Colors
- year
- 2021—2024
- type
- series
- tools
- Unreal Engine, OpenCV, Python, TouchDesigner
- role
- author
- description
- Meta-project: colour perception after Kandinsky — palette layers, flow maps and machine-vision studies of Deepened Impulse.
Series of works on Kandinsky’s ideas of form and colour perception, mainly from Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
Related works
- FormsFlow CV Colors — Deepened Impulse / machine vision
- Flow Perception
- DayColorBot
- Colors of the day sculpture
Theory
Notes on colour motion in perception.
Second kind of motion: yellow and blue… If one draws two circles of equal size and paints one yellow and the other blue, after a short focus the yellow circle radiates, moves from the centre and almost visibly approaches the viewer, while the blue circle gains a concentric motion and recedes.
More in Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
Machine-vision analysis of paintings
Contour analysis
A non-trivial task — and Kandinsky’s writings still feel relevant. OpenCV-style tools can estimate motion directions (demo), but they follow edges inside the image; colour motion is not obtained that way.
Extracting the main palette
Split the painting into layers so each colour has its own dynamics. Classify the palette so human-perception rules can drive motion (yellow outward, blue inward, …). For each of ~7 colours, build a region in the FlowMap.
Direction map
Motion vectors look right
Applying the map
Based on a fragment of Kandinsky’s Deepened Impulse
Working with colour
Based on a fragment of Kandinsky’s Deepened Impulse