Colorimetry — A research on colour and code
'Colorimetry' is a book of shapes generated with color space data and simple rules. The book was published by La chose imprimée, under the guidance and support of professor Judith Poirier at UQAM. Four 96,5×127 cm screen prints were also produced with the help of Simon Laliberté.
It is accompanied by the work-in-progress film 'Colorimetry in motion', which shows the potential of translations between amalgams of shapes. Collaborator Éric-Renaud Houde designed an app capable of shifting the shapes from one color to the next. By recording the animations, we produced a choreography. You can find the code for the app on GitHub.
The book was awarded a First Prize in the Limited Edition category at The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada.
A close-up of the book's distinctive spine. Each signature contains a selection of shapes from a specific 'rule'.
Of course, an infinite number of rules can be created. The first section of the book shows how to compose one using the individual channels of popular color spaces: RGB, CMYK, LAB and HSV. The numbers extracted for each color are then matched to the x and y values of a set number of vertices.
The work-in-progress film 'Colorimetry in Motion', designed to loop in a gallery space. An ambiant soundtrack has been temporarily added for entertainment purposes. The hope is to develop, one day, a coherent system that would generate sound from color space data.
A hidden system for signature identification.
The book was printed by 'Le Groupe QuadriScan' in Montreal. Their Indigo press produce vivid colours, with bright greens and glowing pinks.