A Color Box Proposal
Enter at risk of Change!
One box, four projectors and some gifted digital artists merge to create an experience where curiosity, insight and wonder become as much a part of the environment as light and color. The art becomes complete when you, the participant, step inside.
Please visit the Kickstarter page to see the colorbox explained in video.
The Box: From a distance, a glowing box changes colors. Getting closer, a small entryway beckons you inside. Once inside, without shadows, immersed in changing color and light, you discover it is your body movement that is dancing in the visual displays around you. You will be taken through a chiaroscuro of contrasts in hue, value, chroma, complements, and arrays. The experience is vivid, bright, and prismatic, saturating you from all around. You begin to understand that color is never perceived as it actually is, that, in fact color is relative. There’s nothing better than getting inside big art, except getting inside and becoming part of the art. You complete the Color Box.
The Color Box was born two years ago in 2009. This year, due to new technology and brilliant coders, we’ll realize a dream when the Color Box becomes responsive to full body movements for the first time.
What’s the money for? We need projectors, a new screen, technology switchers, video software, and transportation costs. We have the computer as well as the cage and cables. We’ve made great progress in the past but to leap this next hurdle, we need you. I’m happy to send you a budget if you request. We are making art that requires participation.
Every contribution makes a difference.Thank you for your support.
Colorbox.me : Facebook : Color Box Movie (11 minutes)
FAQ’s
Who are you? Our core team is made up of 6 highly creative driven SOURCErs who will be installing the 2011 version of the Color Box at Alchemeyez, the Visionary Arts Congress on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are grateful that Alchemeyez, one of the greatest concentrations of visionary artists today, has asked us to exhibit for the second year. It’s time to realize the dream: body movement unveiling the construct of our visual sense, revealing the eyes for what they are, windows of perception. We are fascinated by the Laws of Color, the organic and hard-wired nature of how our eyes see, and are seeking to expose the wonder in this phenomenon through simple color relationships. The added new dimension of motion response is a thrilling component. We have no way to predict the impact but, I can imagine, the kinetic discovery of color relationships will deepen visual literacy.
What can it be used for? First of all, a Color Box is an experience. Art for art’s sake. It is meant to enhance your visual grammar. For a dancer, it becomes a complete environment that changes as you dance. You aren’t just dancing with the color box, it is dancing with you. For a photographer, it’s an ideal set- no shadows and illuminated on all sides. Color has been known to heal. I imagine there might be applications of a color box for many conditions that affect our emotional or mental body. For healers perhaps you would see yourself reflected as a luminous body with chakras and your movement could altar the colors of those energy concentrations. That would be a powerful visualization. But first and foremost, it is an experience of color in relationship. In that alone, color reduced to it’s simplest contrasts, we find our experience of color in the world, our appreciation for visual art, enhanced.
Why are you passionate about this? I fell in love with color relationship and the wonder it creates when I saw halation, a phenomenon of color spreading beyond its actual realm. It changed the way I saw the world.
When did you think of the Color Box? I came out of Dick Nelson’s color class with completely altered vision. Plants and flowers seemed to be breathing, the yellow lines on the road were alive. Nelson had evolved Josef Albers by improving his work digitally. It occurred to me that making it interactive and immersive was the next logical step.
What technology are we using? The core piece that makes the color box interactive is the XBox Kinect. Check out the guest artist application for more details and email me if you have questions.
How do I find out more? We’ve got lot’s of cool video to watch and more information on The Color Box website and on our colorbox facebook page. Check out youtube channel, including a Color Movie that explains my passion for color and guest artist Android Jones from last years festival.
How is Color Relative? Have a look at this dynamic animation we created to see (right before your eyes) how our visual perceptive system constantly adjusts for color context.
How did the Color Box work last year? We borrowed projectors (thanks Brahim) and used the Wii infrared remote control and Barbie dolls with infrared LEDs in their third eye. The Wii only allowed the same feedback as a mouse. This year’s box will be so much more dynamic.
Video credits: Music is under Creative Commons Copyright: thank you morgantj for ”Wayfarer”. The stick figure is OSCeleton and the hand motion tracker is Tuiokinect. Many thanks for all your work, as well as, to openKinect and many others who’ve laid the foundation to make interactivity possible.
THANK YOU: I have so much gratitude for each and every one of you for showing support and contributing to the greatness of this project. I look forward to sharing the Color Box with you soon… and the Color Box looks forwards to experiencing you!
LAST YEAR’S PROPOSAL
A Color Box: the demonstration website
download PDF of proposal
Proposal by Gabriel Mott
Two years ago I took a color class with Dick Nelson that completely changed my sense of color. As I made discoveries about how and why certain combinations of colors created brilliant luminosity, I was astounded and wanted to share this experience with everybody.
Description:
A Color Box is a portable room about 8 feet cubed. Using a computer, a projector, a Wii game system and a screen, a person walking into the room will be able to interact with a color grid projected on the screen. By touching a color swatch, the entire room will change to that color.
Intention:
Inspire and educate people about color through scale and interactivity.
Experience:
You walk into a room and all you see is a grid of color on the wall. When you move your hands over the grid, the room changes color to match the color you touched.
Surrounded by color in a room that instantly changes based on your behavior is startling. When you are faced with how your perception of color changes based on your surroundings, your mind opens.
How is A Color Box 2010 different than 2009?
Bigger, tighter, smoother, more intuitive, brighter, more content [more]
Installation:
SOURCE Interactive Arts Festival Maui Hawaii February 2010. This event is a four day gathering sort of like a mini Burning Man for Maui Hawaii. Approximately 500 people will attend.
Concept:
The swatches of color projected on the wall do not change color, only the background changes color. However, the individual swatches will seem to change color. This is an effect of our eyes called simultaneous contrast. Additional effects that will enlighten the user are halation (the brilliance and luminosity achieved with specific combinations and steps of mixed color).
Budget/Materials: $6000
All materials will be purchased used or at reduced cost where possible
Wii gaming controller: $40.
4000 lumen Projector: $2000
8’ x 8’ screen: $200
Laptop computer: $400
Outlining Screen: $400
EMT to build frame: $250
LED infrared light contotollers: $50
Construction materials (hinges, locks, screws, paint): $300
The primary wall will be made of a screen (8′x8′) projected upon from the backside. The screen will be filled with imagery similar to the color website I created called colorisrelative.com.
Through the thin doorway, the Wii remote control is mounted to read the inputs from the "Lion" mouse with infrared LED
The interaction will be possible by reverse engineering a Wii gaming system. Johnny Lee at the Ted Conference explains how to do this.
Future:
A Color Box will be reusable and mobile. Following SOURCE, A Color Box will be available to show at other festivals and schools.
I need your help to make this happen. Visit the demo page for A Color Box to donate.
Thank you!
Gabe
