LightCheck®, new disposable indicators for monitoring lighting conditions in museums
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Book Chapter |
| Language: | English Slovak |
| Online Access: | http://www.viks.sk/chk/14tmh_16.doc |
| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. Extensive exposure to light may cause irreversible damage to valuable heritage objects, such as fading or brittleness. It is known that the damage increases with the length of exposure and the irradiance. Rather than limiting the time of exposure for each object, it is advisable to monitor the lighting conditions on site. A continuous monitoring program for various objects with data loggers would be rather expensive and applicable only for selected examples. As an alternative for extensive measurements, new lighting indicators have been developed and are proposed as an early warning system for light damage. CONCLUSIONS. LightCheck® systems were developed as an early warning system, providing an assessment of the risk factor related to light in museums. Within its determined application limits, light is the factor that overrides all other climatic effects. However, it was shown that other parameters such as temperature, humidity and spectral distribution of the light source may have an influence on colour change. Therefore, LightCheck® systems should be considered as ‘integrating’ environmental indicators. The exhaustive work for the elaboration and characterization of LightCheck® indicators led to the definition of their respective field of application, and showed their usefulness to the targeted purpose of preventive conservation in the cultural heritage sector. LCU and LCS can be used in a complementary manner. Although LightCheck® was not designed to tackle this specific problem, an important issue deriving from this work is the light sensitivity of an object and how to estimate this sensitivity. If broad categories can be proposed (Tétreault 2003), there are always exceptions due to the specificity of cultural heritage objects and their history. LightCheck® Ultra is especially suitable for monitoring of very light sensitive and fugitive objects, usually exhibited under low levels of light (ISO categories 1–3; for example, colour and early photographs, watercolours, textiles, natural history specimens), or for short exposure periods, whereas LightCheck® Sensitive is better suited for controlling the lighting of more durable objects (ISO categories 3–6; for example, oil paintings, tempera, polychrome sculptures, bone, ivory) and/or longer exposure time. |
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| ISBN: | ISBN 1-84407-253-3 |
