syllabus — ART 205 — Color Theory

Fantastical Color: Expanding Color with the Senses

description:

Color vision is a typical part of daily life for most people, but in some instances color vision combines with another sensory experience to extend color perception beyond the familiar into the fantastical. (The term synesthesia refers to the mixing of senses.)

For this assignment you will create portfolio-quality artwork or design work that takes advantage of sensory experiences to add another dimension to how you use color to achieve your artistic goals. You may use hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Since color is a component of vision, you’ll need to find ways to make vision more fantastic, like glowing neon under a black-light or iridescence that changes with the angle of viewing.

If you choose to focus on a non-visual sense, it may require some form of creative translation. You may need to provide an experience to the class so we can fully understand the translation (for example if you create an artwork with a color composition based on the taste of candied ginger, then you may need to provide the class with candied ginger to taste for critique). Please note that class members can be invited to experience the sensory component of your work but will not be required to partake in it.

In addition to the way senses can create fantastical color, conceptual framework can also remove color from its normal visual context and create fantastical color.
For example, color is often mapped onto abstract concepts using metaphors like “I was feeling blue” or “the violin solo sounded clean and bright” or “the political scandal left a black mark on her career”. This could also be an avenue for exploration.

You may choose any of the following or propose your own approach:

SENSE: HEARING

· Make a portfolio-quality artwork or design work that is somehow based on or related to fantastical color (color scheme / color composition) in the realm of hearing.

· Choose an audio composition like a section of a song, musical score, speech, spoken poem, sound work, film clip, etc. and translate it into a color scheme or color composition.

· Bring the resulting work and an audio clip to class. I will have a speaker with a standard headphone jack that can be used during critique and a laptop connected to a projector; bring any other equipment you may need. In addition to the work itself, you will need to submit the audio clip or a link to the clip so I can hear it while grading. You may also choose to create a video or animation with the sound embedded as opposed to providing a separate file. Please use .MOV or .MP4 format or video.

SENSE: TASTE

· Make a portfolio-quality artwork or design work that is somehow based on or related to fantastical color (color scheme / color composition) in the realm of taste.

· Choose any food, food combination, or non-alcoholic drink and translate it into a color scheme or color composition. Talk to me if you wish to choose a non-food substance like toothpaste or lick-and-stick postage stamps.

· Bring the resulting work and a sample of the food/drink to class. You may wish to provide the option for a small taste for 18 people and any necessary serving items for those who choose to partake.

SENSE: TOUCH

· Make a portfolio-quality artwork or design work that is somehow based on or related to fantastical color (color scheme / color composition) in the realm of touch.

· Choose a physical object or material and translate it into a color scheme or color composition.

· Bring the resulting work and the object/material to class. Please consider that roughly 18 individuals may touch the object/material provided.

· You may either submit the object/material to me to grade or we can discuss another option.

SENSE: SMELL

· Make a portfolio-quality artwork or design work that is somehow based on or related to fantastical color (color scheme / color composition) in the realm of smell.

· Discuss the specifics of your idea relating to smell before starting your assignment. Together we will determine an option for sharing the sensory experience with the class.

· Choose a smell and translate it into a color scheme or color composition.

· Bring the resulting work and the sensory materials we agreed upon.

VISUAL SHIFT: UV / IRIDESCENCE / ETC.

· Make a portfolio-quality artwork or design work that is somehow based on or related to fantastical color (color scheme / color composition) in the realm of UV or iridescence or other “fantastical” visual shift.

· Consider how the composition of colors and materials visually shifts under a UV black-light.

· Consider how surface iridescence visually shifts as the viewer or artwork moves.

· Consider forms of “impossible color”

· This shifting context can be meaningful both conceptually and aesthetically.

