Suggested Color Logic
This guide outlines a collaborative art project designed by Maider López for the Concéntrico + Planea program (Season 24/25). The project, titled «How we live the school, how we live the city,» focuses on creating subjective maps based on students’ emotions and experiences within their environment.
Project Overview
The project aims to create a collective, subjective map of the classroom, the school, and the city. Students use a color-coded system to mark locations based on how they feel in those spaces.
- Goal: To visualize emotions, memories, and experiences linked to specific spaces.
- Method: Students place five colored pieces in different locations and record these on individual and collective maps.
- Outcome: A temporary, subjective signaling of the school that highlights different meanings for the same place or visible areas of student discontent.
The Kit (Materials)
The project provides a kit for up to three classes, containing:
- Five round plywood pieces (5 cm) for each student.
- Paint and brushes in five colors: blue, red, yellow, green, and orange.
- Stickers (Gomets): Small ones for individual maps and large ones for the collective map.
- Maps and Canvas: Individual A4 maps and three plastic canvases (one empty for the classroom, others printed with the school/city).
- Other materials: Permanent markers, clay, and colored cardstock.
Project Phases
Phase 1: Creating the Framework
- Discussion: Students talk about spaces in the school and their commute.
- Emotional Mapping: Students share memories and decide what each color represents.
- Color Logic: Typically, blue and green tones represent positive experiences, while red and yellow represent areas needing improvement or change.
Phase 2: Drawing the Classroom Map
- Individual Maps: Each student draws a map of the classroom on A4 paper; these are then compared for similarities and differences.
- Collective Map: One map is chosen and projected onto a canvas to create a large-scale version.
- Decision Making: The group decides on roles, such as who places stickers or takes photos.
Phase 3: Putting it into Practice
- Placement: Students place their five colored pieces in the classroom and mark the locations on their maps with stickers.
- Documentation: Students write down their reasons, and a designated person transfers these locations to the collective canvas.
- Photography: Photos are taken of the pieces in situ to document the process and the final general plan.
Phase 4: Expanding to the School and City
- School Application: The process is repeated for the school building, potentially using custom-shaped clay markers (e.g., spheres for blue, cubes for red).
- Public Space: Students apply the same dynamics to the city and the areas surrounding the school.
- Route Mapping: Students connect markers of the same color on a map to visualize «emotional routes».
Analysis and Sharing
- Conclusion: The group analyzes the results to see which areas are marked negatively and why.
- Communication: Findings (such as a shaded corner of the playground being underutilized) can be shared with school leadership to propose improvements.
- Exhibition: Students can organize a session to explain the project to other classes using their photos and maps
The guide recommends linking colors to emotions and experiences using the following general logic:
- Blue and Green: These tones are typically linked to positive experiences.
- Red and Yellow: These tones are typically linked to places that show a need for change or improvement.
Example Questions to Define Meanings
To help students assign specific meanings to the five colors (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, and Orange), the guide provides these example prompts:
- «I like this place».
- «I would like to change or improve this site».
- «I have good memories that happened here».
- «I would like to be able to spend more time here».
- «This was my favorite place in the city, but it has changed».
Implementation
Each student is given five pieces (one of each color) to assign a meaning to based on their personal experience. They then place these pieces in the environment to create a «subjective signaling» of how they feel in each space.
Would you like me to create a template for a «Color Code» poster that students could use to display their chosen meanings?
