color101

colorless food

2011-04-05T23:03:00.001-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/weekinreview/03harris.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fweekinreview%2Findex.jsonp

Project 8: Color Denotation and Signification

2011-03-25T08:50:00.003-05:00

wall street scandals / waxy.org

Dave Mueller

Edward Tufte

Unknown

David McCandleless

Aleksandra Mir, Naming Tokyo, 2003

Aleksandra Mir, writing about her project Naming Tokyo:

The idea is based on the fact that Westerners often complain that Tokyo has no street names and that you can’t find your way around without a guide who innately knows the logic of his own city. I always thought that was such a superb form of local resistance—no key! So I felt it would be interesting to start naming the streets of Tokyo with names from Western culture and society, to help us around. I am sure the people of Tokyo will like it too!

Needless to say, Tokyo is large and I will need thousands and thousands of names, even for the central area. I have started by asking my friends for help by providing me with a short list of names on any coherent theme, which I will apply to the streets. In return and as thanks, they will have a neighborhood named after themselves.

The names will be grouped around any poignant literary or political moment of the West, or any of the most banal elements of our society, which then will be reflected back into the physical neighborhoods of Tokyo. I have asked people to follow their fancy and stick close to their heart. Names in any Western language will do, but I will leave out any reference to street, rue, calle, etc., keeping only the name as such.

After the first installment of the work—the map at the Palais de Tokyo in the summer of 2003—we will continue to try to actually put these names into common usage. This can happen by a variety of means—by producing further guidebook publications, referring to popular tourist spots with the new street names, infiltrating advertising and community planning, and possibly and hopefully even starting to put up street signs on location. It may take forever, but it starts with a blank map and the very first nominations. I can’t wait.

Naming Tokyo

June 5 - September 14, 2003. Palais de Tokyo, Paris, as part of the exhibition GNS: Global Navigation System. Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud.

Deb Sokolow

Stephanie Posavic

Stephanie Posavic and David McCandless

(okay this one doesn't utilize color, but it's great)
Ad Reinhardt

Nathan Carter

Julie Mehretu

Mark Lombardi

Tom Friedman

A. Boetti

Jules De Balincourt

Moscow subway Map
MIT / Climate Interactive
http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/mits-greenhouse-gas-simulator

Bill Rankin, Les Deux Axes

Otto Neurath, Home and Factory Weaving in England

Otto Neurath, from International Picture Language, 1936

Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information, cover

from Edward Tufte

Straight-line distance between European cities with populations of 100,000 or more, Denise Pumain, 2000

PROJECT 8: Use color as a major element in cartography, charting, or indexing to map any sort of geography (including psycho geography or piece of knowledge, to clarify and/or denote a set of complex information. Your diagram or chart should have an investigative aspect.

This is a two week project (15 hours outside of class expected). Any media. Project due MONDAY, APRIL 20.

*note: we are still departing from our customary schedule, ending on a Wednesday.*

The next project period after this one will be our final project. This will be a two and a half week self-intitiated color-oriented project. So please begin to consider what you'd like to do

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If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where the decline of the Empire sees this map become frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts — the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an Imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing) — then this fable has come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.

Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory — PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA — it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire but our own: The desert of the real itself.

Jean Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra"

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Yale professor Edward Tufte takes dull data and turns it into magical and meaningful pictures. Forget those clunky bars and pizza slices you were taught in school, Tufte produces such inventive and even decorative graphs it's enough to have you weeping over your squared paper. And each one helps us understand the world a bit better, or alerts us to the crimes that can be committed when the people with the numbers seek to confuse the have-nots.

Tufte exposes the hidden dangers of misrepresented numbers: how graphs can kill. In his book Visual Explanations he shows how inept graphing of data about the space shuttle paved the way for the Challenger disaster. Throw out the engineer's pretty slides and substitute Tufte's simple curve, and mental warning lights flash. It's not rocket science, after all.

