April Newsletter: Data Loggers (T/RH) Remote Monitoring
Artist Spotlight: Justin Penov
Remote Monitoring of Storage Environment…
Climate Control!
If your gallery is in Chelsea, but your warehouse is in Astoria…
If your showroom is in St. Moritz, but your storage is in Zürich…
If your collection’s office is located on the Upper East Side, but the custom-designed storage space is in New Jersey…
If you are a small privately owned organization responsible for the stewardship of a collection on par with internationally recognized institutions…
…Remote access to your storage (and exhibition) space’s T/RH (Temperature & Relative Humidity) sensors and data log is essential!
T/RH
Temperature & Relative Humidity:
Jody Egolf Fine Art Logistics & Collections Management’s approach to Collections Care considers the artwork’s life as an object, its narrative, and resulting physical needs. One of the most vital elements in fine art preservation, and risk prevention, is ensuring the work is stored, transported, and exhibited within a controlled climate, with minor and slow fluctuations in T/RH.
The JE April Newsletter will discuss climate control in fine art storage and how smaller galleries or private collections can install their own T/RH sensors and data log.
If your organization seeks to take on exhibition loans of high value or sensitive artwork, lenders will often require the T/RH readings of your space over a period of six months to one year. Access to this data log, demonstrating the space’s stable climate will help guarantee those important exhibition loans.
Onset HOBO sensors record T/RH while the HOBOlink dashboard provides real-time remote access and recorded readings!
RX3000 Indoor Remote Monitoring Station
HOBOnet Wireless Temp/RH Sensor
HOBOlink Dashboard Software
“The RX3000 Indoor Remote Monitoring Station is Onset’s most flexible remote data logging station. It provides instant access to site-specific indoor environmental data anywhere, at any time, via the internet. This configurable station combines the versatility and sensor quality of more expensive systems, an onboard LCD display, and the convenience of plug-and-play operation.
This system requires a HOBOlink data plan, which must be renewed annually. HOBOlink provides a ‘Dashboard’ where you will be able to view the data from your RX3000.”
Features
- Flexible support for a broad range of sensors
- LCD display for easy deployment
- Cloud-based data access through HOBOlink
- Get 24/7 web access to your data via web browser
- Verify RX3000 system status remotely
- Set up and manage alarm notifications over the web
- Schedule automated delivery of data
- Plug-and-play operation
- Alarm notifications via text, email
- Configurable from your mobile device
- Optional analog input, relay, and water level sensor modules
JE’s Favorite Features!
- Emailed weekly report: HOBOlink Data Delivery for “Named Space” delivers in Excel form listing your T/RH readings at the chosen “push” intervals for the week.
- Custom set alerts: If either Temperature or Relative Humidity reaches the threshold you have set, email alerts will notify you of the change.
Suggested T/RH per Media/Material:
Paper/Documents:
T: Below 70 degrees F
RH: Around 35%
RH below 65% greatly reduces the risk of mold growth.
Canvas/Linen:
T: 70 degrees +/- 5 degrees
RH: 50%
RH below 65% greatly reduces the risk of mold growth.
Metal:
T: 70 degrees +/- 5 degrees
RH: 50%
RH levels are 55% or greater corrosion begins.
Keep RH below 55% to prevent corrosion.
Film stock:
Cold Storage
(To be discussed in a forthcoming newsletter!)
Source: Peter Z. Adelstein, “IPI Media Storage Quick Reference, 2nd Edition,” (Image Permanence Institute Rochester Institute of Technology: Rochester, NY, 2009).
Forthcoming Newsletters:
👩💻Types of HVAC systems: All-In-One Unit: More expensive, more secure, and less monitoring required. Multi-Unit System: (Includes dehumidifier, evaporative humidifier, and heating and cooling unit) Less expensive, requires regular monitoring and control.
👩💻Please Note! There is a difference between an Evaporative Humidifier and a Mist Humidifier. The Evaporative Humidifiers draw in air from the space, humidify it, then release it back into the room. By contrast, Mist Humidifiers will spray mist/moisture into the room. Mist Humidifiers require consistent maintenance to prevent mold-growth. Controlling Relative Humidity is meant to prevent mold growth rather than foster it.
Disclosure:
The information included in this newsletter is based on research and practical application within the period of 2020 to 2022. Please conduct personalized research to confirm the specific requirements of your unique collection, in consultation with a professional conservation team.
Additional Resources:
The Getty Conservation Institute, Managing Collection Environments Initiative (2020)
https://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/education/managing/overview.html
Image Permanence Institute (IPI). 2019. eClimateNotebook.
https://www.eclimatenotebook.com/.
JE April Newsletter
Artist Spotlight: Justin Penov
My work infers a narrative by employing the visual vocabulary of the home. A home is a familiar setting. It is a stage, a palimpsest, imbued with memories, which in turn inform our associations to it. My work aims to distort that vocabulary, to bring it to ruin, to push the narrative of the architectural uncanny in the creation of an uneasy space. ~ Justin Penov
“The Egress,” 2015
Mixed media
7 x 13 x 1 in. (17.8 x 33 x 2.5 cm)
Please provide a window, a portal, a glimpse, a door, an egress, passing through from my realm to another. Layer on the decline and urban detritus coupled with technically superb details and relief sculptural elements. I can’t get enough.
A few years ago, I found myself out for a jog in the ghost town of downtown Cleveland, OH, every vignette reminded me of Penov’s work. He has captured it.
While those vistas are more industrial, each trip ‘home’ to Davenport, IA’s older residential neighborhoods is a further demonstration of how spot-on Penov’s interpretation is.
~JE
Justin Penov was born in Akron, Ohio, and received a BFA in Fine Art Printmaking from Kent State University. During this time, his work focused on the physicalities of etching and collage, informed by the aesthetics of industrial ruin created by the decline of the American Midwest. After graduation, he moved to NYC, where a further-developed interest in architecture, spatial relationships, and urban detritus pushed the work towards a more sculptural form. He now lives and works in Dallas, TX, and continues to explore the notions of home, setting, and the architectural uncanny.
Justin Penov has shown his works nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Sudhaus Exhibition Center in Berlin, Scope Art Fair in NYC, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and Artspace 111 in Fort Worth, TX. Recent honors include Best In Show at the MTSU Todd Art Gallery’s 12 Cubed exhibition and publication in Red Door Magazine.
www.justinpenov.com
