Colors of (Colonial) Chemistry
Dye, Photography, and Architecture

Convened by

Denise Bertschi
Early-Career Fellow 2024–2025

Details

This is a public event. Participation is free of charge and no registration is needed.

The event is followed by a small reception and the exhibition opening “Colors of (Colonial) Chemistry.”

This interdisciplinary workshop convenes researchers and artists to explore methodologies of material culture in writing and reading histories. Inspired by “Colors of (Colonial) Chemistry,” a research exhibition by Denise Bertschi at the Collegium Helveticum, the event investigates matter as mediators to navigate transregional histories–entangling plants, lands, and (non-)human actors.

Organized into three thematic sessions, the symposium examines the role of organic and inorganic chemicals in relation to:

• Dye wood chemistry, printed textiles, and commodification
• Photography chemistry, resource extraction, and image production
• Chemicals as agents of aestheticization, conservation, and memory

By foregrounding materialities and their visual histories, the symposium sheds light on the often violent and toxic past of matter transformed into commodities. It invites critical reflection on how chemical substances as hybrid objects have shaped colonial industrialization, scientific epistemologies, and cultural and national imaginaries.

Uniting perspectives from art, architecture, and economic history, the symposium critically engages with the colonial legacies embedded in the transformation of land, the structuring of knowledge systems, and their lasting impact on the natural and built environment.

Range of targeted audience: 
This symposium welcomes historians, architects, curators, archivists, artists, students, independent researchers, and anyone with an interest in arts and culture.

Program