Consulting: applying research to novel projects
Combining vision science with creative ventures
My current collaboration is with the conceptual artist Yoshua Okon, creating a series of works deployling the functionality of colour vision tests to create cultural interactions that divide audiences by their colour vision type.
What we're doing
We are at the early stages of a project using colour vision science to create artworks which divide the audience by their differing visual experience. Our challenge is to identify colours that will hide information from those with full colour vision, and reveal information to those with a deficiency.
Colour vision deficiencies are surprisingly common, affecting around 8% of men, and rather than resuling in any form of 'blindness', colour vision deficiencies are usually a slight difference in sensitivity to certain colours. This can make some colours appear sludgy or dark, where they would appear bright intense colours to those with full colour vision.
We are taking the logic of the Ishihara Plates Test, the most widely used test for colour vision deficiency (or 'colourblindness') and designing new plates, that reveal rather than conceal information for those with the same colour vision as our collaborator, Yoshua Okon. Yoshua is using the colours we develop, to create a series of paintings that deploy the ability to divide the audience, to reveal moments of conflict and friction in the ralationship with his audience.
An interim exploration of this work in the form of its creative output is shown in the video below. The scientific work is ongoing, but the presence of the works themselves show the protential of their creative impact.
