As photography, so the Internet is one of the most democratic mediums ever made. Yet, they still inherit some quality from their creators. Distortion and manipulation became their essential part. Therefore it is cardinal for the users to filter the useful information. This self-calibrating process is the greatest challenge of our days.

As a side project, I tried to explore different methods to measure the world. Interestingly, it reveals itself in so many forms as many methods we use to analyse it.

What the colour reference chart is in photography, the units and standards are in everyday life. We use these tools by common agreement to avoid confusion. With their help, the definitions of our world are available for everyone. So we can begin to map and understand its structure.

Since the correspondence between perception and reality is so delicate, I determined to find the certain. I found this in the colour calibration chart, which is used to create a colour correct image under every circumstance.

In my latest series, this search became my obsession. Meanwhile, I think reality itself is “neutral grey” and our personal perspective and characteristics are the added value.

Imagine a room where everything is black and white, even the TV, the books and everything inside. Mary lives in this room and from her sources she learned all the possible information about our world, including its concept of operation and structure. She is fully aware of light and knows how optics work. However, when she is released, she gains a new experience: the colour vision capability.

Mary thought she owned every possible knowledge as she read about this view. Although she could have imagined this with the help of the information available, she would never have a part in. After all, she acquired some new skills which are non-describable.

I hope technology will allow me to directly experience the invisible spectrum of light and a world, where everything is in grayscale.

Based on “Frank Jackson: What Mary Didn’t Know”

In 1986, a 65 years old artist lost his colour vision due to a car accident. His perception and mental sensation weakened, he had grayscale dreams which had been vibrant before. It must have been an extreme change for a painter who works with colours every day. Despite his new sight, he could define his favourite paintings by Pantone colour chart that he used for decades. People appeared like living statues to him, their skins were grey as well. Since he found this new scene disgusting, he had to eat originally black and white food e.g. black olive, rice, and yoghurt. Oliver Sacks described this story in his study titled “The Case of the Colorblind Painter”.

The patient used photography for several times to explain the scenery and he had an amazing conclusion:

“We accept drawings, films, television—small, flat images in black and white you can look at, or away from, when you want. It is only an image, it is not supposed to be real. But imagine black and white all around you, 360 degrees, all solid and three-dimensional, and there all the time—a total black and white world.”

That is how I discovered vision as a fascinating topic to work with. Since this text, I think of photography as a tool to examine reality or as an extension of the human sight.