In this installation two or more colored hexagons are projected onto the wall using LED profile spotlights with corresponding gobos. They are partially overlapping in order to produce a 3-dimensional effect.
In the area of superposition the known phenomenon of additive color mixing occurs. Surprisingly, the non-superimposed portions of light also appear to change although they remain physically unchanged.
If one light is white and the second colored we observe a contrast phenomenon analog to the phenomenon of color shadows. The originally white light appears to be color-changed in the direction of the complementary color.
As in case of color shadows we compare a colored white light (the area of superposition) with a neutral white light which however is not perceived as neutral. We see a white or gray minus the color of the other light source, i.e. the complementary color. At the same time the overlapping area appears only slightly colored and always represents the brightest part. It thus seems to produce the new white balance.
If both light sources have the same color, the superimposed light is brighter, while the non-superimposed portions appear darker in the sense of a light-dark contrast. Thus gray colours will result from projecting white lights or darker colors when projecting twice the same color without any physical changes.
If the projected lights have different colors we can see subtle color changes as well.
Clearly these contrast phenomena occur independently of the projected forms and with all color combinations, sometimes more visible, sometimes less. However, they point to the importance of contrast processing during the process of color vision. It appears to be of great importance for our differentiated color perception.
If colors are projected separately without the possibility to compare them directly and thus without induced contrast phenomena, the perceived colors are significantly less differentiated and seem to be limited essentially to the color groups red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, orange, violet, white.