Organisation - April 24, 2013

The art of science

Text:
Gastredacteur

I am a science student, so making art is the last thing in my mind. However, now I live in the Netherlands, I see art everywhere. One surprising canvas is the laboratory coat. I have seen all kinds of drawings on them. Far too creative to stop short at writing their names on them, students go to great lengths to paint something on their lab coats. They are adorned with clouds, a pi symbol, flowers or dragons.

32-labjassen-TD-HvR.jpg
It could be because the colour of the lab coat is so plain that it invites creativity. According to my Dutch friend, the real reason is to be able to tell your lab coat apart from the others. But I think it is more than that. To me, it looks as though the art expresses passion and a lot of work goes into it. It looks like a show of individuality, a statement about who you are and what you like, a   glimpse of the different side of you. So far, I really love looking at them and I have plans to adorn my lab coat one day with some art showing things I love. Two of which are Harry Potter and lipsticks.
In my country, Malaysia, this art form is unheard-of. Science students are known to be nerdy and dull when it comes to studying. In fact the idea of painting on my own lab coat has never crossed my mind. To me a white coat was supposed to protect you from harm from contact with hazardous material in the lab. But of course people have so many ways of expressing themselves. Maybe a little art on our own lab coats could take the dullness out of everyday lab work. Yay to freedom to display art everywhere!  Fatimah Yusoff, MSc student of Plant Biotechnology  
Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounter with Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to resource@wur.nl and earn fifty euro and Dutch candy.