Where Do Colors Come From?

Dead Bugs, Manure, Acid, and the Unlikely Origins of Brilliant Hues in Art

When I was 8 and on holiday in France with my parents, we went to Chartres Cathedral, just south of Paris. My father took me by the hand as we both stared at the blue glass casting reflections all over the limestone in the great medieval church.

“That blue was made 800 years ago,” he said. “And we can’t make it like that any more.”

From that moment on I was fascinated—obsessed you could say—by colors. Not just by what effect they have on the eye (though for me any encounter with …

by Victoria Finlay | November 2, 2014

Will the Laptop Destroy the Coffee Shop?

Yes, We’re Using Our Beach Umbrellas to Charge Our Smartphones. No, It Doesn’t Mean the End of Public Space.

by Sarah Rothbard | September 4, 2014

In an age when you can purchase a beach umbrella with solar panels to charge your smartphone, defining a public space—and differentiating it from the digital realm—is complicated. A Zócalo/Getty …

Public Space, Meet Cyberspace

The Rise of Digital Technology Has Changed the Way We Use Public Squares, Parks, and the Streets

September 2, 2014

Public squares and parks are the sites of some of history’s most memorable moments: the beheading of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution at the Place de la Concorde (then …

Scenes of Ebullience—and Unease

Garry Winogrand’s Photographs Capture ‘America’s Busy, Teeming, Intricate Whirl’ After World War II

August 29, 2014

If hashtags had existed right after World War II, America’s would’ve been #winning.

Besides emerging victorious from the deadliest war in history and demonstrating American might to Europe and Asia, the …

Orange County Was Not Immune to the 1960s

Photographs and Memories Reveal the Darker Side of a Symbol of Postwar Suburban Order

by Deborah Aschheim | July 22, 2014

The Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California bills itself as “the first great metropolitan park of the 21st century,” but until recently it was the Marine Corps Air Station …

Gravity Can Be Beautiful

The Art of Making Natural Forces Visible—and Making Art Out of Science

by George Geyer and Tom McMillin | July 16, 2014

The inspiration for our sculpture came from the vision of a set of crossed swords that solders walk beneath during military ceremonies. But what we ended up creating in Floating …

Open Art

Where Do Colors Come From?

Dead Bugs, Manure, Acid, and the Unlikely Origins of Brilliant Hues in Art

Will the Laptop Destroy the Coffee Shop?

Yes, We’re Using Our Beach Umbrellas to Charge Our Smartphones. No, It Doesn’t Mean the End of Public Space.

Public Space, Meet Cyberspace

The Rise of Digital Technology Has Changed the Way We Use Public Squares, Parks, and the Streets

Scenes of Ebullience—and Unease

Garry Winogrand’s Photographs Capture ‘America’s Busy, Teeming, Intricate Whirl’ After World War II

Orange County Was Not Immune to the 1960s

Photographs and Memories Reveal the Darker Side of a Symbol of Postwar Suburban Order

Gravity Can Be Beautiful

The Art of Making Natural Forces Visible—and Making Art Out of Science

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You Say Blue, I Say Cerulean

Color Dictionaries Gave the World a Common Language—and Names Like ‘Dragons-Blood Red’ and ‘Light Paris Green’

The Accidental Color That Redirected Human Expression

Discovered by a Chemist, Prussian Blue Gave Painters the Spontaneity They Were Missing

This Color Can Be Dirty, Deceptive—and Divine

Cloth to Computers, Blue’s Rich History Keeps Multiplying Its Meanings

The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red

How a Mesoamerican Insect Created the Globe's Most Coveted Color

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