A Geometry of Togetherness
Art Museum Z33
Hasselt, Belgium
2025
A Geometry of Togetherness,
2025
Fiberglass tubes, 3D printed
joints, polyester fabric, lab-developed structural colors.
450x190x128cm
Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
Expo:
Colour. Seeing beyond pigment
Curated by Annelies Thoelen
Scenography:
Woman Cave Collective
Photography: ©Kobe Vanderzande
A Geometry of Togetherness (2025) is a large-scale kite composed of lightweight fabric and a framework of interlocking tetrahedral cells. Its structure draws inspiration from Graham Bell’s early 20th-century experimental flying machines and the collective movements of starling swarms.
The kite’s surface is coated with lab-developed structural colors—technologies that echo those found in nature, such as on bird feathers, butterfly wings, and beetle shells. Unlike pigments, structural coloration arises from nanoscale surface patterns that reflect and refract light, producing vivid hues that shift with angle and illumination.
Molecules align in precise arrangements to create iridescence, birds flock to protect one another, and tetrahedra interlock to give the kite its strength. Coloration, safety, and structure emerge when individual elements connect. Whether mathematical forms, molecular patterns, or living organisms—across different scales and systems—togetherness gives rise to something greater than the sum of its parts.
The structural colors were developed at LABORATORIUM, the experimental biolab for art and design at KASK, Ghent, Belgium, in collaboration with scientist Maria Boto and designer Heleen Sintobin.
The kite’s surface is coated with lab-developed structural colors—technologies that echo those found in nature, such as on bird feathers, butterfly wings, and beetle shells. Unlike pigments, structural coloration arises from nanoscale surface patterns that reflect and refract light, producing vivid hues that shift with angle and illumination.
Molecules align in precise arrangements to create iridescence, birds flock to protect one another, and tetrahedra interlock to give the kite its strength. Coloration, safety, and structure emerge when individual elements connect. Whether mathematical forms, molecular patterns, or living organisms—across different scales and systems—togetherness gives rise to something greater than the sum of its parts.
The structural colors were developed at LABORATORIUM, the experimental biolab for art and design at KASK, Ghent, Belgium, in collaboration with scientist Maria Boto and designer Heleen Sintobin.
Photography: ©Kobe Vanderzande
Photography: ©Kobe Vanderzande
Photography: ©Selma Gurbuz
Photography: ©Kobe Vanderzande
Photography: ©Kobe Vanderzande
