"RGB Skin" is work in progress project that explores diversity of space by visualizing and measuring skin colors. People who occupy and control large wealthy cultural institutions, especially those that have high ticket prices are mostly not people of color. Thus people of color as well as those that are economically disadvantaged are severely underrepresented in these spaces. Further they are also underrepresented in terms of the institution’s high level administration, donors, and in cultural programming such as curatorial choices for speakers for talks and events as well artists and artworks.
“RGB Skin” is a technological tool that visualizes skin color by generating an abstracted color swatch gathered from a photographic image of a person’s face. This tool is interactive in that to activate it a person must position themselves in front a camera and push a button to capture their face in order for the swatch to be generated. In return the person gets a receipt with an image of their face, the RGB value of their color swatch, the location and the date. The device itself does not save any of the images, but only retains its residue in the form of a color swatch. It is to be installed in prominent cultural institutions as a performative public art intervention. The data visualization of color will update live at each site along with updating on the project’s website. The tool itself is not meant to be a judgement on the visitor interacting with it, rather a playful interaction that gives visitors an opportunity to recognize the politics of cultural institutions.