Structural Colors

Laboratorium is the experimental lab for art/design and biotechnology at KASK & Conservatorium. As a biolab in art and design, it focuses on exploring different interactions between art, science and technology.

Laboratorium is part of "The Color Biolab" project, funded by the Arts Research Fund of Hogeschool Gent.

In this framework, the project Structural Colors, founded by Dr. María Boto Ordóñez, researcher at KASK & Conservatorium and Ann Veronica Janssens, Beaux-Arts de Paris - PSL, was selected by the Steering Committee of the Research Chair on Beauty studies.

This research aims to design structures to obtain colours rarely available in nature, to create a palette of biodegradable and non-toxic colours of innovative beauty, to produce experiments and to question the question of beauty & structural colours from a sensorial point of view. In addition, the project wishes to question this research from a philosophical and aesthetic point of view with the participation of researchers in such involved fields.

Members of the scientific team:

• Dr. Matthew Shawkey, Associate Professor at the Department of Biology Department of Biology, Evolution and Optics of Nanostructures, Ghent University (Belgium). 
• Pr. Nathan C. Gianneschi, Professor of Chemistry, Science & Engineering materials and Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois (USA). 
• Pr. Ali Dhinojwala, dean of College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Akron, Ohio (VS).