HOUSTON – The first door you open when you enter the Color Factory takes you to a carousel of colorful macaroons.
Daniel Rodriguez and his brother, Jonathan are both colorblind and came together to share in a fully immersive experience. Before entering the room, the brothers, as well as a handful of other volunteered participants, were given special glasses, through a partnership with EnChroma, allowing them to see in color.
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When Daniel and his brother were watching the conveyor belt full of macaroons move in front of them, they debated which one to pick up. They say you eat with your eyes first, so when Daniel picked up a purple macaroon, it was clear he was taking the moment in, staring at the dessert through the plastic wrap, and told his little brother that was the one he was going to pick.
Curious, I asked Daniel why (out of all the different macaroons) and he replied it was the most vibrant and stood out to him. Until today, he’d never been able to see in color, and until then, at 25, he and his 19-year-old brother had no idea what they’d been missing out on.
I asked Daniel how it made him feel that he was finally able to see what ordinary eyes like mine see every day and may even take for granted. He said it was bittersweet but made him eager to make up for lost time.
“I felt happy that I am getting to experience it, but sad that I had to wait so long,” he said.
Bear in mind, at this point, we’d only gone through the first, of what would be several doors and experiences offered by Color Factory. But it was enough for them to know they would have an eye-opening experience. In fact, I’d later learn it was the first moment they put on their glasses (right before walking into the room with macaroons) that was the most memorable for both brothers.
Before we got to that, though, I noticed how intrigued the brothers were by a wall filled with cones that lit up different colors. When you remove them from the wall, the lights will be off and only reactivate when put into another opening on the wall. Each cylindrical cone had its own color and one could create their own work of art.
For them, it was an opportunity to really appreciate seeing the different shades of each light and I couldn’t help but interrupt their vibe with my curiosity.
“It’s cool,” Jonathan said. “I get to see just how vibrant everything is.”
“It’s like the proper distinctions between everything,” Daniel added. “There’s no more confusion where like, ‘is it this or that? Do we really have to study it?’ We may not be able to say it’s for sure this color, but for sure distinction: orange, green, red, blue, purple.”
According to the National Eye Institute (NEI), Color blindness affects one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (.5%) - that’s about 13 million people in the U.S. and 350 million people worldwide.
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In Texas, an estimated 1.25 million residents experience color vision deficiencies. This means some individuals with color blindness can see an estimated 10% of hues and shades, so some colors appear dull, muted, washed out, or indistinguishable.
Through Color Factory’s partnership with EnChroma, an eyewear company based in California, leading the way for color blindness and low vision, guests like Daniel and Jonathan are provided with free glasses so they may truly experience the immersive and interactive art exhibit.
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Of course, attendees have to return the glasses before they leave, but Color Factory CEO Tina Malhotra tells me they wanted to do everything they could to make guests feel included and really appreciate the art exhibit.
“We wanted to be able to bring these tools to our guests and have our space be as accessible as possible,” she said. “We wanted to be as inclusive as we could and we know that these glasses are expensive, so we wanted to purchase as many as we could so that we knew that we’d be able to cover the 4% of the population that does experience red-green color blindness, and so we wanted to make it free of charge just because that’s an important part of our brand and making sure that we’re inclusive.”
Seeing the handful of participants like the Rodriguez brothers was a joy for Malhotra because
At the end of it all, both brothers found themselves back in the building’s lobby area, where they and the other participants first wore the glasses that would literally change their worldview. This time, the brothers were without the glasses and tried comparing what they saw to what the glasses helped them see.
Jonathan (to me): “What do you see in this light?”
Me: “I see red, purple, and yellow.”
Jonathan: “But over there, do you see any brown?”
Me: “No.”
(both brothers laughing)
Jonathan: “That’s wild!”
Daniel: “That’s all we see now.”
Me: “All of this is brown?”
Daniel: “No no, just the ‘red.’ The red right now is not the same as with the glasses. It’s way more muted.”
Hearing their perspectives was a sobering moment but just like re-watching something and realizing you missed something before, this was an opportunity for both brothers to look forward to new experiences and maybe even relive some of them.
“There’s many things that I’ve seen that I probably want to go back and see again because I feel like I missed it the first time,” Daniel said. “The greens of the trees, I hear that those are different; the yellows, the reds - like the red sand over in Lubbock; that was one of my favorite hiking spots.”
“My late dog, a year ago, she passed away and so that was one of my favorite spots to take her,” he continued. “And now I want to go back there and see how it looks.”
This certainly gives new meaning to seeing the world through rose-colored lenses - even if it seems arbitrary, but for both brothers, the journey into knowing is what they’re really looking forward to.
“Part of the reason I want to go back is to see if the experience is different,” Daniel explained. “I just feel like I missed a lot, I may have not, but it definitely makes me want to re-appreciate the world and all the experiences again.”
“I still feel like I experience as anyone else would,” Jonathan added. “But there’s still that question in the back of my mind ‘What are they seeing that I’m not’ that there’s something I’m missing out on.”
To learn more about Color Factory - Houston and purchase tickets, visit their website. You can also learn more about EnChroma by clicking here.