Pharmakon: Colour, Poison, Cure – A Workshop at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées

This workshop, organised by Jeremy Stolow, Arnaud Dubois and Charlotte Ribeyrol, plays on the semantic ambiguity of the ancient Greek word pharmakon, which variously meant ‘poison’, ‘remedy’, or ‘colour’. Through the comparison of historically and culturally diverse case studies, we will explore how different techniques, materials and practices of colouring – such as found in food and textile industries, artworks, light projection apparatus, and built environments – have been ascribed with powers to promote health or to cause harm, while at the same time considering how colour media are themselves embedded in ecologically destructive and toxic modes of production and consumption, and ultimately, to imagine more sustainable alternatives. Bringing together hitherto disconnected research (on the one hand, studies of the materiality of colour production and its environmental impact; on the other hand, research on the application of colour in institutional and domestic settings) we aim to generate new insights and critical discussion regarding the ‘power of colour’ in its varied material, embodied, psychological, and environmental dimensions, thereby challenging key assumptions that have guided existing research on the history of colour industries and colour- based practices and their impact on human minds and bodies, and on both built and natural environments. Our comparative analysis will contribute to the existing scholarly literature within the domain of colour studies, while also identifying new research avenues in multiple interdisciplinary arenas, including those of material culture studies, environmental humanities, media studies, sensory studies, and histories of medicine and of other public institutions and professional knowledges.