Special issue 'Polymers in Art and History' - Editorial

摘要

Synthetic polymers form an increasing part of heritage collections, as components of modern and contemporary art and design pieces, as objects within 20th century social history collections or as archival materials such as film reels or photographs. In the last 15-20 years, interest and research activity in this area has grown significantly as demonstrated by recent international research projects such as the EU 7th Framework Programme-funded project "Preservation of Plastic Artefacts in Museum Collections (POPART)" and numerous other funded initiatives, expert conferences and meetings. There is clearly exceptional activity and interest in this area of research. However, given the maturity of research into industrial and commodity polymer degradation and stabilisation, how can this activity be justified?