Psychedelic palettes are highly saturated complementary/triadic hues always in motion via palette-cycle — color must never settle

The psychedelic style inverts the organic palette strategy entirely. Where organic uses analogous low-contrast hues, psychedelic uses highly saturated colors arranged in complementary or triadic relationships and pushed to extremes. Crucially, the palette must be continuously animated via palette-cycle (hue-shift / colorama) so that color never settles into a resting state — color stasis breaks the hypnotic register. A practical hazard specific to this style is feedback-gain management: because feedback-trail is used for tunnels and infinite zoom, continuously cycling bright, saturated colors can drive the feedback accumulation toward white saturation. The design note is to watch feedback gain so color does not blow to white.

Examples

Hydra: .hue(()=>time*0.05).colorama(0.02) on top of a feedback-zoom skeleton. The hue shift is continuous; colorama pushes cycle through the saturation-complement space. src(o0).scale(1.005).add(osc(10,0.1,1).kaleid(6)) as the feedback loop.

Assessment

A psychedelic patch uses a fixed complementary palette (pink/cyan) with no cycling. The performer says it ‘doesn’t feel psychedelic’. Identify the missing palette technique and explain why continuous motion specifically matters for the psychedelic register.