Monochrome Science Exhibition: The Physics of Colour
Festival of Tomorrow, Swindon
In February 2025, The MoSAIC transformed an unused shopping unit in Swindon Designer Outlet into an immersive pop-up exhibition exploring the science of art. Based on our popular school workshop ‘Monochrome: The Physics of Colour’, the space was turned into an interactive experience for the Festival of Tomorrow, experienced by over 5000 visitors across 6 days.
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Vacant to Vibrant
Creativity and discovery breathing new life into unused spaces.
What is ‘Monochrome’?
Light and colour are a key part of both physics and visual art, but it is rarely taught in an interdisciplinary way. That’s where ‘Monochrome: The Physics of Colour’ comes in. A true STEAM learning experience where the boundary between art and science is blurred.
A room devoid of all but one colour, inspired by the work of Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, we show people what a single wavelength of light reveals about all colours.
The monochromatic lights we use for this exhibition are repurposed sodium vapour street lamps kindly donated to The MoSAIC by South Gloucestershire Council.
“AMAZING!!! This exhibition was so mind-blowing!
I am a graphic designer, so I understood part of this already, but the information I saw in this exhibit filled in the gaps + helped everything make so much more sense! … I'd love to see this exhibit available to many more people.”
Adult visitor
Why are the primary colours taught differently in physics and art?
Colour can be made in different ways. Directly by producing light or using substances and surfaces that reflect light differently.
We use microscopes to help young people investigate how the illusion of full colour is made on a microscopic scale using two different sets of primary colours.
The MoSAIC can transform your disused space into immersive art and science exhibitions in just half a day, creating an unforgettable experience for festival visitors of all ages.
Feedback
Keywords taken from the feedback from participants
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“The exhibition is wonderful. Lots of interesting activities that interest my daughter's curiosity. We love it a lot. I was amazed with guessing the colour of the paper and how hard it was to find the tigers.”
Adult visitor
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“This light exhibition was really interesting and we enjoyed learning about how our brain makes colours up using red, blue and green. Thank you for your time going around with us!”
Adult visitor -
“It was fun and unique experience I loved it. I'm definitely telling my friends”
Child visitor -
“Really fun. Liked the hands on parts (microscope + torch for finding tigers) Very interesting. Mum liked it too!”
Child visitor -
“I came [to the outlet] to shop and eat Slim Chickens not to learn. But I have learnt that yellow isn't a colour of light that screens can make”
Adult visitor
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Experimentation is key to great art and great science. There is a divide in education between being creative and being interested in science and children are losing out because of it.
The MoSAIC was founded to show people of all ages the beauty that exists between disciplines. Like The MoSAIC, many science festivals now include the arts in STEM to make STEAM, giving a more holistic approach to curiosity.
“Monochrome - The Physics of Colour was a real highlight of our 2025 About Town Programme.
Installed in a vacant unit within Swindon Designer Outlet Centre, the pop-up exhibition confounded, delighted and enlightened thousands of visitors of all ages. The MoSAIC were a pleasure to work with, and the well-thought out, high-quality activities captivated visitors and had them questioning their perceptions - with lots of wonderful feedback received. Highly recommended!”
Louise Halliday
Festival and Outreach Manager, Festival of Tomorrow
What artwork did you look at?
The Tate estimates that people look at paintings in a gallery for an average of 8 seconds.
By stripping paintings of their colours, encouraging people to predict the colours and then allowing them to explore the answers with a torch, we have increased this gaze from seconds to minutes.
As well as artwork by ‘Monochrome’ curator Gaz Lawrence, our centrepiece for this exhibition was a painting from The MoSAIC collection by graffiti artist HazardOne. Visitors were stunned by the transformation of this vibrant painting when illuminated with white light.
What if I don’t have full colour vision?
As well as having their perceptions questioned the most commonly mentioned activity in the participant feedback was the ‘Spot the Tiger’ challenge.
To humans with full colour vision it seems strange that tigers are camouflaged despite being orange in largely green environments. However to prey animals that cannot detect red light, the tigers seamlessly blend in.
Monochrome gives visitors the experience of being red-green colour deficient when looking at the tiger images. We had many visitors who commented that it was great for their families to experience what they experience every day.
“Very interesting, especially as I am colourblind. Too many people and businesses overlook us!”
Festival of Tomorrow - Highlights Report 2025
Beyond Swindon…
Monochrome is available to book for your school, event or festival. All we need is a space that can be blacked out. As well as a shopping unit, we have installed ‘Monochrome’ in drama classrooms, school theatres, dance studios and even a cinema.
Skills that this exhibition/workshop fosters:
Curiosity
Creativity
Problem solving
Teamwork
Observation
Prediction
Experimentation
Art appreciation
“The children loved it and couldn’t stop talking about it today.”
“What a brilliant exhibition! The art was beautiful and explanations behind the science were easy to understand yet fascinating. Loved this”
Adult visitor
A huge thank you to the partners who have helped to make Monochrome happen:
