Congress - PLART: The Plastic Heritage Congress - Naples, 17-19-20 Oct 2022
Under the aegis of the Plastics Heritage European Association (PHEA), the Plart Museum in Naples (Italy) will host the sixth edition of the Plastics Heritage Congress (PHC) from the 17th to the 19th October 2022.
The PHC aims to encourage proposals for oral and poster presentation that contribute to a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of historic polymeric materials in their different representations and applications in society.
The main themes of the PHC comprise the concepts of history, technology, usage and conservation of plastics heritage. The Programme Committee (PC) suggests the following (non-exhaustive) themes, e.g.:
- Plastics history (historic polymeric materials [Hipoms], manufacturing, engineering, companies)
- Plastics heritage (Hipoms in art, design, everyday use, fashion, technical objects, architecture)
- Collecting plastics artefacts (museum and private collections)
- Plastics and emotions (impact on consumers, aesthetics, design, advertising)
- Conservation of plastics artefacts (preventive conservation, materials characterisation, degradation, instrumental analysis, restoration)
- Impact of plastics on society (material culture, evolution of industrial sectors, uses and customs, sustainability, environmental issue, conflicts)
- Biopolymers and future developments
- Documentation and reproduction (archives, data bases, digital scanning, 3D-printing etc.)
- Training and legislation regarding plastics heritage
The conference language is English.
20th October, 2022 - Plart Museum
PHC School
“The conservation of industrial design”
Workshop: “Restoration and cataloguing of synthetic artefacts”
Following the conference, the Study Day “The conservation of industrial design” - dedicated to students and young researchers - will touch the issues related to the protection of industrially manufactured products, largely produced thanks to plastic materials, which represent the most recent experience of human society.
The Plastics Heritage Congress aims to create shared strategies in order to preserve this important historical and artistic heritage and provide food for thought to the new generation of conservators.