Plumage is the first of two Flickr tools designed to decontextualize colour in an image. Here, the colours from an image are analyzed and stored in an array. The colours are then sorted and re-rendered as feathers. Each image creates a new, unique feather. Clusters of feathers are built from Flickr keywords - so we are able to see what kinds of colour sets are being associated with various words and phrases.

Because the colours are separated physically and conceptually from the original image, we are able to discover relationships that we may not have been able to otherwise see. 

Here are some things to try:

• Try comparing the colour sets that result from different geographical locations (ie. Vancouver vs. Honolulu)
• Try rendering feather sets from words that represent emotions (ie. love, hate, or envy). Are these colour sets what you expected?
• What is the best keyword to use to get the most brilliantly coloured feathers? I've had success with 'tropical,fish' and 'bright,blue,sky'. If you find some particularly good combinations, please post them in the comments section below.

Plumage was built in Flash, using ActionScript 2.0. It uses Kevin Luck's excellent Flashr wrapper.