Tech
Metamerism
An illuminant metamerism illusion platform — LED fixtures crossfade between spectral distributions that appear identical on reference surfaces but produce dramatic color shifts on other objects.
We humans think that colors are an intrinsic and unchanging property of objects. They aren't. They're the result of a complex negotiation between the spectrum of light hitting the object, the object's surface reflectance, and your visual system's interpretation of the reflected light.
We experience color as a three-dimensional space, but spectral color exists in a space of infinite dimensions, and we can manipulate this to make objects' colors change in strange and unsettling ways. Breathing, shifting, and showing us that there's more to color than meets the eye.
The Shift — Illuminant Metamerism Room
CIE 1931 Chromaticity
Why This Matters
Metamerism isn't just a lab curiosity. It's why your shirt looks different under office fluorescents than in sunlight. It's why museums obsess over lighting spectral quality. It's why LED fixture manufacturers publish spectral data alongside color temperature.
This project builds the tools to compute, visualize, and physically demonstrate metameric illuminant pairs using precision multi-channel LED fixtures — turning color science theory into a visceral, room-scale experience.
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