Sharing, preserving, displaying and rethinking material culture

From Facsimiles of Juan de Valdes Leal’s ‘Hieroglyphs of our afterlife’ to facsimiles of Tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Factum is using technology to transform how we preserve, share, display and value culture.

Starting with the recent installation at the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland, Adam Lowe will focus on a series of recent projects that reveal how the biographies of objects reveal that originality is a process.

For over 20 years Factum has been developing systems to record the surface of paintings and objects. As both recording and output technologies have developed we are now in a unique position where online access has global reach and offline access can take many forms  that redefine the way we experience and understand art. Through practical examples from different times and diverse locations the practical implications of the impact of digital technology will be considered and its implications analysed.

Following Adam’s talk, he will be joined by Susie Clark, YCCC Committee member and photographic conservator and consultant, for a Q&A session. Participants will be able to raise questions for discussion, and are encouraged to submit questions ahead of time, by emailing info@conservationyork.org.uk.

About the Speaker

Adam Lowe

Adam’s portraits by Oak, requested by Il Giornale dell’Arte for the Summer 2020 issue cover. Image © Oak Taylor Smith for Factum Arte

Adam Lowe is the director of Factum Arte and founder of Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation. He was trained in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford and the RCA London. In the mid 1990’s Lowe established a print workshop in London dedicated to the production of pigment transfer prints that blurred the boundry between image and form. In 2001, Lowe moved to Madrid and created Factum Arte, a multidisciplinary workshop dedicated to digital mediation for the production of works for contemporary artists. Lowe founded Factum Foundation in 2009 with the aim of using Factum Arte´s innovative processes and technologies for preservation, high-resolution recording, education, and the development of thought-provoking exhibitions. He has been an adjunct professor at the MS Historic Preservation at Columbia University, New York since 2016.

In 2019, Lowe became a British Designer Industry, awarded by the British Royal Society of Arts. His innovations in the field of preservation and technology include the facsimile of Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, the reconstruction of the vandalised sacred cave of Kamukuwaká (Brasil), and the creation of the 3D Scanning, Training and Archiving Centre in Egypt, to record the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and carry out training activities to local communities. He has completed recording and preservation projects in Egypt, Nigeria, Somaliland, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil, Chad, Iraq, Italy, UK, USA, among other countries, and his work has been exhibited at institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, the Royal Academy, The Prado Museum, Waddesdon Manor and Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Lowe has written extensively on the subject of originality, authenticity and preservation.

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