A brief history of dissociation as an Agent of Deterioration

The 10 ‘Agents of Deterioration’ (sometimes referred to as the ‘Agents of Change’) represent a framework for understanding the main threats to museum artefacts and other types of heritage, allowing conservators to plan how best to protect heritage when exposed to one or more of these threats. Most of the agents are physical or chemical in nature, such as water, pests and pollutants—but the tenth agent, dissociation, is more of a theoretical construct. Dissociation can be considered a separation between an object and its related data or context, and may result in a situation where an object has become irretrievable within a complicated storage system, or cannot be identified because of a loss of its associated files, data or related parts. This article reviews the adoption of dissociation within the framework of the Agents of Deterioration, a reframing that positions dissociation as an axis of change affecting an object's value within a collection. This places it firmly within the remit of conservators—alongside that of other museum staff—in order to minimise the risks related to it. The article reiterates the way that conservators are not only concerned with the physical preservation of objects, but also the preservation of the intangible aspects of information and knowledge. Since the introduction of this agent, there has been further discussion about the nature of dissociation and the article will review some of the debates around expanding its definition to include the risk of objects becoming separated from wider cultural contexts and meanings, for example through a loss of connection with the originating community of the object. These areas of debate demonstrate the way that the agents can be used flexibly to address different needs, and offer a productive space to engage in wider museum debates, but always rooted in care for the object—the key remit of the conservator.