ESTHER
MOÑIVAS MAYOR

Lecturer (Profesora Contratada Doctora), Department of Painting and Conservation-Restoration, accredited by ANECA as Senior Lecturer (Profesora Titular de Universidad). Summary: Esther Moñivas Mayor holds a Doctorate cum Laude in Art History (2011), a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Aesthetics and Art Theory (2007), and qualifications in Didactics of Geography and History (2003), Art History (2002), and Conservation-Restoration of Cultural Heritage (2000). In 2024, she obtained a Professional Expert certification in Advanced Technologies for the Dissemination of Cultural Heritage. Her experience spans prestigious institutions such as Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, developing pioneering projects in accessibility, museum education and conservation-restoration. Her research integrates Art, Science, Technology and Society (ASTS) focusing on the aesthetics and the operative-imaginative dimension of contemporary art media and materials. Her transdisciplinary research and professional career over the last 15 years has allowed her to be one of the few Spanish specialists in safeguarding media art and variable media. She studies and documents the processes of contemporary artistic creation for conservation purposes, developing innovative methodologies and theoretical-practical frameworks from the perspectives of New Materialisms, Critical Heritage Studies and Digital Humanities. She founded and directed the research group Estudios Transversales en Creación Contemporánea (ETCC). Currently, she is a member of three research groups: “Cultural Heritage in the Context of Digitalisation in Society” (Una Europa), “Prácticas artísticas y formas de conocimiento contemporáneo” (UCM), and “IMARTE: Investigación en procesos artísticos y nuevas tecnologías” (UB). She has carried out a 9-month research stay at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the Art & Science Department (2014). Her research has received competitive grants from Instituto de Crédito Oficial (pre-doctoral) and Fundación Especial Caja Madrid (post-doctoral). She has contributed to 10 competitively funded research projects, totalling 282 months. She is a reviewer for 4 high-impact journals: Journal of the Institute of Conservation, Éndoxa, Art Nodes y Arte, Individuo y Sociedad. Between 2020 and 2025, she has led the innovation project “Entre Artistas y Restauradoræs. Nuevos formatos de interacción e intercambio de conocimiento” (UCM), fostering international collaboration, and organising training seminars on contemporary art conservation. She has served on 9 scientific committees, and in 2024 she co-directed the NEXT_Conference: Challenges in the Documentation and Preservation of Media Art; the first in Spain specialized in media art safeguarding. She is currently member of the Management Committee of the COST Action “European Media and Born-digital Art Conservation and Knowledge Network” (2025-2029) and Principal Investigator of the research project “SafeARTECH – Salvaguarda del arte digital, experimental y tecnológico de las últimas décadas en España: perspectivas retos y oportunidades” (PID2024-155970NA-I00) (2026-2029). Keywords: Art–Science–Technology–Society (ACTS), Media Art Conservation, Variable Media Preservation, Contemporary Art Conservation, Media Art History, Media Art Heritage, Documentation Strategies, Creative Process Documentation, Materiality and Technology, New Materialisms, (Trans)materialities, Critical Heritage Studies, Digital Humanities.