Color as a light source and the receiver’s participation Juliana HENNO,1 and Monica TAVARES1 1 Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo
Abstract In the field of New Technologies of Communication (NTC) some artworks stand out because of their characteristic way of handling materialized color by light sources. Such light sources are poetically articulated by the artist, and they can enhance the dialogue between artwork and receiver. The aim of this article which resulted from academic research is to present how the light-sourced color manipulated by the artist using NTC technological devices can promote an environment of synergy and exchange of information with the receiver. Once the concepts of color, light and open work are set, some artworks are analyzed in order to identify the several ways color from a light source can be manipulated by the artist, considering its active and fundamental role in the dialogue between receiver and artwork. Based on certain concepts, it is expected to be possible to apprehend how the artist used color poetically as a light source in interactive installations produced by NTC in order to seduce the receiver into an exchange relationship with the artwork.
1. Corpus of the Research In order to achieve the goal of this article, it was necessary to know the historical panorama that laid the foundation for the appearance of the light-sourced color; to do so, the first part of the article aims at recovering the main scientific contributions to the study of the light-derived color, and the intention was to highlight how such contributions are at the basis of the digital artistic experiments. Those contributions, presented in chronological order, brought to light the relevance of the studies of the following scientists: Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832), Thomas Young (1773-1829), Hermann L. F. von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). A tendency to direct the study of color towards its application as a light form was perceived from the investigation of such theories, and those theories, which are considered landmarks in the history of the chromatic study nowadays, came to influence artists and artistic movements. The artists influenced by those studies and discoveries that caused a change in the way color was understood and seen would “experiment” by themselves, and they would give a new sense to color through their poetics, on the basis of the current scientific state of the art. In the scientific community, color as a light source started to be seen as a physical characteristic whose relationship with man is fundamentally important. In the field of New Technologies of Communication (NTC), the existence of some experiments which are possible through the manipulation of the materialized color by light sources is obvious. So, they can favor the synesthetic dialogue between artwork and receiver when they are poetically articulated.
AIC – MIDTERM MEETING 2011 , ZURICH – INTERACTION OF C OLOUR & LIGHT IN THE AR TS AND SC IENCES
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The second part of the article presents information which includes the study of color as a phenomenon, considering that its physical, physiological, psychological and cultural aspects are essential for understanding the specific study of color. The importance of perceiving color not only as a physical element, but also in its subjective character was emphasized. The accomplished survey of the several aspects culminates in the introduction of color as a light source, and it emphasizes its properties and characteristics, which makes it understandable the gradual passage of the use of the color of the object to the color as a light source, in the context of art. The understanding and the gradual use of color through its sense aimed at reaching the receiver and making him/her an active participant of the artwork. Throughout history, artists have used the knowledge they got about composing discoveries and harmony of colors from scientists, and they have transported such knowledge to the artwork through painting. The repertoire built up in the field of the chromatic theories supported the artists who started to use color more and more intentionally and in a calculated way. Little by little, such knowledge influenced the occurrence of artistic movements that tightened the ties between the scientific and the artistic field thanks to the fact that they were open to this kind of information. The artists started to use color more and more so as to capture the observer´s attention, and this observer is going to take an active role in the artwork. Besides, the color materialized by the light in the artists´ hands would take a role of meaning greatly dependent on the participant. Its articulation as both instrument and artistic device was only possible thanks to the progressively close relationship between science and art, which resulted in technological discoveries that amplified the poetical expressiveness along the time. The third part of the article deals with capturing the spectator´s attention in the passage from the classical to the non-classical art: it shows how the spectator moves from the role of spectator to that of interator, that is, the role of a transforming agent of the artwork itself, because of the possibility of being incorporated in the reception not as a person who merely enjoys the artwork, but as a transforming agent himself. For that reason, we looked into the concept of “open work” (Eco, 2003) to make clear the role the receiver has played in the passage from participation to interaction (Popper, 1988). We found out how the panorama of the spectator´s participation, which has been more and more active, reassures the concept of “open work” that, in this case, has been increased by the multiplicity of interpretations and by the ambiguity of meanings which are favored by the mediation of the color as a light source. Different kinds of opening and of levels of participation from the receiver were investigated (Tavares, 2000), and the impact caused by the use of different techniques and technologies in the context of the artistic creation was taken into account. This being the case, and considering the mechanical, electronic and digital point of view, as well as the point of view of craftsmanship, it was emphasized how the interaction of the artwork through the use of color could gradually develop, and color assumed the main role as a mediator between artwork and receiver. The use of new electronic technologies established different possibilities for the public to participate in art. The artist has in hand a variety of new technologies to work with light. These procedures of generating images allow different potentialities of expression. In the present digital experimenting, art, science and technology mix more and more as a mechanism to make it possible for the receiver to insert himself as a way to reach metalanguage, to show creativity and to guarantee the
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AIC M ID TER M M EE TING 2011, Z URICH – IN TERAC TIO N OF C O LO UR & L IGH T IN THE A R TS AND S CI ENCES – PROCEE DINGS
