Colour. Seeing Beyond Pigment

Pigments are everywhere. From paints to cosmetics and clothes, from everyday objects to your food and drinks, they literally add colour to life. Unfortunately, the pigment and dye industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world.

In the search for natural alternatives, Laboratorium — the biolab for art, design and biotechnology of KASK & Conservatorium — went a long way. Here, melanin proved to be a fascinating track. In Z33, researchers, designers and artists present their results for the first time.

Melanin is found in our skin and determines our colour. But what few people know is that the pigment is also found in animals and has a very wide range of tones. Think of the wings of a butterfly or peacock feathers. Because of the structure in the wings on which light refracts, you can observe different colour tones. Can these natural solutions help us in the search for less polluting dyes? Several designers and artists got to work with this structural colour and are showing their work for the first time.

This work is part of the artistic output of the research project Ecology of Colour

Participating artists and designers: Amandine David, Ann Veronica Janssens, Bram Vanderbeke, Dimitris Theocharis, Heleen Sintobin, Marlou Breuls, Tiina Pyykkinen

Curator: Annelies Thoelen

Science: María Boto Ordoñez

Scenography: Woman Cave Collective

In samenwerking met: KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT – Howest), VUB(Sustainable Engineering Materials Research Group) en UGent(Evolution and Optics of Nanostructures).

Laboratorium, the biolab for art, design and biotechnology at KASK & Conservatorium, specialises in sustainable colour production. The research project Ecology of Colour is developing a colour palette of structural colours using nanotechnology. A colour film is being developed on the basis of synthetic melanin for application to paper, metal, ceramics, glass, etc.

With the support of the Saastamonen Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux and Suomen Kulttuurirahasto. The Ecology of Colour research project is funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.