Original mauve dress (mauve created by William Perkin in 1856)This series of posts is made up of notes I have taken for myself in figuring the sequencing of information in the course. While not yet complete, it contains a fairly solid overview of pertinent information. Parts 1-4 will follow this Introduction.
Introduction: What is Color?
Color is inherently intangible. It has no physical properties. It is not a substance. Color is light traveling. Color is energy. Color is temperature. Color is a phenomenon and an experience but it also operates as a language and is learned as such. Color cannot be described without prior knowledge of color, it is impossible to describe the attributes of red, for example, to a person who had never seen it and could not relate it to an object. Color is an extremely complicated topic, one where objective and subjective accounts of experience are intertwined, and sometimes confused. Color is commonly understood as a property of physical objects.
In his book Inner Vision Neurobiologist Samir Zeki states that color “is the result of a comparison, undertaken by the brain, of the wavelength composition of the light reflected from one surface with the wavelength composition of the light reflected from surrounding surfaces. That comparison is a property of the brain, not of the world outside because nothing except the logic of the brain dictates that such a comparison should be undertaken” (p. 76). Color, then is the result of the integration of information. The study of color is one that is undertaken by a wide array of disciplines. The list below briefly summarizes investigations of color perception by some of the relevant fields of study.
Physics-the focus is on color determined by the wavelength of light and the physical properties and mechanisms that affect it.
Chemistry-the focus is on the chemical composition of colored materials.
Optics-Study of the operation of the eye: eyes have two kinds of photoreceptor cells: rod and cones. The rods allow us to see differentiation between light and dark. The cones have three types of photosensitive pigments; red, green, and blue, which allow us to see in color.
Physiology and Psychology-The study of the body parts utilized in color vision and the science that measures human response.
Neurology and Neurobiology-In the past forty years, there has been much research that indicates the how large a role the brain plays in the appearance of color.
Anthropology-In 1969, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay put forward their hypothesis and supporting research that there is a single set of basic color terms that is shared across cultures, by all people. This view holds biology to be the strongest determinant in the perception of color, while allowing for cross-cultural differences in the organization of color, it suggests that the physical act of perception trumps all other variables which might affect seeing and conceptualizing colors.
Linguistics-Linguists interested in color perception study how the language that one speaks affects color perception. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes linguistic relativity; that language shapes our ability to conceive, that it constructs our reality. Universalists believe that color perception transcends culture, while those that believe in linguistic relativity believe that difference in language will alter thought and perception.
Despite an obvious material existence, color operates linguistically. The associative value of certain colors or color combination within a given culture operates as code and is akin to a language. Artists and designers must become students of a semiotics of color, fluent in the historical and cultural relations of color. In his book Walter Benjamin: The Color of Experience, author Howard Caygill creates a dichotomy between what he refers to as the linguistic and chromatic aspects of color, implying that the chromatic is a sort of natural experience. Just as a debate ensues about whether mathematics was invented or discovered, a parallel question exists about the logic of color.
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