Integrated Approaches to Characterization and Conservation: Tracing Histories, Understanding Change, and Shaping Preservation

The forthcoming GRC will provide an exciting platform to explore how cross-disciplinary, methodologically integrated strategies drive meaningful progress in cultural heritage research. The conference will emphasize the synergy of complementary scientific techniques and interpretive frameworks, and how integration across scales, analytical modalities and historical, textual, and anthropological research enables a holistic understanding of heritage objects. The sessions will delve into how these approaches can trace the layered histories of practice and use embedded in materials, reveal patterns of transformation and degradation over time, and ultimately shape forward-looking strategies for sustainable preservation. From high-resolution imaging and chemical analysis to data-driven modelling and historical, cultural, and artistic contextual interpretation, the program will span innovations that enhance our ability to tackle complexity, trace genesis and use, understand change, and support the long-term conservation of diverse cultural artifacts and built heritage.