Color me healing

Proposal for the Alter Ego project by Katerina Neophytidou Color brings life and joy. It speaks to our feelings, creating atmospheres. It likes to play with us. It lives in border areas, weaving between light and darkness, between heaven and earth, between thought and will. Color is vibration, it is energy. WHAT IS CHROMOTHERAPY? Chromotherapy is the treatment of diseases using light and color, i.e. the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. According to the doctrine of chromotherapy, colors are responsible for the correct working of various systems that function in the body. Any departure from the vibratory rate at which the body functions best, if not restored, results in disease. From Heliopolis colored healing rooms to the latticework screens adorned with jewels and translucent curtains, to the stained glass windows of the Gothic cathedrals, the therapeutic effects of light and color were widely known and were used to transform spaces and architectural elements to healing tools. In his Theory of Colors (1810), Goethe developed a relationship between color and Hippocratic medicine and stated that every color produces a corresponding influence on the mind. Following Goethe, doctors began using color not just as an aid to diagnosis, but as a cure in itself. This inevitably influenced artists such as Gaugin and Kandinsky and color treatment soon became fashionable. This trend was exploited by many, through the invention of dubious gadgets which, in its turn, caused the collapse of the belief that color can heal. Today through the development of science in the fields of energy and quantum physics (E=mc2) and biology (biophotons) new dimensions of this old theory come forth. Colored light can be received through the skin or the eyes- light waves enter through skin receptors that respond to both light and color. Cyprus being a country with sunshine almost all year round could host such a therapeutic tool in almost every dwelling or structure that has window openings facing anywhere from North-East to North-West. Direct exposure to sunlight can be conducted through transparent colored glass UV filters with single or combinations of colors which stimulates the internal glands.

Fashionable Lady bathing in red and blue light from Seth Pancoasts Light and its rays as medicine (1877) I propose revisiting the Chromotherapy trend by installing such filters in public buildings with traffic of people and waiting rooms. There, one can have the time to relax and wonder off mentally in a bath of color and light and all its therapeutic effects. The pattern it self on the glass surface will be in direct relationship with a)the surrounding elements of the buildings interior, b)the human body and c)the bodys relationship to colors. People will be drawn to what suits them best at that time. The play of the moving patterns in the space will also act as a cycle counter of the natural rhythms of the day in contrast to the frantic rhythms of everyday life, thereby slowing time down and creating a sacred space for healing and contemplation and even social interaction. From Goethes tinted laboratory windows(1810)to Dr. Edwin Babbits Chromolume Window (1878), to Olafur Eliassons Sun Window,(1997)the idea remains beautifully simple.

Edwin Babbit Chromolume Window, 1878 re-sketched A suitable building for this proposal would be a therapy room, either in a hospital or a mental facility where the patients there can actively participate by creating with us small scale models of draft ideas. Here what is needed is written authorization from the doctors to use the facilities and work with their patients as well as permission from the hospital director and board for the final window installation. This project will require -for the small models: A4 transparent color sheets, A4 2mm plexiglass panels, scissors and transparent tape and -for the final installation: specialized transparent window films that run about 19 euro per square meter and can be ordered online by companies like Brume. I have visited Makarios Hospital where Mrs. Yioula Papakyriakou from the American Womens Club authorized the use of a childrens healing room for the chromotherapy project.

Further more other buildings that can be transformed are A. a greenhouse- in a simple experiment conducted by Augustus Pleasanton in 1876 it was proved that alternating blue and white light help plants grow much faster and much bigger- and

B. the University of Cyprus sports facilities building where athletes can benefit while preparing for a game (red) or cooling off from one (blue)