Colorwave

“Colorwave”, 2020 – Sosolimited

Colorwave is an interactive artwork that responds to text messages. Glowing slices of color, derived from the texts, coalesce into a double edged wave.

10 prism-shaped LED digital displays on the wall of a gallery are awash with colorful animations. At any one time, wave-like shapes are moving across all of the displays. Instructional signage will explain the installation and display a phone number, instructing visitors to text a phrase or photo to the artwork.

If a visitor sends a photo via text message, the dominant 3-6 colors are extracted from the image and then the artwork goes into a transition mode where the current shapes and colors disappear. New wave shapes in the dominant colors from the image appear on the LED prisms and animate across their surface.

If the visitor has sent a text-based SMS with no photo attached, there is an intermediate step where the text phrase is sent to an image-search service online, and the dominant colors of the returned images are extracted. Those colors then drive the animations on the artwork.

About the Artist

Sosolimited is a multi-disciplinary studio of designers, architects and software developers whose work takes the form of anything from interactive installations to digital apps to multi-sensory experiences. The vision of Sosolimited is a world in which design and technology work hand and hand to unlock our collective creative potential and bring us closer to ourselves, each other, and the planet.

Fast Facts presented by 

  • If you send a photo or an emoji, Colorwave extracts the colors from this.
  • If you send a word or a phrase, it scans Google images and pulls colors from the results.