A playful series on serious topics. Any resemblance to current politics is wholly intentional.
Red States began with Josef Albers’ book, Interaction of Color, which demonstrates that the so-called evidence of our senses is often no evidence at all. “Color,” says Albers, who chaired the Department of Design at Yale, “deceives continually.” So does Photoshop. Translating perceptions into words and images— or print protocols— is no slam dunk. Physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers have long marveled at the brain’s ability to fool itself. Using different languages —visual, symbolic, numerical—Sir Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein hoped to show how we orient ourselves within a sea of random data. And how we signal our position to others. Their results were not always encouraging. Newton once wrote, "I can calculate the movement of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people."
© Ariel Swartley
