Researchers at a Norwegian university are investigating whether a home-grown paint pigment has played a role in white supremacy, by making "the world whiter.".“Whiteness is not only a cultural and societal condition tied to skin colour, privileges, and systematic exclusion, but materialize everywhere around us,” a rundown of the study by the University of Bergen read, according to the New York Post..“Although Norway is not a conventional colonial power, this project will show how the country has played a globally-leading role in establishing white as a superior colour.".“Until now, however, this story has been lesser known to scholars and the public.”.The Post reports the study, coined as NorWhite, observes the Norwegian-developed paint pigment titanium white through “historical, aesthetic, and critical” lenses to determine how the development of the coloor contributed to “social transformation” as well as how the innovation led to “planetary consequences.”.“Currently the Norwegian innovation TiO2 [titanium dioxide] is present in literally every part of modern life… The primary research question is: What are the cultural and aesthetic changes instigated by titanium white and TiO2 surfaces — and how can both the material in itself and these changes be conceptualized and made visible?” the description asks. .The Norwegian government is paying CDN$1.6 million for the study..“The overall objective of NorWhite is to critically and visually investigate the cultural and aesthetic preconditions of a complex and unexplored part of Norwegian technology and innovation history that has — as this project claims— made the world whiter."