-Paul May, "Why I Love...Edward Tufte", The Guardian, 11/8/04

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/p>

On Otto Neurath (from C. R. Shalizi, U. Mich)

Austrian sociologist, political economist and anti-philosopher; possibly the most unorthodox Marxist ever. Having developed some theories about a moneyless ``economy in kind'' before the war, he was assigned by the Austrian government to work in what was, effectively, the planning ministry during the Great War. This led to his working for the governments of Bavaria and Saxony towards socializing their economies after the war, a project he attacked with great enthusiasm, continuing through two coups that brought to power two different ``Soviet Republics''. (He had cleverly arranged to be hired as a civil servant...) Eventually the central German government restored order and arrested him as a collaborator in high treason, but they had to let him go when it became evident that he didn't care about anything except his work, and had barely noticed the changes in government. (The intervention of Max Weber and various Austrian officials helped.) When he got back to Vienna, we became involved in a project which evolved into the Social and Economic Museum, which tried to convey complicated social and economic relations to the largely uneducated Viennese public. (The didn't call it Red Vienna for nothing.) This led to some very interesting work on graphic design, visual education and the visual display of quantitative information, indeed, a whole Vienna Method for such displays, also called ISOTYPE.

Rashaad Newsome Shade Compositions, relevant to Project 8, in a bit of a stretch...

2011-03-25T08:25:00.001-05:00

5min. excerpt from Shade Compositions 2009 from RASHAAD NEWSOME on Vimeo.

...Newsome also records the more pedestrian street theater of urban female body language in an ongoing piece called Shade Compositions, which he has performed internationally. For this piece he choreographs women performers who act out body language typical of urban environments.

"My interest lies in cultural signifiers," says Newsome. "I'm fascinated by ghetto body language used by black and Latino women and how it is integrated into popular culture all around the world and how that transcends class levels. When does it become a part of contemporary global culture and when does it lose that lower-class stigma?"

Newsome casts women from the streets of cities like Paris, New York, and Atlanta and films them in screen tests acting out these gestures before he includes them in a group performance. In live stagings the performers stand together, with a few initiating the first moves and corresponding verbal sounds and then more following, each standing in place and repeating their move. Some snap their fingers and jerk their heads, and others thrust their hips out and call out expressions like "Girrrrrrl!" Newsome records all these sounds with a Nintendo Wii gaming machine that he hacked into, using the wand controller as a bespoke conductors' baton. He takes these live sounds, along with some that he prerecorded, and loops them back during the performance until they overlap, recycle, and crescendo in a rich remix.

"For Shade Compositions certain women would be hesitant to get into character or perform the gestures," Newsome says. "It proved that this body language has a stigma. They’re kind of embarrassed that they do it."

Everywhere he travels he picks up on and records regional gestures, like the mutations of American hip-hop body language he found in Paris's North African baneuil neighborhoods. In this way Newsome acts as an anthropologist, scouting and observing the way urban women interact in globally connected but sometimes marginalized societies. And he has even slyly incorporated men into Shade Compositions. (from The Advocate)

more images relavant to project 7

2011-03-14T06:10:00.000-05:00

Sebastian Prechoux

Andreas Gursky

Olafur Eliaason

Liam Gillick

Donald Judd

Christo

Christo, Self-Portrait

Christo, The Gates

Christo

Jim Lambie

Byron Kim

Jim Lambie

hmmmm...

2011-03-10T09:17:00.001-06:00

Op-Ed Columnist

College the Easy Way

By BOB HERBERT

March 4, 2011

The cost of college has skyrocketed and a four-year degree has become an ever more essential cornerstone to a middle-class standard of living. But what are America’s kids actually learning in college? For an awful lot of students, the answer appears to be not much.

A provocative new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” makes a strong case that for a large portion of the nation’s seemingly successful undergraduates the years in college barely improve their skills in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing.

Intellectual effort and academic rigor, in the minds of many of the nation’s college students, is becoming increasingly less important. According to the authors, Professors Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia: “Many students come to college not only poorly prepared by prior schooling for highly demanding academic tasks that ideally lie in front of them, but — more troubling still — they enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment.”

Students are hitting the books less and partying more. Easier courses and easier majors have become more and more popular. Perhaps more now than ever, the point of the college experience is to have a good time and walk away with a valuable credential after putting in the least effort possible.

What many of those students are not walking away with is something that has long been recognized as invaluable — higher order thinking and reasoning skills. They can get their degrees without putting in more of an effort because in far too many instances the colleges and universities are not demanding more of them.

The authors cite empirical work showing that the average amount of time spent studying by college students has dropped by more than 50 percent since the early 1960s. But a lack of academic focus has not had much of an effect on grade point averages or the ability of the undergraduates to obtain their degrees.

