Advanced Colour Terms

Advanced Colour Terms is an installation that explores how language shapes our perception of colour. Two industrial pipes—mirroring the space’s architecture—rise from the floor: one emits shifting light, the other strange, generated speech. A machine learning model, trained on 300+ global colour terms, invents speculative new descriptors, imagining how non-human intelligence might name colour. Spoken through one pipe the other emits the corresponding colour in real time, creating a feedback loop between synthetic language and visual perception. The work bridges linguistic data and sensory experience, questioning perception’s boundaries while reflecting on the loss—and potential rebirth—of language through technology.

Photos © Lea Fabienne. 2025