Chroma-G is a formal model of observer-dependent, generative, composition space derived from conceptual color logic (color as an abstraction). This paper will examine the logic of Frank Galuszka’s premise in “The Palette as a System,” published in the online proceedings of the American Society for Cybernetics 2001 Conference, Vancouver, and attempt to reconcile it with the matrices of the historical vignettes he presented, through the lens of Chroma-G modeling. The Chroma-G model has a close kinship with the constructs presented by Glanville and Varela (1980) in “Your Inside is Out and Your Outside is In (Beatles (1968)),” and G. Spencer Brown’s (1969) “Laws of Form” (which Glanville and Varela address), hence the title of this paper.
The role of cybernetics in painting is an important consideration. It goes to the foundation of the construction, expression and interpretation the artist’s work. In his paper Galuszka writes that every painter develops his or her own individual understanding of, and relationship with, their canvas and paints, with color serving as a focal, paradoxical and mystical element of engagement. Galuszka describes a palette of colors as a matrix, which orchestrates and restrains relations between all mixtures of color within the palette’s color set. It is a matrix that is an expression of the painter. He states that while the observer of the final painting may be unaware of that matrix, every possible understanding of the painting is dependent upon it. That is, the matrix holds its own meaning which contributes to the context of the artwork.
Galuszka speaks to color’s dual existence as both perceptual (“out-there”) and conceptual (“in-here”). While no painter can truly escape the materiality of paint and pigment, the conceptual or abstract constructs of color are extremely important. The Chroma-G color palette is articulated in information space from a constructivist, conceptual, inside-out and upside-down perspective. It is a means of measuring color in thought-space relative to points of perspective which may or may not be observable in physically perceived space. This paper will compare and contrast the Chroma-G model of colors with Galuszka’s color matrix construct.

Cybernetic traditions:

• 7) Art; design; music; literature
• 3) Experimental epistemology; constructivism; philosophy of science