Color is a new work, currently in progress. Color is one component of Sense*, a series of works about subjectivity and perception. For Color I am working in collaboration with Chris Cochrane (a musician), Alec Gessner (a woodworker), and Colin McNally (an astrophysicist), all of whom have impaired color vision.
During our preliminary research it has become clear that what this piece will really try to address is the impossibility of really knowing another person’s reality, and the compensations we make in the face of that.
We are planning a multi-tiered experience that will bring the empathic impulse to the fore by inducing the vertigo of seeing through someone else’s eyes. Color will eventually include three self-directed experiences for audiences:
- A participatory “tour” of an immersive physical environment that will be a color-blind fun-house
- Audio tours of museums and outdoor spaces, with descriptions from the perspective of the three men
- A website that has information about red-green color vision deficiencies, tests for color vision, and other activities.
By immersing the audience in a skewed perceptual world, we want to highlight the contingent nature of consensual reality.
We are also planning to consult with specialists, e.g. an expert in optics, and bring in collaborators in sound and light design, including Sue Poulin, light artist extraordinaire.
*For Sense I am planning to create five different experiences, each of which, like Color, concentrates on nuances of sensory or movement experiences, such as the effect of partial hearing loss, or different challenges to balance. These will be made in collaboration with “sensory-impaired” individuals.
