Re: VMs: "The VMs Research Foundation"...?

["Lukas Palatinus" <palat@xxxxxx>]

Nick Pelling wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've been giving some thought to forming a charitable organisation
> whose central aim is to improve our understanding of the VMs by
> sponsoring targeted research and publishing the results openly.
> 

Hi Nick,
after reading your post about the "VMS Research Foundation" I was 
expecting a storm of contributions stating pros and contras of such 
an idea. But nothing like that happened. I don't believe all others 
think it is not worth responding, but they have probably the same 
problem as I have - how to write it's a good idea, but needs a lot of 
time... So let me try:

I personaly consider it a very interesting idea, which however:
a) needs a lot of time and concentrated effort, I would almost say a 
dedicated person.
b) criticaly depends on the good will of the sponsors, and it is 
uncertain whether such an exotic field is able to attract anouch 
sponsors.

ad a) While all on the list are willing to contribute their ideas, 
only few are really able to regularly invest a lot of time... Yes, I 
confess, I am one of the majority, too. :-(

ad b)  I thing getting some "proffesional" researchers into the field 
is a great idea. I don't know how easy will it be to find sponsors 
for such a research, I guess it will be quite difficult. But I think 
the funding might be obtainable from academic grants or other regular 
ways of funding. The important point is to attract the attention of 
the right persons to the problem, to show, that there is more than 
just fun and personal satisfaction in the VMs research.

Bruce Grant wrote:
> That got me thinking: what department in a university would such 
> post-grads fall under? Library science? Archaeology? Or maybe just
> Physics?

This is a good question. I thing historians are the first target 
group, at best historians of literature or historians of alchemy. For 
an investigation of the mineral pigments mineralogists are also a 
good choice. I know a few of them in Prag, some of them were already 
working with mineral pigments in paintings. I could ask, what do they 
think about the idea.

So, to summarize: IMHO the idea is great, the main question is: Is it 
possible to find enough sponsors for research of such a "weird", 
"mysterious", "add-here-what-you-like" topic? 

So, now the storm of posts can come! ;-)

Regards

Lukas Palatinus
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