Follow

• 

  Faculty Fellow Eric Anderson | What is a Color Lab? Sites and Practices of Design Research

  Eric Anderson, Global Arts & Cultures (GAC), and RISD Color Lab

  April 23, 2024 virtual presentation accompanying the exhibition What is a Color Lab?, on view April 8 - May 9, 2024. Starting with the question What is a Color Lab?, Color Lab Faculty Fellowship recipient, associate professor of Theory & History of Art & Design (THAD), and graduate program director of Global Arts & Cultures (GAC) masters program Eric Anderson proposes an interdisciplinary historical study of facilities and techniques for exploring color in design. The RISD Color Lab occupies a lineage of institutional spaces in which scientists, designers, makers, and theorists have carried out technical experiments, creative work, and scholarly research aimed at producing knowledge about color. Through this project, Anderson situates the Color Lab historically to consider the possibilities and limits of color research for design.

• 

  EFS Critic Felipe Shibuya | Invisibilia

  Felipe Shibuya, Experimental and Foundation Studies Department, and RISD Color Lab

  February 6, 2024 virtual presentation accompanying the exhibition Invisibilia, on view December 13 2023 - February 23, 2024 by Felipe Shibuya, Critic, Experimental & Foundation Studies. In nature, every color has a meaning, from flowers that convey messages to their pollinators, to frogs that display their venomous potential with vibrant colors, and the color of the sky that signals climate changes. However, humans are capable of seeing only a small portion of the light spectrum, leaving many messages from nature unread. For example, many species, such as birds and insects, can perceive the UV spectrum. Furthermore, there's an entire palette of colors that are only evident when certain conditions allow organisms to display them, as is the case with bacteria. When bacteria multiply, they synthesize pigments, establishing a visual connection with other species, including humans.

  In "Invisibilia," Shibuya (Experimental & Foundation Studies) offers the audience the chance to see, through photographs, 16 species of bacteria that have grown to the point of showing their natural colors. His intention as an artist and ecologist is to show humans that when they are able to see other species, especially through their colors, the perception to understand how humans are part of an entire ecosystem is broadened. This understanding allows for the creation of opportunities to preserve nature and ensure a sustainable future.

  View the Invisibilia exhibition here.

• 

  Faculty Fellow Meg Callahan | Color Scraps

  Megan Callahan, Furniture Design Department, and RISD Color Lab

  November 15, 2023 virtual presentation accompanying an exhibition from November 12 - December 6, 2023 by Meg Callahan, critic in Furniture Design and one of the two Color Lab Faculty Fellows for the 2022-23 academic year. As part of an ongoing project supported by the faculty fellowship, Callahan explores how color can be a guide in approaching the accumulation, organization, and composition of scrap materials and waste-based making. This presentation was introduced by Margot McIlwain Nishimura, Dean of Libraries.

  View the Color Scraps exhibition here.

• 

  Faculty Fellow Hope Leeson | Colors of the Land

  Hope Leeson; History, Philosophy, + the Social Sciences Department; and RISD Color Lab

  April 4, 2023 virtual presentation accompanying an installation by Hope Leeson (botanist and part-time faculty for Liberal Arts Science and Landscape Design and Architecture), funded by a Color Lab Faculty Fellowship. The body of work represents a year-long investigation into natural dye colors given by plants indigenous to South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The color palette is an expression of the land’s changing seasons, the terroir, and presents the visual dialect of the land to viewers.

  View the Colors of the Land exhibition here.

• 

  Faculty Fellow Rachel Berwick | A Near and A Far: Rubies, Cobalts, Opals, and Crystal

  Rachel Berwick, Glass Department, and RISD Color Lab

  September 27, 2023 virtual presentation accompanying an exhibition of Glass artist and Professor Rachel Berwick’s ongoing research of structural color in crystal and hummingbird feathers. Conducted with the support of a RISD Color Lab Faculty Fellowship and work within RISD Glass, The Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, and RISD Prints. On view in the Picture Window Gallery at 30 North Main St.: September 1-October 10, 2022. Fellow’s zoom presentation took place September 27th, 2022 at 6:30pm moderated by Fleet Library Visual and Material Resources Librarian Mark Pompelia, in conversation with Textiles Associate Professor Mary Ann Friel, William Pearson, Glass Department head and Professor Jocelyn Prince, and Dean of Libraries Margot Nishimura. For more info visit color.risd.edu.

• 

  Faculty Fellow Daniel Lefcourt | Query: Evidence of Color Research

  Daniel Lefcourt, Experimental and Foundation Studies Department, and RISD Color Lab

  April 26, 2022 virtual presentation accompanying EFS Associate Professor Daniel Lefcourt's exhibition Query: Evidence of Color Research on view in the picture window at 30 N Main St. April 4 - 29, 2022. Query is a set of large-format digital prints which accumulate long-term color research into digitally rendered scientific displays. The displays, which create a “laboratory” of real objects and digitally fabricated images, undermine the concept of scientific authority using humor and deception. For Lefcourt, presenting evidence of research isn’t only a requirement for recipients of academic funding; it is an opportunity to play with the very idea of ‘evidence.’ Fellow's zoom presentation was moderated by Fleet Library Visual and Material Resources Librarian Mark Pompelia. For more info visit color.risd.edu.