Abstract

Conservation is a dynamic discipline that contributes to studies of material culture, history, heritage and science. This research aims to establish the value of data generated by conservation-based research to demonstrate its contribution to the broader investigation of heritage places and objects. The research achieves this by exploring the theoretical and intellectual roots of APR as a conservation discipline and uses APR as a case study to explore the research questions using three examples of built heritage. Architectural paint research is an analytical technique that has emerged from art-historical practice and found a niche in the conservation of built heritage. The results and recommendations of architectural paint research can determine the decorative schemes used in the conservation and re-presentation of built heritage contributing to, and arguably altering, their cultural significance. This thesis argues that architectural paint research has been validated through its use in the heritage and conservation industries; however, the theoretical basis of the practice has not been explored or enunciated in any detail.

The research proposes that architectural paint research is a methodological process, which acts as an interpretive bridge, linking the science and agency of decorative schemes with their social and historical context. Object-centred paint research and analysis generates scientific and practice-informed information, which can be contextualised in relation to archival evidence and interpreted to generate new explicit knowledge. The new knowledge can be expressed as narrative describing the relationship and connection between the world of the artefact and those who act in it.