A spatial color‐sound model for mixed reality

The objective of this paper is two‐fold: to share information about color and to solicit information about sound, with the ultimate goal of producing a simple formula for generating a cybernetic mixed reality environment; and to serve as a vehicle for inviting conversation at the “Cybernetics: Art, Design and Mathematics 2010” Conference.

The majority of research in color focuses on the perceptual, experiential, phenomenon. Conceptual color is a perceptual and non‐experiential. It is color observed as a thought. By engaging in study, from this methodological approach, color can be modeled as a simple computational system of inter‐related abstract elements. This makes the complexity of the perceptual environment understandable and translatable to abstract data, but also makes the transition from the abstract back to actual possible.

The conceptual model approach has yielded a number of features for future study, not least of which is color, as a true mathematical system. This is very different from a simple color‐coding system.

With more development, the new system may prove to be of significance to future digital design applications. Given that music is also a spatial pattern system, revisiting the age‐old belief that there must be a correlation between color and music may now be productive.

This paper presents a puzzle with thought‐provoking questions, designed to solicit the information needed, in order to determine if a spatial correlation between color and sound is identifiable.