with the museum-object becomes a nexus where the entanglements between the museum and the photography are not just theorised but deeply felt. Let's now explore the encounter with the museum-object, and the deeply felt moments that constitute the act of conservation. ### Encountering Photospherics and the Deeply Felt Everyday The Encounters section of the museum//camera contains a variety of practices that are interwoven, including essays and audiovisual work. Charged with material histories, multiple forms of knowing, and possibilities, each encounter acted as a more-than-neutral point of contact within the museum environment. For example, the essay "Efflorescence and Unruly Degradation" wrestles with material uncertainties, while the audiovisual work "Vortex - Time re-Mapping" explores a curious looping time at play in the conservation lab, the everyday work of caring for museum objects. You can follow the link to the [[Encounters]] and/or see below for a brief recap. ### Essays [[Assembling the museum-camera]] follows an encounter with the _m-p_ and the camera assemblage in the museum context. The _m-p_ settles into a moment of stillness during exposure, a space for reflection where theory, practice, and lived experience interweave. Through these practice-based processes, the museum//camera grew into a lived experience, blurring museum, image, and imagination. [[Efflorescence and Unruly Degradation|Efflorescence and Unruly Degradation]]. This essay draws from an encounter with efflorescence and degrading photographic film, navigating complexities within the museum. Faced with crystalline blooms on Burne-Jones's over-painted photographs, it delves into conservation challenges and uncertainties. Serving as a perspective on tensions between preservation and material flux, the essay underscored the intimate relations between artefact and environment, articulating "photospherics" that embrace material unruliness as integral to the museum's living history. [[Crystal Thinking Making]]. Inspired by Simondon's crystallisation theory, this text delved into a museum's material and informational atmosphere. It suggested that like a metastable solution, the museum//camera is in flux, driven by "photospherics.' A hands-on section on crystal-making elucidated these dynamics. This added depth to the concept of the "deeply felt everyday," highlighting the transformative and collective potential in everyday museum conservation. [[rhEvents snap hiss crackle pop]] delved into the infra-relations between museum objects and their environments, framed through acoustic data on 18th-century French furniture. Highlighting the role of listening as a political act, the essay urged for a reorientation — attuned to the micro-temporal and material intricacies of these conservation-based encounters. [[Surfacing Artefacts 1 to 1]]. This essay accompanies the to welcome unclassified digital artefacts surfaced in the Museum's vast digital database. These curious image-objects invited deeper engagement. The essay explored the unique audiovisual atmospherics of the Henry Cole Wing, and the reimagining of these indeterminate digital inhabitants. Amidst a 'pause' induced by Covid-19, the museum//camera operated beyond its prescribed role, creating the conditions for imagination and memory, that captured the living experience of a conservation-based encounter. This essay was based on the video [[In Concert 1 to 1]]. [[Activity Log 15 OC 33% RH]]. In the museum's climate-controlled storeroom, a team gathered around 1858 wet-collodion-on-glass negatives of the Raphael Cartoons. The room's cold and intense light drive the group to corridor breaks for improvised dialogues, balancing work pragmatics and speculation. Intrigued by the artist-in-residence, renewed sociality emerges. While interacting with the glass negatives, everyone discovered their material complexities, which compelled them to explore beyond the image and delve into the "photospherics" of the museum/camera. [[In Concert 1 to 1]] This video is composed of 6 choreographed audiovisual elements and ‘over-w’ inter-titles.This work is accompanied by the essay [[Surfacing Artefacts 1 to 1]]. Each projection is 1: 1, corresponding to the dimensions of the scanning camera’s bed (2.2m x 1.85m). The intense sound of the scanner is delivered into the space via 3 separate speakers positioned by each of the projections. [[Missshapen museumcamera]] This audio-visual work is a re-mix the condition report of the [museum//camera](app://obsidian.md/Condition%20Report%20(a%20history)#Condition%20checking%20the%20museum//camera). This work is integral to the [[Condition Report (a history)|historical analysis]] of the conservation-based condition report. You can find the full report [HERE:](obsidian://open?vault=MUSEUMCAMERA_TEST&file=01%20THESIS%2FSupporting%20Documentation%2FAppendixes%2Fmuseumcamera_report.pdf) Many thanks to the V&A's condition reporting officer Louise Egan. [[Vortex - Time re-Mapping]] In this video we encounter the museum//camera's unique photospherics at play in the conservation lab. After-work time, where things are in flux. As an artist and conservator I’ve experienced this. A looping and unruly sense of time replete with a lively material/social togetherness. This encounter inspired the research process and historical analysis. [[Encapsulator]] In this video encounter with the museum//camera we move through the conservation lab, back and front of house. Charged — this encounter serves as a multi-modal point of access — allowing us to attune to the museum//camera's unique saturated atmospherics and the material/social togetherness that emerge from the everyday work of caring for museum objects. [[Museum Thinking]] I presented/exhibited