‘Colour doesn’t only transmit meaning; … between nature and culture, experience and
understanding, it mediates our relationship with the world.’ - James Fox
This project showcases a dream-like garden created through digital manipulation and screen print before
finding its place within the chromatic spectrum. Turning the ordinary into the sublime provokes
a sense of wonder. The more wonder we find in nature, the more affinity we feel.
Colour becomes an optical illusion when you understand that it is a matter of physics and
psychology. Each beam of light consists of different waves of frequency; each frequency is a
colour. Surfaces absorb some of these waves but reflect others – the reflected waves are the
colours we see, yet the way we perceive them differs. Context, culture, and personal experience
all affect our view. Colour is made by its perceivers with the potential to bend reality by turning
standard vision into the extraordinary.
Frequency challenges colour, to create a new way of seeing nature. Encouraging viewers to
question their interpretations, judgements, and perceptions of what nature is. Defining nature
has become a job for both scientists and philosophers. If everything on this Earth comes from
natural elements, does this make everything natural? Aristotle defined nature as “The essence of
things, what they are made of and their destiny” - but when in ‘destiny’ does something go from
nature to artificial?
Gardens are manufactured specifically to be resourceful, convenient, and beautiful. Frequency
focuses on these protected areas of tamed nature, located in the Southwest. With a temperate
rainforest climate, the flora that thrives here is special to this pocket of the UK. The form,
concept and construction of a garden are built upon a person's preferences and needs.
