Making Sense of Color
From the ethereal to the material
— an exploration of color
A Google Design Studio installation in collaboration
with arts + research lab Chromasonic
Google presents Making Sense of Color for Salone del
Mobile Milano following its previous exhibitions A Space
For Being in 2019 and Shaped by Water in 2023. In a
multispace installation at Garage 21, Via Archimede, 26,
20129 Milano Italy, Making Sense of Color is a journey
from the ethereal to the material that shines a light on
the sensorial qualities of color. Co-created by Google’s
Vice President of Hardware Design, Ivy Ross, and her
design team in collaboration with the arts + research lab,
Chromasonic, Making Sense of Color will be on view at
Garage 21 in Milano, Italy, April 15 through 21, 2024.
This year for Salone del Mobile Milano, through Making
Sense of Color, Google strives to show how color, which
is elemental to sensing the world, is a powerful aspect of
Google’s latest hardware design. Upon being welcomed
into the exhibit, guests enter Chromasonic’s vibrant
light and sound installation composed of repeating
translucent scrims that create a series of open rooms
and interstitial spaces. In this multi-layered experiential
environment, each of the 21 spaces, or nodes, is activated
by a single source of light and spatialized sound. As
guests freely wander through and around the nodes,
moment by moment, using Chromasonic Refrequencing
which translates sound frequencies to light and light
frequencies to sound, light is made audible and sound visible. This unique phenomenon gives rise to a depth of
immersion that makes each person acutely aware of the
connection between their body’s subtle movements and
the movement of other people within the installation. A
harmonizing of the mind and body connection through
light and sound. From there, the exhibit experience
shifts from the ethereal to the material as guests move
onto a series of spaces, each dedicated to a particular
color inspired and informed by a specific sensation.
Step by step, sense by sense, a journey culminating in
a feast for the eyes that shows how color comes to life
through the design of Google’s hardware portfolio that
will be on display. Making Sense of Color continues the
conversation on thoughtful design by showing how color
transforms our experience with the world around us.
About Ivy Ross
Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design, UX, and Research
for Hardware Products at Google, which was officially
formed in 2016. Since 2017, she and her team have launched
a family of consumer hardware products ranging from
smartphones to smart speakers, earning over 250 different
design awards. This portfolio of devices established a design
aesthetic for technology that is tactile, bold, emotional, and
undeniably Google. Ross has held executive positions with
several companies including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach,
Mattel, Bausch & Lomb, and Gap. A renowned designer,
her innovative metalwork in jewelry is in the permanent
collections of 12 international museums. Ross has received
the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts grant, the
Women in Design Award, and the Diamond International
Award for her creative designs. She is also a Luminary
Scholar at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns
Hopkins University. Ross has been a contributing author to
numerous books including The Change Champion’s Field
Guide and Best Practices in Leadership Development and
Organizational Change. She was the keynote speaker at
Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Summit, and
has been cited by Fast Company and Businessweek as one
of the new faces of leadership.
Most recently, Ivy co-authored with Susan Magsamen, the
New York Times best selling book: Your Brain on Art: How
the Arts Transform Us. Ross’s passion is human potential
and relationships. She believes in the combination of art and
science to make magic happen and bring great ideas and
brands to life.
About Chromasonic
IChromasonic is an innovative arts + research lab that creates
sites for immersive light and sound experiences to foster
wellbeing. In Chromasonic’s synesthetic environments,
participants see sound and hear color to inspire expanded
states of awareness and connection. The melding of sensory
modalities blurs boundaries between physical and perceived
realities, suspending participants in a radical state of
presence. Chromasonic is conducting neuroscientific
research to illuminate the emotional, cognitive, physiological,
and neurological effects of Chromasonic Refrequencing on
participants. Chromasonic believes in the potential of the
arts as a catalyst to harmonize mind and body and is building
a network of temporary and permanent sites to support a
sensory practice for wellbeing. Chromasonic’s first permanent
site open to the public is “Satellite One” in Venice, California.
Chromasonic was formed in 2019 by multi-media and
installation artists Johannes Girardoni and Harriet Girardoni,
with sound artists and composers Orpheo McCord and
Joel Shearer.
Artists Johannes Girardoni and Harriet Girardoni’s light
and sound installations, sculptures, and AIA award-winning
art + architecture combine human and artificial sensing
with immersive placemaking, experimenting with new
perceptual experiences of self and space. Over the past
two decades, their studio’s multi-disciplinary approach
has involved collaborations with architects, scientists, and
technologists. Johannes Girardoni’s work has been shown
in museums and galleries worldwide, including Museum
Ludwig, Germany, Lévy Gorvy, UK, as well as at the 54th
Venice Biennale, Italy and TED2014.
Orpheo McCord, a versatile percussionist and composer,
has traversed a wide musical landscape over the past twenty
years, including as a founding member of the Grammy
award-winning group Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic
Zeros. McCord has developed a unique sonic palette to
facilitate and activate non-ordinary states of consciousness.
Joel Shearer has had a diverse and prolific career in the
music industry as a sound artist, composer, and producer.
He has collaborated on numerous albums, including
Alanis Morrisette’s Grammy-winning “Jagged Little Pill”
and on film scores such as “127 Hours.” In Shearer’s solo
ambient works, he bypasses popular song structures
creating hypnotic soundscapes to explore the somatic
effects of vibration.
Location - Orari:
GARAGE 21
VIA ARCHIMEDE, 26
20129 MILANO MI, ITALY
PRESS PREVIEW
(INVITE ONLY):
APRIL 15, 2024:
10:00 TO 17:00
PUBLIC HOURS:
APRIL 16 TO 21, 2024:
10:00 TO 17:30
Contact:
Google communications manager, kaylageier@google.com
OR Jane Hong, jane@jihpr.com
For general information please contact press@google.com