Google understands the meaning of colors at Milan Design Week

It’s undeniable that color, like shape and texture, informs how we understand our surroundings. According to Google’s design team, it can evoke emotions and can be expressed not only through sight, but also through sound, taste, smell, and touch.

The studio will collaborate with Los Angeles-based art and research lab Chromasonic to present its third interactive exhibition at Milan Design Week 2024. The “Making Sense of Color” installation activates all the senses as visitors move through 21 dreamlike spaces separated by gauze walls with responsive light and audio displays. Eventually they arrive at a series of rooms, showing more specifically how certain tones are associated with certain sensations, and adding to the brand’s ever-evolving range of devices, including phones, tablets and smart home devices. Leveraged into a suite of products.

Google: Understand the meaning of colors

“Color resonates with vibrancy and embodies energy,” says Ivy Ross, vice president of design, UX, and hardware product research at Google. “Colors have biological and psychological effects on us.” Currently, we as a society experience many emotions, so it is important to understand the power of these natural forces and their different properties. seems as important as ever. ”

Chromasonic has created acclaimed immersive light and sound installations aimed at promoting well-being, including at Satellite One spaces in Venice and California. Ross and her team chose to collaborate on this practice because of its ability to make color more experiential and physically appealing. The art laboratory has introduced a unique chromasonic reflexing technology.

“Light waves are converted to sound waves, and sound waves are converted to light waves in real time. Essentially, it’s about making light audible and sound visible,” says Harriet, co-founder of the practice.・Girardoni says. “Light and sound travel as one, passing through and between the spaces arranged in the installation, and as they appear and dissolve, they create a sense of our own existence within them and the existence of others. We emphasize our awareness.”

By merging the immateriality of light with the materiality of sound, this formula extends natural perception. Visitors can experience a deeper sense of reality in a synesthetic environment. “Color evokes memories, arouses desire and immerses us in the moment with awe,” adds Chromasonic co-founder Johannes Girardoni. “We spatialize color and sound, creating experiences that change the shape of physical space. It’s an intentional means of placemaking.”

For many design industry visitors to the exhausting Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile furniture fair, Google’s installations offer rest, relaxation, and reflection. “We believe this year’s exhibition will provide guests with a refreshing and rejuvenating respite,” Ross concluded. “We started using Salone to share thought leadership in design and what inspires us. We believe in creating experiences that are presented to design professionals and the general public. I love it.”