Translation. Notes on colour and migration

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Volume Title

School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis
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Date

2020

Department

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Master’s Programme in Contemporary Design

Language

en

Pages

116

Series

Abstract

TRANSLATIONS is a study on colour in the context of migration. This research work takes as a starting point the author’s personal journey of leaving his home country of Mexico to settle in Finland. The study discusses the process of integration and identity building through the analysis of different aspects in the concept of colour, departing from the fact that the phenomena of colour and colour perception are on the one hand deeply individual, and yet highly informed by context and social constructs. Through a series of pieces, colour tests and interventions this research work explores the relation we build with colour and how it transforms when moving from point A to point B. Following the same line, the term translation is used in its different meanings to describe the process of transformation in words, objects and colour perception, creating a simile with the process of migration. The artistic research is documented in two chapters. In the first, a series of traditional Mexican wooden crafts are selected under the criteria of colour to be dissected and intervened in their materiality and appearance. The results of contextualising and decontextualising these objects are then discussed by the author to reflect on the object’s provenance, identity and practical function. In the second chapter, a technique for colouring wood is developed using pigments and several media to conduct a series of colour tests. A group of coloured wooden pieces are created using the act of colour testing itself as a method to translate different colour experiences deeply embedded in the author’s mind; experiences subjected to the translation from point A to point B. The conceptualisation of the outcomes of this artistic research on colour and colour perception becomes the ground to discuss different complexities of migration and the process of integration through the author’s own experience.

Description

Supervisor

Mäkelä, Maarit

Thesis advisor

van der Lei, Anna-Marie

Keywords

colour, migration, colour perception, wood, integration, Mexico

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