Starting with the question What is a Color Lab?, Color Lab Faculty Fellowship recipient 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.

What is a Color Lab? Sites and Practices of Design Research is an installation by faculty member Eric Anderson, Associate Professor who teaches in the Theory and History of Art and Design department and directs the Global Arts and Cultures Graduate Program.

This exhibition is on view 8 April - May 9, 2024.

Watch the virtual presentation accompanying the exhibition, presented April 23, 2024.

Exhibition Design: Ruchika Nambiar