ROYGBIV
Holly Parkin
ROYGBIV is a journey through the human experience of color. This project began as an investigation into perspectivism, looking at how differing viewpoints shape our understanding of the singular “truth.” This evolved into a more specific exploration – color, through a perspectivist lens.
I researched the cultural significance and associations of colors across the world, gathering images, texts, and even idioms to show how the various viewpoints on certain colors may be the same, or total opposites. In addition to this research, I conducted interviews with random people about what certain colors evoke for them, offering a real-world context in tandem with the more generalized research. This was compiled into a book which takes readers on a visual journey through the spectrum, while the interview responses comprise a running commentary at the bottom. I also included a proposed concept for an installation that takes the viewer into that same experience through audio-space immersion. In this installation, light fills a room and shifts through the spectrum slowly, audio recordings of the interview responses playing over the visuals, like a stream of consciousness.
Ultimately I believe that taking something like color, something that is so vital, but also so commonplace, to our lived experience (as well as a human construct on its own), allows us to understand each other’s behavior on a new level. If we can respect the way one person chooses to wear red, why not understand and respect other aspects of their cultural existence?