· I can keep a black-light in the room for UV shifts and we can use the same black-light for critique unless specified otherwise.

requirements:

• You must author all parts or your artwork / design work unless you speak to me in advance about why appropriation and authorship are conceptually important to your work.
• Any genre of portfolio-quality 2D, 3D, or time-based visual media is appropriate for this project as long as the work(s) are ready to be displayed on the day(s) of critique and you bring any items you might need for presentation. (I can provide pushpins, projector connected to classroom desktop, speaker with headphone jack, UV blacklight and possibly other equipment that you and I discuss.)
• Your work may consist of a single piece or multiple pieces.
• 2D works must be larger than 130 square inches (for example a 10x13 inch image; multiple pieces can combine to 130 square inches)
• COLOR should be an integral element in your work either visually/aesthetically or conceptually.
• Your work should exhibit quality craftsmanship as it applies to your chosen media.
• Digital work: submittable file formats include: MOV or MP4 or web link (video), MP3 or M4A or web link (audio), GIF, HEIC or JPG (photo work or documentation), JPG and unflattened TIF (or PSD) for digital raster work, JPG and unflattened PDF (or AI) for digital vector work, please talk to me about other formats.
• Analog work: simply photograph the work with a cell phone or camera after your critique set up and post the images on D2L. Please post HEIC or JPG files; sometimes multiple photos will be necessary to fully document/capture the work.

submission specifications:

• Artwork and design work is due ready to present/show/install at the start of class on the day of critique.
• You may need to have your sensory component for the critique as well.
• Components needed for grading are due via D2L by midnight following the last day of critique. See file formats above for digital work; analog work can simply be photographed with a cell phone or camera during the critique and posted on D2L.
• You are responsible for making sure I have what is needed to grade. Talk to me about items specific to your work.

NOTE: If you feel that your concept for this project will not be possible within these stated requirements, please talk to me so we can work out a different set of requirements.

tips + resources:

· “Fantastical” definitions from Merriam-Webster

1a: based on fantasy (see FANTASY entry 1 sense 2) : not real

1b: conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy

1c: so extreme as to challenge belief : UNBELIEVABLE

broadly : exceedingly large or great

2: marked by extravagant fantasy or extreme individuality : ECCENTRIC

3: fantastic : EXCELLENT, SUPERLATIVE

• Related videos:
  The Disney movie Fantasia introduced the concept of mixing sight and hearing to new audiences: soundtrack
  Phenomenon where stimulus to one sense activates a second sense: synesthesia
  (see also: chromesthesia; synesthesia translating sound into color)
  Mixing of senses and ideas: ideasthesia

The McGurk Effect illustrates how vision influences interpretation of sound
Audio as visual created by an artist and composter (video)

Audio as visual using an algorithm to determine colors (video)
Colorblind man in bright outfit hears colors (video)
Music and the Brain: How Synesthesia Speaks to Creativity (video)

“Visual Music” exhibition lecture at Hirshhorn Museum (video)
Kinetic Typography showing distance and size (not color): Good LIfe

Angelica Dass’s TED talk about her photographic skin-tone project Humanae

NPR Audio Color Playlist: Color-coded world, Colorblind artist, Green as color/cause, Photo skin tones, Photo racial bias, Why is blue so hard, True Blue, Sad to see less blue, Why red/blue states, Golden Gate bridge, Girls and pink, Xs are the same, berry so shiny, Neptune’s color, Colored houses, and non-audio fluorescent Frog, colored Greek marble, tricky brain, movement illusion, and more!

• Keep in mind that in addition to color you will utilize shape and layout – which can also be very expressive.
  TEST: If someone were to tell you that the names of the two shapes pictured below were BOUBA and KIKI, but that you would have to guess which was which – what would you choose for each shape image? (explanation here)
  
  
• Audio and written compositions have a linear delivery (as time passes, as the eye moves across a page). Consider building a relationship to the way the source audio unfolds.
  
  
• Music has a tempo, a number of beats, and speed of beats. Similarly, poems rely on the number of accented and unaccented syllables in a verse. The delivery of a speech has a cadence and the personality of the specific voice.
  For example, imagine the color and shape of Martin Luther King’s voice as he says “I have a Dream.”
  
  
• Color can evoke physical sensation like warm or cool or convey a mental state like sadness or anger. You can imagine color relationships for soft, harsh, smooth, bold, rapid as well as using it for many metaphors.
  
  
• Design Elements to consider: COLOR, sequence, speed, pace, transition, texture, layout, orientation, space, focus, emphasis, atmosphere, emptiness, etc.
  
  
• Check out production services: DePaul’s Print Lab (Loop) or DePaul’s IRL/IRL2 or Edgewater Workbench or Latitude Digital Lab or Moo or Blurb or issuu or Fastsigns or spoonflower etc.