this version of the Condition Report 3.0 at the New Alphabet School's [Commonings](https://newalphabetschool.hkw.de/category/commonings/index.html) gathering. Part inspired by school's collective process of (un)learning, I shared this new lease of life for the condition reporting process, "over-writing" a lineage of practice to explore a common world—where the possibilities of (un)tethering these disobedient and fugitive social analytics, from the burnt/burning out modern museum project—manifest as a renewed mode of material/social togetherness. [[Wandering (sounding the museum)]]. Leisurely strolls through the museum have significantly influenced my practice, informing video works and writings. These experiences deepened my engagement with the museum, disrupting the utility of work-life. The audio recordings stand as intimate encounters, each one highlighting the potential of this **research-as-practice** to deepen our connection to the liveliness of everyday life. While each individual essay and audiovisual work contributes a unique encounter-based perspective, they cumulatively enliven the museum//camera's fugitive nature, a resistance to fixed definition that is deeply rooted in daily practices. My research questions find their most tangible answers within these lived experiences: the "deeply felt everyday" conditions are indeed crafted by the "photospherics" saturating the conservation lab and shaping the museum//camera beyond its physical confines. ### Limitations The primary limitation of this study centred on the challenges of encapsulating the ambitious transdisciplinary scope within the confines of a practice-based PhD. Although my research brought conservation into dialogue with art practice and unfolded within an encounter-based framework, it contended with the limitations of a fixed word count. It was difficult to not gloss over the nuanced intersections of relational thought, conservation, photography, media/theory/practice, and museum studies. The complex notions such as "photospherics" may not have been fully rendered for the visitor to the museum//camera. This raised important questions and challenges about how to engage with so many disciplines in a single format. However, such challenges also pointed to the possibilities of an ongoing **research-as-practice** to further enrich my engagement with [[photospherics and the deeply felt everyday]]. ### Future Research Recommendations **Relational conservation** builds on the established success of the [Material Photographies Research Group](https://materialphotographies.notion.site/Material-Photographies-Research-Group-cd5440c26021451c957a78ac8f839da7), which explores the complex photosphere through creative pairings of theory and practice, one of my **future research recommendations** is to extend the dialogue into wider conversations concerning the image, photography, and media. The group already brings into conversation critical thinking/making around the **photograph/image**, connecting it to the multiple forms and dynamic manifestations it inhabits. By grounding this future research in a relational and material model, similar to the one deployed in this study, we seek to establish a fertile dialogue that synthesises process-relational philosophy, conservation, photography, media theory/practice, and museum studies — to welcome new ways of thinking and celebrating the increasingly complex photosphere we inhabit. To amplify the reach and impact of this platform, avenues for sharing could include hybrid publications with practice-based interventions, as well as collaborations with like-minded forums and collectives. Marrying principles of object-based conservation with a process-relational theoretical framework, this research challenged the supposed 'neutrality' of [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#Conservation, a material creative concern|conservation]], exploring its creative, and critical possibilities. Through this process **conservation** emerged as a rich confluence of materials, history, ethics, and aesthetics—a dialogic encounter with both the tangible and intangible realms. This intricate interplay adds further depth and texture to the broader concern of this study: making explicit a sense of a "deeply felt everyday." In this developing dialogue, the [Conservation Lab](https://museum.care/room/conservation-lab-2/ ) at the Museum of Care served as a fertile platform for reimagining our conservation beyond the object. As the field matures, a consensus is forming: conservation is not merely a neutral or utilitarian activity. It intervenes, weaves narratives, and makes a difference. **Future research**, therefore, could delve deeper into the concept of "attunement," exploring how this heuristic might further inform the ethics and aesthetics of conservation practices, while enriching our understanding of objects and their environments. [**reVessel**](https://revessel.cargo.site/) is another of my **future research recommendations**. This research vessel focuses on the often-unseen processes that ensure the circulation of [[Condition Report (a history)#2.1 Life support system|museum-objects]]. These objects and the practices sustaining them—documentation and care—remain tethered to the functioning of contemporary museums yet largely escape wider attention. This itinerant research vessel makes them fertile ground for further inquiry into the social, historical, ecological, and cultural *logistics* that they embody. Drawing upon the museum//camera's encounter-based framework, there are possibilities for collective intervention and transformation. My experiences at the [New Alphabet School](https://archiv.