COPENHAGEN.- Using a grant of DKK 1.38 million from the Center for Culture and Experience Economy, the National Gallery of Denmark is carrying out an interdisciplinary cooperative effort between artists, designers, curators, art historians and representatives from the plastics industry. The research project is intended to chart and utilise the extreme use of plastic materials by artists and designers for the purpose of spurring innovation and growth in art and design, the plastics industry and museum conservation work. Visual artists embody the expression extreme users as it pertains to the use of materials in the creation of their works. Using methods that push beyond boundaries, artists working in nearly all artistic media have consistently created a breeding ground for inventions that have improved the use of materials with respect to quality, aesthetics, usability and durability. Over the course of the last 50 years, plastics ha