The Color of Memory Santa Monica Sunset Experiments

The Color of Memory My video and photographic series, “The Color of Memory,” observes the elasticity of time and color, constructing a more arbitrary relationship between the two. The rearranging of color channels in multiple layered images illustrate the fracturing of our perception of color as a fixed entity and how time alters our understanding of the landscape. Misaligning the color plates within the image performs the same function as a prism, when refracting white light into the component colors, creating colorful ghosting where movement occurs. The Color of Memory is a multi-section or multi-chapter body of work that explores the concepts of time, perception, and memory within the landscape. The Color of Memory: Santa Monica Color Experiments The first section of The Color of Memory: Santa Monica Color Experiments, is my first experiments for this project. Completed in 2014, Santa Monica Color Experiments examines the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. Created using time-lapse captured, the Santa Monica Color Experiments began as 100 individual images capturing the last hour of daylight. The un-expected colors you see in the work come from taking three adjacent photographs and then rearranging the color channels within the image. Each image is made up of the red color channel from one image, the green from a second, and the blue from a third. By manually adjusting the exposure over the hour, I was able to control the smoothness of the water. As time passes, the exposures get longer, and the ocean gets smoother. Eventually, they are just pastel patterns in a smooth field of color. I found this investigation, which also includes a video component to be a success and an inspiration for the rest of the series.