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2019/new_alphabet_school/new_alphabet_school_start.php) and research collective [practices of attunement]([https://attunement.study/) suggest an imperative to extend this dialogue into non-Western and (post)colonial contexts. This is especially urgent as museums grapple with existential threats like the climate crisis and the complexities of an increasingly saturated and unstable photosphere. Linking back to the core concepts of "photospherics" and the "deeply felt everyday," this collaborative project emphasises the study's foundational ideas and encapsulates the potential range and reach of future explorations. In contemplating the trajectory of my **research**, which already includes a dedicated study on [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#Duchamp, Photography, and the Infra-Photospherics|Duchamp, Photography, and the Infra-Thin]], I find Duchamp's use of photography in 'Étant donnés' and the accompanying 'Manual of Instructions' to be of particular relevance.^[Filipovic, _The Apparently Marginal Activities of Marcel Duchamp,_ 216-241.] My speculation is that Duchamp was not just documenting a process but attempting to smuggle into the museum something far less tangible—the elusive concept he termed the 'infra-thin.' This resonates deeply with my own exploration into "photospherics," which looks at the unique saturation of the museum in images, and its contribution to the 'deeply felt everyday' experiences within these spaces. It raises the question: Could 'Étant donnés' be a MacGuffin, a surface distraction from Duchamp's real enterprise of introducing a destabilising element into the museum's ecology? I'm inclined to believe that this subtle yet profound disruption—akin to Duchamp’s 'infra-thin'—is already at work in the museum. By examining these threads, it might be possible to find a dialogue between Duchamp's disruptive strategies and the current theoretical and empirical issues surrounding the institutional life of objects and their caretakers. A future research agenda could function as an intersection between theory, lived experience, and the practical concerns of art practice and conservation-based documentation. This would add nuance to our understanding of both Duchamp's work and the everyday life of the museum. The question it finally begs is tantalising: who put who to work? Might it be that the photograph and its networked doppelgänger is waiting patiently for us to catch up? ## Version 3.0. Closing the museumcamera ![[Museum Thinking]] ### Conservation Lab Echoing the initial encounter with Redgrave's report, this study culminates in a Conservation Lab, where the evolving concept of the museum//camera comes to the fore in the latest iteration of the condition report. This moment encapsulates the dynamic interplay between text and image, offering a renewed relational perspective on conservation documentation and material analysis. Here, we navigate the "//," a dynamic and transformative state where the museum oscillates between documentation and lived experience, blending formal histories with intuition and memory. Condition Report 3.0 marks a pivotal transition, embodying the essence of **relational conservation**. It shifts the report's traditional role to one imbued with expressive aesthetic qualities, challenging the museum's drive for "efficiency" and "objectivity" and steering attention toward the aesthetic and pragmatic interplay in conservation practices. This shift heralds a new era where conservation is recognised not just as preservation but as a generative force, creating new cultural artifacts and narratives. At the heart of this transformation is the principle of attunement, which has guided this research from its inception. **Relational conservation** emphasises a deep, responsive engagement with the interrelations between conservators, museum objects, and their environments, fostering a practice that is as much about listening and responding as it is about acting. [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#Summary|Relational conservation]] represents a nuanced approach that transcends traditional methodologies, integrating experimental strategies to explore new dialogues and understandings within the setting of a Conservation Lab. Informed by the insights of William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Donna Haraway, and Fred Moten, this research weaves together theory and practice from photography, media, philosophy, and conservation. It deepens our understanding of "photospherics," inspired by Haraway's notion of "staying with the trouble," and embracing the generative potential within conservation encounters.^[Haraway, _Staying with the Trouble_, 2016.] This research acts as a catalyst, suggesting that amidst breakdowns and challenges, Condition Report 3.0 invites a reevaluation of museum practices. It proposes a mode of **research-as-practice** that extends into new transdisciplinary domains, where the interplay between [[photospherics and the deeply felt everyday]] is vividly experienced, renewing our understanding of the intimate connections between the museum and photography. The museum//camera not only challenges conventional conservation practices but also disrupts linear narratives, fostering a novel mode of engagement within a museum. It calls into question the entrenched [[Opening museumcamera#Problem Statement|default-modern]] paradigms, advocating for a future where conservation is intertwined with creativity, critical inquiry, and a profound interconnection to our shared material and social worlds, truly embodying the ethos of a **relational conservation** and ‘attunement.’ <iframe width="650" height="450" src="https://museumcamera.net/"></iframe> [Closing museum//camera](https://museumcamera.net/)