Broken white

The blue tap is cold, the red one hot. Orange invokes feelings of excitement. And yellow draws attention to shop windows. Everybody relates to colours, often even emotionally,
The digital revolution has changed everything. For centuries colour was thought of in terms of light falling onto an object and being reflected to a greater or lesser extent. Total reflection results in white, absolute absorption in black. But the screens that are ever present nowadays aren’t objects reflecting light. They radiate light themselves. The source of colour has changed and with it its appearance.

During his teaching career at the Design Academy Eindhoven artist Mathieu Meijers developed a concept that enables us to recalibrate our understanding of colour. The artworks and design objects in Broken White embody this.

On the one hand we have the light, reflective objects that appeal to eminent emotions, inform our identity and inspire systems, sometimes even dangerously so. On the other hand we have objects in dark, absorbent colours that invoke feelings of security, but also fear, that represent earthiness and intuition. Thanks to new technologies and materials the appearance of colours changes and so does their meaning.

Broken White shows how designers and artists deal with this and how the latter help shape that meaning.