The Pink Machine

Honolulu Museum of Art : Nano Gallery : 2017

The Pink Machine was an installation of hand dyed and hand printed green wallpaper. Subjects were instructed to stare at the green wallpaper and allow it to “cleanse” ones vision and mind. After “treatment,” the subject would look away from the pink machine and have their vision colored with a pink haze for a period of time. What was called the “Rose Colored Glasses Effect.”

The Pink Machine makes use of the physiological phenomenon of the “Afterimage.” Negative afterimages are created when the photoreceptors of the eye lose sensitivity due to over stimulation. Photoreceptors that are constantly exposed to the same stimulus will eventually exhaust their supply of photopigment, resulting in a decrease in signal to the brain. Once photoreceptors have been removed from the stimulus long enough to recover, the subjects vision returns to normal.

The phenomenon was meant to have visitors consider how color, interior spaces (especially something as visually demanding as the domestic wallpaper) and what we spend our time looking at figuratively “colors” our vision. In addition, The Pink Machine was meant to call back to the techniques of victorian era snake oil salesmen. That a customer could “step right up,” stare into a box, and have their life changed for good.