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• Fluorescent Fridays: Colournamers Linking Vision and Speech

  • When
    20 Feb 2026
  •  
    11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual
  • Spaces left
    207
  • Registered
    93 registrants

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  WHO	University students and faculty
  WHEN	Friday February 20, 2026, 11AM EST

  How do we communicate about colour across languages and viewing conditions? Our research team at Northeastern University London investigates how speakers of different languages carve up colour space in context. In this Fluorescent Friday event, you will hear from three Colournamers: Akvile will demonstrate Colour Spinner, an interactive tool for exploring colour naming across six languages; Rafique will reveal why current AI systems struggle with colour naming despite their linguistic sophistication; and Beata will show how the colours around us interact and shift the colours we perceive and name.

  The information below is edited for brevity. The complete abstracts and bios for all talks are available in this PDF.

  
  

  Presenters (left to right):

  Dimitris Mylonas, Associate Professor in Data Science
  

  Introduction

  Akvile Sinkeviciute, PhD Student
  

  Title: Colour Spinner: An Interactive Tool for Multilingual Colour Communication

  Rafique Ahmed, PhD Student

  Title: Colour understanding in AI models

  Beata Wozniak, Postdoctoral researcher

  Title: Colour naming in context

  

  FLUORESCENT FRIDAYS is a platform for university students from all disciplines to network with color professionals and fellow students, and to explore cutting-edge information about color’s role in our lives and applications in the world. 

  Global Student Chapter: The long range goal is to build a global student chapter that positions color as a multidimensional STEAM model (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math), sharing up-to-date color research by scientists, artists, designers, industry professionals, and university students.21st century color communication requires a commitment to building bridges for sharing resources, cultivating mentors, and creating new opportunities. With up-to-date information and useful tools, students become the next generation of leaders in ever-evolving color related disciplines.

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• ISCC Webinar - Olivia Kuzio presents Van Gogh's Irises

  • When
    19 Mar 2026
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual

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  A Vibrant Violet Revelation: Van Gogh’s Irises through the lens of Color Science

  

  Recent scientific examination of Van Gogh’s Irises revealed that the painting’s iris flowers, which today appear blue, were once purple. A key finding of the study was the identification and mapping of the light-sensitive red pigment geranium lake, which was mixed with three blue pigments—cobalt blue, ultramarine, and Prussian blue—to create the various shades found in the irises. When initially applied, the mixture of red geranium lake with the blue pigments would have created shades of purple. But, how purple?

  A team of conservators, scientists, and imaging specialists collaborated to create a 1:1, 3D physical reconstruction of how the painting may have originally appeared. Optical microscopy of a cross-section sample revealed a glimpse of the unfaded purple paint mixture shielded beneath the surface. However, reimagining the full range of purples could not be simply extracted from this single visual point of reference.

  To address this, we turned to color science. By modeling the optical properties of the unfaded pigment mixtures (as determined from chemical analysis), we created a series of tone palettes with known relative pigment concentrations—similar to paint swatches from a hardware store. These palettes bracketed the gamut of purples Van Gogh could have reasonably mixed up. Starting with the relative amounts of geranium lake and blue pigments observed in each paint stroke, we selected ranges of purple tones from the palettes and recolored the brush strokes accordingly. The result: vibrant purple irises with intricately gradated tones, rendered through scientific modeling and applied with artistic sensibility.

  This lecture will discuss how the interdisciplinary team linked the scientific and aesthetic understanding of the faded flowers, enabling effective communication and consensus on “how purple” the irises originally were.

  Speaker bio:

  Olivia is the Lead Technical Imaging Specialist in the Getty’s Digital Imaging Department (GDID), where she guides Getty-wide advanced imaging initiatives to improve the capture, management, and dissemination of scientific imaging data. Her focus on optimizing technical imaging workflows across GDID’s photography studios is enhancing how Getty supports imaging for Open Science, Open Content, and computational cultural heritage efforts, and emphasizes the new avenues that spectral imaging techniques and technologies provide toward these efforts.

  Prior to this role, Olivia was an Assistant Scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute, where she conducted technical studies on works of art to address questions of composition, artistic practice, and material degradation. Her projects there also focused on imaging, in particular, on expanding the Institute's capabilities in hyperspectral imaging and incorporating it with other scientific imaging modalities, such as macro X-Ray fluorescence scanning.

  Olivia earned a PhD in color science from Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as MS and BS degrees in chemistry from RIT and Penn State, respectively.

  
  

  
  

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• March Colorful Connections

  • When
    27 Mar 2026
  •  
    4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual
  • Spaces left
    38
  • Registered
    2 registrants

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  Colorful Connections is an opportunity to gather informally with other members of ISCC for a little socializing, networking and learning from each other. Discussions are wide-ranging and depend on attendees, their current interests and past experience. Consider this the online version of coffee breaks and happy hours at a color conference. BYO coffee or beverage and join in the conversation! 

  Note that this is Members Only event. Not a member, no problem - Join here!

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