Color Cube

The project consists of working with electronics and designing an interface to create a learning device for interacting with color. Color is an essential yet complex topic because it is a physical phenomenon (an objective process) that depends on how it is perceived (a subjective process), and it is always conditioned by the context and the physical capabilities of the observer. Color is also a cultural phenomenon, and its associations and meanings can vary from culture to culture. Over the years, this multifaceted topic has been studied by various authors from different fields of study. Many of them have created visual representations and organizational systems to explain this phenomenon, some of them were purely mathematical, others tried to relate and compare color to other activities such as music, states and feelings. In design, color is a fundamental topic, "Colors speak all languages" said Joseph Addison in 1712 (Addison in Zollinger, 1999). Color itself can be considered as a visual language, it can convey different meanings and depending on how it is used, it can create diverse aesthetic experiences. Many authors have tried to find and define different rules for working and experimenting with it, so that designers should know them in order to create cohesive communication pieces. However, an ever-present question is: what can be the best way to learn and understand color? In the early years of the Bauhaus, this topic was included in the preliminary course as one of the foundations of art and design. In this course, which was initially dictated by Johannes Itten, students were guided to experiment and interact with colors and materials in order to understand and build knowledge through exploration. In these classes, Itten taught about color and he created various exercises for his students. After leaving Weimar and teaching for many years in Switzerland, he wrote and published the book "The Art of Color" in which he presents and describes his color theory with several exercises. Although Itten's theory has some inaccuracies, his contribution to the study of color was remarkable. For this reason, and after researching and analyzing color theories and color representations, the idea of working with an interactive color learning device was defined. The goal of the project is to analyze and interact with Itten's color principles in a device that represents the RGB model. This model was chosen because it is the one used on monitors and it is a mathematical representation of additive mixing. Considering this and the possibilities offered by microcontrollers and electronics, the idea of working and developing an electronic color cube was conceived. The project was designed to be implemented in learning environments to allow students to interact with a physical representation of the RGB cube and Itten's color principles. The goal of this interaction is to provide an opportunity to understand and see how these three primary colors of light can vary and create different color effects and sensations associated with color. The goal is to create a learning tool that allows students to explore and understand this complex and interesting topic.