Confronting plastics preservation
- Submitting institution
-
Arts University Bournemouth, the
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Lambert_32066 Confront
- Type
- H - Website content
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2014
- URL
-
https://www.modip.ac.uk/research/confronting-plastics-preservation
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This resource presents an extended and multi-component piece of research through observation of primary museum objects, film, seminar papers, and scientific research made accessible for the first time to those without a scientific background. Through photographs taken at six monthly intervals over a period of five years, it has tracked the condition of 18 primary objects made from a variety of different plastics providing evidence of how they have changed over time. Drawing on curatorial and scientific methods the project is highly unusual in its interdisciplinary approach.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
-
‘Confronting Plastics Preservation’ is an Arts Council-funded (£9,900) online research resource designed to meet a need formulated by members of the Plastics Subject Specialist Network, of more than 50 UK universities, museums and other heritage bodies.
Preservation of plastics remains an underdeveloped area in conservation research. Although there have been significant international research projects relating to plastics preservation (the EU-funded PopART (2008-12); the Getty’s Preservation of Plastics) these are aimed at specialist plastics conservators from scientific backgrounds. Creation of Lambert’s resource required a programme of enquiry that identified ways of translating the research into day-to-day curatorial practice. It involved a series of collaborative stages with the participation of sample potential users, including an online survey; seminars; creation of the resource, 18 case studies detailing the degradation of specific objects made of different plastics common in heritage collections with achievable guidelines for their care; and peer review of the resource.
Since the 1970s, more products have been made of plastics than any other materials group. Thus all museums with 20th and 21st century collections whether focused on art or science contain large numbers of objects made of or with components of plastics. However the plastics material group contains a very large number of different types of materials that are more or less vulnerable, react differently to the environment and degrade in different ways. As a result, different plastics need different conditions. These are important because after manufacture they are the single most important contributor to a plastics object’s life expectancy.
Web rather than paper publication improves availability, provides access to seminars by video, allows users to take the path that best suits their needs. It has become a primary point of reference for museums and galleries and will, in time, contribute significantly to enhanced care of heritage collections.
https://www.modip.ac.uk/research/confronting-plastics-preservation
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
