Rotorbrain: Color Theory and Other Interactivities

 

Over at Jonathan Foote's Rotorbrain Industries, you'll find two color interaction demonstrations that let you play with some of the concepts of Josef Albers' color theory.

The first one demonstrates how context influences our perception of colors. (You manipulate sliders to see how this works.)

The second demonstrates how color can influence our spatial perception.

This is a very rich, deep and remarkable website, where you can jump to "another damnable blog" (waxing prolix), and find wonderful photos by David Hilbert from the Galapagos Islands, set to music.

(By the way: Why is it that when my Ladies' Book Club gets onto something, such as reading Darwin, I then run into Darwin at every turn? In the latest issue of The New Yorker, for example, Anthony Lane discusses a new film about Darwin, "Creation," by Jon Amiel).


Foote makes light sculptures (such as this Cage Lamp), invents things (a micro rhythm orchestra, electronic color goggles, mapping code, robotic avatars for desktop teleconferencing – the array of creations is brain-rotoring, indeed. Art meets science meets design meets exceptional curiosity and (dare I venture?) brilliance. The photo here of some of his light art is by Michael Prados.

Perhaps my favorite page, for personal reasons (at least tonight) is a very simple one, from the Interactivities page:

For Marie (hint: use the mouse). I have a good friend with that name, and suspect that she may enjoy clicking and scrolling over there!

There's even a Hope-Fear Meter light sculpture: that seems timely and relevant today. (Isn't this a fabulous photo?)

Felt Flames, Inspired by Josef and Anni Albers

I'm not entirely sure what to call these little seed bird flame things, made from scraps of wool felt stuffed with wool roving, but they started to proliferate last year around Christmas, and I've made quite a few since then. As gifts, and as a kind of Josef Albers color study (and as a form of meditation).

Some of the colors recede and others pop...it's all about how they interact when next to each other. Come to think of it, that's a lot like people: whether or not you are introverted or extroverted, for example, depends on proximity, relationship, and interaction.

The Wikipedia short form bio: Josef Albers (March 19, 1888 – March 25, 1976^[1]) was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century.

A student of the Weimar Bauhaus in 1920, Albers had a long career, with his wife, Anni, first at the remarkable Black Mountain College, and then at Yale. He wrote the book Interaction of Color, published by Yale University Press, and started the Josef and Annie Albers Foundation. It's a wonderful legacy.

Here are some of the felt flames next to a mixed-media drawing I made years ago. I only noticed later how they somehow fit together. And there they are below on a line, held with embellished clothespins (another little obsession). 

And finally, captured in a green bowl. Here is a quote from Anni Albers that I've decided to make my credo: 

"A longing for excitement can be satisfied without external means; for creating is the most intense excitement one can come to know."