As you approach or pass by Colors Passing, a sensor on the artwork detects the color of your clothing, and suddenly, a poem appears on the embedded display screen. To design this playful, interactive piece, my collaborator and I developed software that translates perceived colors into a universal digital language and generates a unique code for each and every color. These codes are used as a key to generate a poem, using a pool of phrases collected from famous poetry about color.

Colors Passing uses poetry to illustrate the translation from a common computer code into human language, and invites travelers to experience poetry about color from a diverse range of cultures and perspectives.

The piece was exhibited on the first floor west rotunda of Terminal 2 (before security) at the San Diego International Airport from January 2018–July 2019 and was built in collaboration with Zachary Kaiser