transgressing use of the means. The use of color as a light source and its process of production are invariably linked to the relationship between science and technology, and it is impossible to separate them. Therefore, the poetical way of operating the digital means reveals the transition from the use of the color of the object to the color as a light source. The artist proceeds to define the color from a light source as an element mediating the process, and he/she uses it as a link in the communication between artwork and receiver. In the fourth part of this article, using the concepts discussed, it was possible to clearly and precisely examine three pieces of artwork that were produced on the basis of NTC and that have used color as a light source in order to insert the receiver in an instantaneous participation. In this part, from the context of the pieces of artwork studied, we intended to identify the different ways color from a light source can be manipulated by the artist, considering the role of color as essential and active in the dialogue between receiver and artwork. Using the concepts referred to, the investigation of the pieces of artwork taken on from the study of the dialectics between casual versus controlled, individual versus collective, projected versus emitted, aesthetic information versus semantic information, material versus abstract, and the interviews of the artists who made each one of the pieces of artwork, it was possible to understand how they used color poetically as a light source in interactive installations produced by the NTC in order to seduce the receiver to an exchange relationship with the artwork. The pieces of artwork studied are the following ones: Colour by Numbers (2006-2007) by Erik Krikortz, Loove Broms and Milo Láven; Forest of Light (2009) by Christina Mejbom and Line Langballe and D-Tower (2004-2011) by Q. S. Serafijn and Lars Spuybroek. Throughout this fourth part and focusing the pieces of artwork studied, we noticed different ways by which light-sourced color was used poetically by the artists so as to establish a dialogue with the receiver, whose participation was then favored, and who was seduced by the use of the senses. In such cases, the receiver updates the artwork through a feedback process, and he/she incorporates new meanings to it. We could verify that the conditions given to the interator to modify the structure of the artwork depend on the level of openness that piece of art proposes, and that openness is directly conditioned by the technological mechanism associated with the poetic proposal (Tavares, 2000). A reactive piece of artwork is characterized by limitation in the reorganization of its data, in opposition to a really interactive piece of artwork, which guarantees the receiver´s action over its structure, by means of different reorganizations from the articulation of its variables (Tavares, 2000). However, the artists´ poetic proposals try to reverse this technological limitation by promoting the receiver a sensitive experience relative to the artwork. The selected pieces of artwork differ from each other in relation to the levels of participation and in the ways they present themselves. However, they get closer to each other due to their poetic quality, because they try to capture the receiver and to lead him/her to produce meanings through the use of light-sourced color, as they make their latent and sensitive effects rise. When it is poetically worked, the exploration of the construction of senses, meanings and significances through light-sourced color presents itself as a very rich and ever increasing practice in the artistic experimenting with digital media. Due to the fact that it is a basic language which develops in association with personal and cultural meanings, its effects on man tend to be unique and sensitive. From the pieces of artwork AIC – MIDTERM MEETING 2011, ZURICH – INTERACTION OF C OLOUR & LIGHT IN THE AR TS AND SC IENCES
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studied, we realized the importance of the artist´s poetic ideas to reverse the limitations imposed by technology; such ideas allow him to promote the production of senses. When the artist does so, he/she both facilitates and creates specific strategies that make the receiver recover the artist´s poetic ideas when this receiver accomplishes the dialogue with the artwork (Tavares, 2000).
2. Final Considerations From what was presented in this article, we conclude the light source was a new datum introduced little by little in art. Its use is associated with the impetus of change resulting from the artists´ interest in adopting the most recent scientific discoveries. Such a trend, that is usual among artists from the digital era, is historically based on the studies that paved the way for scientific and technological development. The technological devices resulting from that development were followed closely by the artists, who tried to adapt them as they arose, so as to satisfy their poetical proposals at the moment their artwork was produced. Color as a light source was one of the elements used by the artists, it showed up through artificial means, and it went along with new ways to be articulated and manipulated, together with the technological progress, which makes it a stressing characteristic in the artwork produced by NTC. It has to be stressed that the color from a light source, in opposition to the colorpigment, assumes a much bigger intensity, thus involving the receiver more effectively. In the poetic proposals that were studied, we found out the importance of the information provided by the color as an element that facilitates the dialogue with the receiver. From the point of view of interaction, these pieces of artwork facilitated the dialogue with the receiver and favored the production of a unique and sensitive experience. We could, therefore, realize the importance of the use of color as a way to insert the receiver once we consider the presence of the information provided by the color as something that makes that poetic proposal dynamic and real. Finally, we found out that depending on the artist´s poetic proposal, it is possible to involve the receiver making him/her act together with the artwork in a playful and unattached way. In this sense color helps this total of involvement guaranteeing – if it is used according to its physical, physiological and cultural characteristics – the effects of the strategically built poetic ideas. Therefore, color ends up by defining the sense of the artwork, thus affecting the participants sensitively, even if they are not prone to a reactive dialogue.
References Eco, U. 2003. Obra Aberta: forma e indeterminações nas poéticas contemporâneas. São Paulo: Perspectiva. Popper, F. 1988. De la participation à l’interactivité dans les arts plastiques. In: Vers une Culture de L’Interactivité? Actes du Colloque. Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie La Villette, Paris: 89-96. Tavares, M. B. S. 2000. A recepção no contexto das poéticas interativas, São Paulo: ECA/USP. Printed version available at the ECA-USP library. Address: Juliana Henno, Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de Artes Plásticas, Avenida Professor Lúcio Martins Rodrigues, 443, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo. E-mails: julianaharrison@usp.br, mbstavares@usp.br
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