"Investigating the Big Blue": cyanotype workshop in two parts, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece by Hannah L. M. Eßler

A 2-part module by the MA Transdisciplinary Studies of ZHdK, Department Kulturanalysen und Vermittlung. Held by Anna Rubi & Eirini Sourgiadaki. Autumn 2023-Spring 2024 Colour perception varies, so do the semantics of colour terminology, for both sighted and blind individuals. The questions around colour perception from ophthalmology or neurobiology perspectives to cognitive and artistic ones, are infinite: Is there a universal human experience of the blue sky, the green grass and the brown soil? How is colour perceived in the brain, how is it translated into a communicable concept and how does it affect our perceived world, our mental and physical state? What is the role of colour in synesthesia? And most importantly, does colour have to do just with vision? In this module we work with the generation of blue colour on print, using the major light source available, the Sun. The Island of Amorgos is often referred to as “Le grand bleu” after the famous french film was shot at location. Its ancient name is “Melania”. “Melani”, the Greek word for ink, (“Melano” for dark blue, cyan) as it is said that in ancient times the place was covered with dark green flora. Our investigation begins exactly with this deep tint. We pay a visit to the famous monastery and the water oracle, walk the trails to observe the sensual -not only vision-based- shades of blue. In the spring term, we participate in local activities such as beach clean-up initiatives of the remote bays by local fishermen and their boats. We visit bee-hives and herb-distilleries, we work with the most basic bits and pieces of the island to capture its essence.

Tomer Zirkilevich

Blue touches blue

Touches grey touches black

I’ve looked down at my feet

They’ve been with me for years… (NOA)

The travel is not only the way

It is a moment

It is the time you explore, engage, feel, smell and see. See the great blue in all its shades

And through the sea you see life.

The sea is my home the sun is my family

We are 3 in this adventure, we are wild and soft, troublemaker and solution thinkers we touch and cuddle like little kitten we talk and cry as if melancholy was a Greek goddess. We love the toxic and the healing we are the fools and the pentacles the divines and the bile.

“How much I loved you, I alone know. I who touched you once with the eyes of the Pleiades and embrace you in the wild hair of the moon and we dance in the summer fields

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