A research poster from the School of Underlying Conditions reads the paint layers on a cabinet of plaster surface models and finds the collection was twice repainted to agree with how it appeared in print.
Paint cross-sections from one mathematics department's teaching cabinet show two repaintings, each following a printed image of the collection
The plaster surface models in one mathematics department’s teaching cabinet have been repainted twice in their working lives, and on each occasion to look more like the printed pictures of them. That is the central finding of Painted to Match the Plate, a new research poster led by Associate Professor Ragnhild Uzoma, Lead of the Basement Relations Group in the School of Underlying Conditions, with Dr Marek Solheim, Lecturer and Deputy Convenor of the Horizon Register, and Ms Sunniva Balogun, Doctoral Candidate.
In the core store we are used to the idea that the top of a sequence is the least of it. It was a quiet pleasure to find a cupboard of plaster that agreed.
— Associate Professor Ragnhild Uzoma, Lead of the Basement Relations Group
Bringing the conservator’s cross-section into conversation with the department’s own printed record, the team aligned layer sequences from 34 sampled models with the lecture notes and model catalogue that pictured them, surfacing four distinct campaigns of care and a clear relationship between how the collection was shown and how it was kept. The poster closes with practical guidance for those now responsible for the cabinet’s future.
The work sits comfortably within the University’s habit of letting a question travel between schools until it finds the instruments it needs, and it is a habit the University intends to keep.
“We hope the poster reaches anyone who has looked after a cabinet like this and wondered what colour it used to be,” said Ms Balogun.
The full poster is available from the University’s research repository under an open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.8y0okd.