GDR Plastics in Design.
The restoration department of Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum is a co-operation partner in the international research project
A children’s hairdresser’s play set, a watering can from the 1960s, an electric foot care set in space-age design and an egg-shaped garden chair: these and many other everyday objects from the former GDR are at the centre of the research project ‘GDR Plastics in Design’. The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) in Los Angeles, the Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum in Munich, the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences want to investigate questions relating to the manufacture, design and preservation of plastic products from the GDR era as part of the project.
Background
The preservation of plastic objects poses a difficult challenge for conservators. The research into conservation of plastic objects, a relatively young discipline, which only emerged in the 1990s, has been primarily focused on the identification of plastics, their degradation and possible conservation and restoration methods. What has hardly been taken into account so far, however, is the extent to which industrial production processes and manufacturing technologies influence both the long-term properties of plastics and their aging.
The present research project specifically deals with the identification of production processes and technologies for plastic materials that were used in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) between 1949 and 1990 for the production of industrial design, their degradation and possible preventive and active measures.
On the one hand, the focus was placed on the GDR, because this was a closed cultural and economic period, and on the other, because the plastic production in the GDR was ground-breaking. Since the 1950s, the GDR developed into one of the leading plastics-producing nations, which exported its products to almost all countries of the Eastern Bloc and even to the West via veiled channels.
Goal
So far, conservation science has mainly focused on the influence of chemical profile of a plastic on its degradation. The influences of the manufacturing conditions on aging properties have been largely neglected. Although the engineering sciences collect relevant data as part of quality assurance, there are few or no interfaces between the two disciplines (conservation sciences / engineering). The present project aims to close this gap and through a systematic investigation and assessment of a temporally and geographically closed area to clarify this connection, to identify and characterize materials and to generate treatment recommendations from the collected data.
The project is accompanied by an expert meeting and a concluding specialist conference. The research results will be published internationally (Getty Conservation Institute series of publications) and presented in an exhibition (Wende Museum, Los Angeles / Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; working title: ‘House of Plastics’). Part of the cooperation project is the doctoral thesis by Helena Ernst: “Material memory: How are signs of manufacturing, usage and ageing related to the respective material properties and what can be revealed by reading those traces” (working title).
Partner
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI)
Tom Learner (Head of Science)
Anna Laganà (Senior Research Specialist)
Joy Mazurek (Associate Scientist)
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) works internationally to advance conservation practice in the visual arts-in the broadest sense of the word, to include objects, collections, architecture, and sites. The Institute serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, field projects and the dissemination of information. In all its endeavours, the GCI creates and delivers knowledge that contributes to the preservation of the world’s cultural heritage.
Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences
Friederike Waentig (Professor Conservation)
Ester Ferreira (Professor Conservation Science)
TH Köln is one of the most innovative universities of applied sciences. It offers students and academics from Germany and abroad an inspiring learning, working and research environment in the social, cultural, societal, engineering and natural sciences. Around 27,000 students are currently enrolled on around 100 Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes. TH Köln shapes social innovation – with this claim we meet the challenges of society. Our interdisciplinary thinking and actions, our regional, national and international activities make us a valued co-operation partner and pioneer in many areas.
Wende Museum
Joes Segal (Chief Curator)
Christine Rank (Head of Collections)
The Wende Museum is an art museum, a historical archive of the Cold War and a centre for creative social engagement that explores and inspires change.Founded in 2002, the Wende Museum houses a unique collection of art and artefacts from the Eastern Bloc.It promotes the multi-layered exploration and discussion of this period.Named after the German word ‘Wende’, which describes the era before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the museum serves as the foundation for a dynamic programme that illuminates the political and cultural changes of the past and inspires personal and social change for the future.
Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum
Tim Bechthold (Head of Conservation)
Josef Straßer (Chief Curator)
Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum is considered to be the first design museum in the world. Founded in 1907 according to the ideals of the Deutscher Werkbund, it was inaugurated as an official state museum in 1925. From the very beginning, it differed from the arts and crafts museums of the time in that it was decidedly dedicated to modernism and thus to contemporary design. The programme of the Neue Sammlung still pursues these original aims today.
With over 150,000 catalogued objects, Die Neue Sammlung is one of the largest and most beautiful design collections in the world.Its restoration department is regarded as one of the most important international centres for the conservation of modern design objects.It has gained international recognition through the initiation of the conference series and postprints FUTURE TALKS.