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34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Arts University Bournemouth
A Curator's Guide to Plastics
Since the 1970s (i) , 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, e.g. sculpture, cinematic film, cars, cutlery, electrical equipment, and fashion and textiles. However, plastics were invented after the creation of the 19th century museums organised according to the Semperian system of techniques of making and their materials. As a result, plastics expertise within the heritage sector is extremely limited.
Identification of an object’s material fosters understanding of the object. It is common museum practice when documenting, for example, a metal or wooden object, to identify its particular metal or wood. However, limited knowledge means that plastic objects are usually documented only as ‘plastic’ although all plastics degrade, different plastics require different optimum conditions, and how any plastic object is looked after is the single factor that has the greatest impact on its life expectancy.
This guide was developed with MLA (now ACE) funding to meet a need formulated by members of the Plastics Subject Specialist Network, drawn from more than 50 UK universities, museums and other heritage bodies. It was developed in an innovative way including the participation of sample potential users. Web rather than paper publication makes it more readily available and allows users to take the path through it that best suits their needs. It is already a primary point of reference for museums and galleries and will, in time, contribute significantly to enhanced care and interpretation of heritage collections.
Portfolio
(1) CD and date stamped print out of content (paper
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(i) G. Cascini and P. Rissone, ‘Plastics Design: Integrating TRIZ Creativity and Semantic Knowledge Portals’, Journal of Engineering Design 15 (4) (2004): 405-24.
