AIC Annual Report 2014

EDITOR’S NOTES

This Annual Report marks the start of a new AIC Executive Committee, and I am pleased to be invited by the committee to stay on as the Editor. So it seems appropriate to have a new graphic on the front cover. It’s a reworking of an old idea showing the duality between the additive (RGB) and subtractive (CMY) colour systems. This publication relies on them both, in its online and printed formats.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this report, with news of happenings during 2013 in AIC member countries around the world and in the AIC Study Groups. Items worthy of note in this edition are the promotion of the ‘Dia da Cor’ on the façade of a sky‐scraper in São Paulo (p.17), the first report from the new Colour Research Society of Canada (p.19), an encounter with Goethe in Ilmenau (p.24), intensive preparation for a new colour Masters programme in Milan (p.27), the advent of The Color Run in Mexico (p.30), concern about ‘colour babbling’ spoiling the landscape of Slovenia (p.33), the colourful Squeasy bottles reducing plastic waste in Switzerland (p.36), the activities of our new AIC Associate Member, the Color Marketing Group (p.40), a conundrum of colour illusions (p.43), and news about forthcoming AIC meetings (pp.47–50).
The big event in 2013 was of course the 12th Congress, held in Newcastle in the north‐east of England. With over 600 delegates from 48 countries and 400 papers presented, it amply demonstrated the strength of the AIC as an organisation and the broad range of disciplines and interests of its members (see report on pages 11–12). There is no doubt that the subject of colour can bring together people from all over the world, and that it resonates with human experience at a deep level. Moreover, we are seeing the rise of the colour practitioner as a professional, especially in the field of environmental colour design. This is an important development, because it indicates that colour practice is not subservient to some other discipline but can be regarded as a discipline in its own right.
A significant area of application of colour, in which many members of AIC are involved, is cultural heritage. France, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Hungary and Thailand are all reporting activity in this area. And it is a major focus of the research work of Roy Berns, for which he received the Judd Award (p.13). As the technology of digital imaging, displays, colour management and 3D digitisation has developed, it has become possible to make digital representations of objects in collections in museums and galleries. This in turn has enabled the image reproduction of those objects in various media, including mobile devices. Making digital surrogates that look realistic under diverse viewing conditions is a great challenge for models of appearance, including both colour and gloss. Using digital representations of cultural heritage objects effectively for conservation and restoration is now a mainstream pursuit of the digital humanities and is a worthy subject for AIC.

– Lindsay MacDonald, Editor