books published |
A BAUHAUS COLOR EXPERIMENT
By Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen
Anyone is invited to print this pdf version of the postcard, cut along the trim lines, glue the two sides together, complete the questionnaire, and mail it in. (Please note that questionnaires must be submitted by mail, without an envelope.)
HEAVENLY MONKEY |
Coinciding with the publication of After Image, creators Barbara Hodgson and Claudia Cohen have been inviting friends and strangers to participate in a revival of a 1923 color experiment. Originally conceived by Wassily Kandinsky, an artist and instructor at the Bauhaus (Germany's avant-garde applied art institute), respondents are asked to assign one of the three primary colors to a circle, a square and a triangle, and then to explain their decisions. The results of the original experiment led Kandinsky to declare with confidence that each shape had a natural color association (which will not be revealed here until the current experiment is concluded, in hopes of avoiding undue influence). Will the final tally of the After Image experiment confirm the findings of the Bauhaus? We look forward to finding out. A sampling of the responses received to date is shown opposite. Plans are afoot to publicly display all of the responses received in the fall of 2009 in Vancouver. We are also looking into creating a satellite site that will allow visitors to view each card individually. |