This research project is an answer to a specific question from the drawing studios at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Both students and teachers want to minimize the use of volatile organic solvents, propellants and synthetic polymers to fix drawings in order to respect both the user and the environment. Switching to products of a biological nature or 'water-based' systems is the central goal of this project.
BIOFIX is a cross-discipline collaboration between natural scientists and visual artists in the search for an alternative way to fix drawings. It focuses on the following requirements:
- environmentally friendly (and therefore preferably water-based)
- little to no health risk for the user
- not too technological in use and easy to obtain
- high quality when applied (gloss change, biological shelf life, color surpluses, ...)
- low-cost
- high availability
