The ArtLab is open to collaborations with anyone interested in exploring digital and technical art historic research. So whether you are a researcher looking to develop a project, a student interested in getting involved, or a professional who would like to partner with us; please reach out to us by filling out the contact form under contact us.

Education

The ArtLab is involved in numerous courses, such as:

• From Paper to Plastic: Materials and Techniques in Art (KU1V17002)
• Chemistry and Art (UCSCICHEL6)
• Van Object tot Stad (KU2V22001)
• Art History I: Knowledge, Technologies, and Material Culture (GKRMV16051)
  
• Digital Perspectives: a Course on Computational Art History and its Development (Fundamentals II) (GKRMV20005)
• Curating and Mediating Contemporary Art (GKMV16005)
• Introduction to Art History and Museum Studies (UCHUMHAR11)

Research

The ArtLab has partnered (at present or in the past) with:

• Since March 2020, the team of DURARE, an ERC-funded project on the history of durability in the arts, uses the the lab for reconstructions of historical durability practices. DURARE uses historical experiments to investigate how artists and scholars tried to produce materials and art objects they believed to be lasting.
• #MedievalMe explores the role that virtual heritage can play in science communication (NWA) by developing a serious game. This project is a unique coöperation between Utrecht University (Sanne Frequin), creative industries (Doyle Studio) and a heritage institution (KB Nationale Bibliotheek).
• The Case of the Golden Background project (funded by NICAS) investigates the implications of 3D reconstruction and 3D printing for the conservation and restoration process of a medieval panel painting and the use of facsimiles for conservation and presentation of heritage in times of climate change in general. In this project, world leading partner Factum Foundation, Museum Catharijneconvent and TU Delft cooperate with the ArtLab.
• The ArtLab is home to the Utrecht Young Academy’s Material ColLABoratory Project. Between 2022-2023 this project (in collaboration with the DURARE ERC project) organized a series of workshops facilitating open-ended and creative hands-on engagement with carbon-based materials, such as plastics, dyes, and clays.
• ARTECHNE – Technique in the Arts, 1500-1950, an ERC-funded research project, uses the lab to experimentally reconstruct historical recipes to open new understandings of the transmission of technique in the visual and decorative arts.
• Everlasting Flowers Between the Pages (NWO Promoties in de geesteswetenschappen), Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen investigates seventeenth-century watercolor flower books and their role in knowledge production in early modern Europe through the remaking of some of the historical materials and practices used to make these flower books in the past.