Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-218) and index.
Contents:
Postpreservation : looking past loss -- Memory's ecologies : curating mutability in Montana -- When story meets the storm : unsafe harbor -- Orderly decay : philosophies of non-intervention -- A positive passivity : plants as entropic agents -- Boundary work : nature-culture in practice -- Palliative curation : the death of a lighthouse -- Beyond saving : care without conservation.
Summary:
"Transporting readers from derelict homesteads to imperiled harbors, postindustrial ruins to Cold War test sites, Curated Decay provokes an unparalleled provocation to conventional thinking on the conservation of cultural heritage. Caitlin DeSilvey reconsiders the care of certain vulnerable sites in terms of ecology and entropy and explains how we must adopt an ethical stance that allows us to collaborate with--rather than defend against--natural processes. An interdisciplinary reframing of the concept of the ruin that combines historical and philosophical depth with attentive storytelling, Curated Decay represents the first attempt to apply new theories of materiality and ecology to the concerns of critical heritage studies." --cover page [4].
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.