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Science and Heritage research cluster Understanding Complex Structures: The Conservation, Display and Interpretation of Lace and Natural Objects First Workshop 24th March 2009 at Natural History Museum 'Orientation and Agenda-Setting' This is to alert you the first of three workshops that will look at conserving, displaying and re-interpreting complex textile artefacts and natural objects. They comprise a Research Cluster funded by the EPSRC/ AHRC Science and Heritage programme to encourage the interdisciplinary exploration of the conservation needs, curatorial demands and cultural challenges of complex artefacts. Places are limited, so if you are interested in attending, please contact Sabine Hielscher ([log in to unmask]). The closing date for applications to attend is Monday March 16th. The cluster activities centre on the lace collections at Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham City Museums as well as the collections of botanical, zoological and fossil objects at the Natural History Museum. Despite this focus, the outcomes will be relevant to any setting which houses complex 'difficult' items where the demands of conservation may conflict with those of display and the nature of the objects makes interpretation and display problematic. Participants will include conservators, cultural practitioners, curators, designers, physicists and technologists, drawn from universities, museums, archives and business. The workshop activities will generate research ideas and propose possible solutions to a range of practical issues, through presentations, discussion and 'close encounters' with objects at the Natural History Museum, V&A, Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham City Museums and Galleries. This exchange of skills, experience, resources and scientific knowledge will uncover a range of topical and insightful research questions to generate further funded research work. As well as being fundamental to conservation, science can reveal the structure of complex artefacts, as well as their full significance as part of historic material culture. Techniques ranging from computer animation to non-invasive imaging can reveal structures, and inform interpretation. The workshops may point towards techniques to see below surfaces which can feed into representations and computer models of structures, as well as new manufacturing techniques and processes to radically enhance the display and interpretation of artefacts. Further information can be found at the project website: http://ntu.ac.uk/science_heritage/