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Aralac promotional leaflet The Cow, The Milkmaid and the Chemist. National Dairy Products Corporation.
Source publication
Madden, Odile, A. Elena Charola, Kim Cullen Cobb, Paula T. DePriest, and Robert J. Koestler. The Age of Plastic: Ingenuity and Responsibility, Proceedings of the 2012 MCI Symposium. Smithsonian Contributions to Museum Conservation, number 7, viii + 181 pages, 139 figures, 5 tables, 2017. — This volume brings together papers presented at “The Age of...
Citations
In 1935, the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden began to produce the so-called Transparent Figures, which became icons of the 20th century. This study aims to explore the effects of external agents such as humidity and temperature on the aging mechanism of the materials of the Transparent Figures and to slow it down through preventive measures. The focus is on cellulose acetate (CA), which was used for the outer skin of the Transparent Figures. The original objects were investigated using FTIR, Raman, and GC-MS. On some Transparent Figures, liquid leakage of additives occurs when the relative humidity rises above 50-60% RH and is accompanied by a release of acetic acid. Based on these findings, original CA used for the production of the Transparent Figures was artificially re-aged at 70 °C while varying the relative humidity. The specimens were analyzed with colorimetry and GC-MS. Additive content, degree of substitution and degree of polymerization were determined. The results showed that the degradation is slowed down at 30% RH compared to aging at 50% RH or 70% RH. Thus, lowering the relative humidity seems effective in slowing down the degradation of the CA of the Transparent Figures. A relative humidity of 30% RH and a temperature of 15 °C are recommended.
This paper presents contemporary archaeology as a novel framework for investigating environmental pollution, specifically marine pollution, which comprises a global “toxic assemblage” of an estimated 5.25 trillion plastic artefacts. The ideas behind this approach were developed in 2018 during a multidisciplinary “Science to Solutions” workshop held in Galápagos (Ecuador), led by the Galápagos National Park and Galapagos Conservation Trust and hosted by the Galapagos Science Center and the Charles Darwin Research Station. These ideas informed two studies which began separately but became increasingly aligned within a contemporary archaeology framework, in effect tackling the same problem from two very different perspectives: the first involving surface mapping, designed to inform an understanding of how plastic items enter the environment, including the marine environment, in the first place; and the second comprising utilization-focused evaluation, designed to better understand people’s behaviours and aspirations. Both of the studies centred on a specific and ubiquitous type of item or artefact: the disposable plastic bag. We conclude that the two studies together demonstrate that, through giving primacy to material culture, contemporary archaeology can (1) serve as a cross-disciplinary framework for tackling environmental pollution, and (2) provide a basis for shaping practice and informing policy.
Nature Carpets are installations realized by Piero Gilardi using expanded polyurethane, cut, shaped, and painted with vibrant colors in order to portrait natural sceneries. Their intrinsic mixed media nature often exposes them to fast degradation. While it is well known how Nature Carpets are realized using expanded poly(ether urethane), material particularly prone to fast oxidative degradation, the chemical composition of the paint often remains unknown. Furthermore, it has been reported how the artist changed his working technique during the years, in order to increase the life-span of his artworks. Since the paint layer protects the internal expanded foam core, for conservation purposes it is extremely important to know its composition. This study presents analytical results on the materials used in two Nature Carpets: La Grotta (1981, restored in 1989) and Scoglio Sonoro Interattivo (1997), focusing in particular on the paint layer composition. A micro-spectroscopic approach was chosen to obtain as much information as possible from minimal sampling, in order not to damage the artworks.
