GEOCHROMY
Design and Territoriality
It was perhaps during the period of Spanish invasions that the name Tierra de Chili was first spoken. Was it a bird —as some believe— whose song gave voice to those syllables? Was it a plant, or perhaps a custom of the local people that caught the attention of the newcomers?
“Chile (…) a vast, imposing country, the pride of geographers, naturalists, and travelers. A country, in short, that satisfies humanity in its most legitimate sense, and even more so the artist who, after all, is man at his fullest power of perception and sensitivity. Chilli, ‘where the land ends,’ the Aymara would say. And they were right—unless it is, in fact, where it begins.”
Benjamín Subercaseaux, writer and essayist
(Extract from Chile or a Crazy Geography, 1942)
GEOCHROMY is a research project that seeks to establish a perceptual approach to Chilean territory, weaving together Physical Geography, Geology, Visual Arts, and Design in order to contribute to the enhacement of our geoheritage memory.
The outcomes of this investigation take shape in a work that materially captures the chromatic expression of physical geography and geological structures from different regions of the country, correlating them with the chromatic codes of Albert Henry Munsell’s theory (1858–1918), North American painter and art educator. Through this bridge, the physical and geological landscape becomes linked to design and the visual arts.
The Munsell Chart establishes an accessible and broad color notation system, offering a precise color correlation with a referencing code based on its hue, chroma, and lightness. As a referential tool, it allows transversal disciplinary application. In this research, it makes it possible to retrieve the chromaticism resulting from the analysis of color variability in rocks and soils. The synthesis of this work materializes in a large-scale installation that becomes an alternative approach to the Chilean landscape, both from the north (Atacama Geochromy) and from the south (Patagonia Geochromy). Its journey will continue, toward the west with the Pacific Ocean Geochromy and the Andes Mountains Geochromy in the east.
