In existing colour-musical installations, there is often a lack of a systematic relationship between notes or musical tonalities and colours. This paper presents an experiment aimed at determining the extent to which a system linking colours and musical tonalities affects human perception. Two systems of colour tonalities are considered: the first based on A.N. Scriabin’s system, and the second based on subjective associations of people. For the creation of the second system of colour tonalities, articles on the emotions evoked by colours and musical tonalities were used. The lighting design of the park area near the fountain was implemented from the selection of lighting fixtures to the results of calculations and design in the DIALux software. An audit was conducted in Tsaritsyno Park in Moscow, measuring the emission spectra of colours in the musical fountain using a Konica Minolta CL‑70F spectrocolorimeter. Experiments in this study were conducted on an ASUS TUF Gaming A15 laptop’s LCD display. The chromaticity coordinates of primary colours and the reference white colour of the display were measured with the aforementioned spectrocolorimeter. The colour design of the fountain model in DIALux, based on the synaesthesia of colour and music, was evaluated using the category method. The results of the study show a significant impact of systematic colour transitions on viewer perception and confirm the effectiveness of the synaesthesia-based approach. Overall, A.N. Scriabin’s concept received the highest score (3.63 points), while the association-based concept ranked second (3.05 points). Fragments without systematic connection received significantly lower scores (2.77 and 1.85 points, respectively). 1. How Alexander Scriabin discovered light music to the world [Kak Alexander Scriabin otkril miru svetomuziku] // URL: https://www.audiomania.ru/content/art‑6285.html (accessed 17.12.2023).
2. Hunter, P. G., Schellenberg, E. G., & Schimmack, U. Feelings and perceptions of happiness and sadness induced by music: Similarities, differences, and mixed emotions // Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2010, 4(1), pp. 47–56.
3. Vieillard, S., Peretz, I., Gosselin, N., Khalfa, S., Gagnon, L., & Bouchard, B. Happy, sad, scary and peaceful musical excerpts for research on emotions // Cognition & Emotion, 2008, Vol. 22, # 4, pp. 720–752.
4. Juslin, P. N., & Sloboda, J. A. (Eds.). “Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications.” Oxford University Press. 2010.
5. Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. Colour and psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance attainment // Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2007, # 1, pp. 154–168.
6. Score of the musical poem “Prometheus” // URL:https://primanota.net/skryabin-aleksandr/prometei-poemaognya.htm (accessed 14.04.2024).
7. Standard GOST 26320–84: Television studio and off-studio equipment. Methods of subjective assessment of the quality of colour television images [GOST 26320–84 Oborudovanie televisionnoe studiynoe i vnestudiynoe. Metodi subiektivnoi ocenki kachestva cvetnih televisionnih izobrajeniy].
8. Tikhonova, A.E., Ivanova, O.G. Peculiarities of colour perception and the impact of colour on the mental state of a person. [Osobennosti cvetovogo vospriyatiya i vozdeystviya cveta na psihicheskoe sostoyanie cheloveka] // New Ideas of the New Century: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Pacific State University, 2020, Vol. 3.

• Previous article
• Next article

• colour musical installations
• colour design
• emotional perception
• colour tonalities
• Alexander Scriabin