Thirty-six percent of the students said they studied alone less than five hours a week. Nevertheless, their transcripts showed a collective grade point average of 3.16. “Their G.P.A.’s are between a B and a B-plus,” said Professor Arum, “which says to me that it’s not the students, really — they share some of the blame — but the colleges and universities have set up a system so that there are ways to navigate through it without taking difficult courses and still get the credential.”

The book is based on a study, led by Professor Arum, that followed more than 2,300 students at a broad range of schools from the fall of 2005 to the spring of 2009. The study (available at highered.ssrc.org) showed that in their first two years of college, 45 percent of the students made no significant improvement in skills related to critical thinking, complex reasoning and communication. After the full four years, 36 percent still had not substantially improved those skills.

The development of such skills is generally thought to be the core function of a college education. The students who don’t develop them may leave college with a degree and an expanded circle of friends, but little more. Many of these young men and women are unable to communicate effectively, solve simple intellectual tasks (such as distinguishing fact from opinion), or engage in effective problem-solving.

“This is a terrible disservice, not only to those students, but also to the larger society,” said Professor Arum. “I really think it’s important to get the word out about the lack of academic rigor and intellectual engagement that’s occurring at colleges and universities today.”

While there are certainly plenty of students doing very well and learning a great deal in college, this large increase in the number of students just skating by should be of enormous concern in an era in which a college education plays such a crucial role in the lifetime potential of America’s young people. It can leave the U.S. at a disadvantage in the global marketplace. But, more important, the students are cheating themselves — and being cheated — of the richer, more satisfying lives that should be the real payoff of a four-year college experience.

“You have to ask what this means for a democratic society,” said Professor Arum. “This is the portion of the population that you would expect to demonstrate civic leadership in the future, civic engagement. They are the ones we would expect to be struggling to understand the world, to think critically about the rhetoric out there, and to make informed, reasoned decisions.

“If they’re not developing their higher order skills, it means they’re not developing the attitudes and dispositions that are needed to even understand that that’s important.”

linked from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/opinion/05herbert.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bob%20herbert%20college&st=cse

reading assignment

2011-03-09T10:50:00.003-06:00

"The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some "foreign body" - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic. " -Editor's note

reading assignment due Monday March 28th. To be read to class and handed in.
selection from David Batchelor's Chromophobia.
look for this in your email in coming days (I am scanning and making PDF).
write 2 page essay on reading, summarizing it and relating it to your own and/or others' cultural color observations. Research ideas, and find historical information to back up ideas, theories, and thoughts.

Project 7: Color, Environment, Urbanism

2011-03-09T10:39:00.002-06:00

Heidi Weber Museum, Lake Zurich, Le Corbusier, 1964-67

Didden Village, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (MVRDV)

Los Heroes building, Santiago, Chile

Museum of Contemporary Art, Castilla y Leon, Spain

Mitch Cope & Gina Reichert, Powerhouse, Detroit

Tiggerific Project, Detroit

Ice House, Detroit

Cemetary, Central America

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tortola, BVI

Milton Glaser, 1972

Milton Glaser, 1975/2001

Jasper Johns, White Flag, 1955

Pierre Cardin

Pierre Cardin

Ed Ruscha, He Didn't Care and Neither Did She, cherries on satin, 1974

Ed Ruscha, Actress, Rhubarb on Moire, 1974

Ed Ruscha

This project involves considering the way color functions in the public domain and shared imagination. How colors "mean". Urbanism is defines as "a focus on cities and urban areas, their geographical, economical, political, and social characteristics, as well as the effects on and caused by the built environment"*. The term built environment refers to human-made settings that are the setting for human activities. These may range from shelter, building, neighborhood, to cities themselves. The term also refers to the supporting infrastructures of such, including energy networks, dialogue, and cultural activities and their manifestations.

Much of our own urban environment is colored in fairly neutral tones. Look at the examples above of environmental color, and possibly create a proposal to create a structure, or to create meaningful color changes to a specific site, area, or building. Something like this this should have a high degree of detail and finish, as if you were presenting a real proposal to try to achieve an actual public commission.

Or consider working with color and imagery in the public domain, working with the popular culture canon. When an image becomes well-known enough to reach the status of iconic, it can be utilized to make a new image or work with a differing, sometimes contrasting meaning. Color often plays a large role in this form of constructing new meaning. Some of the above imagery are examples of playing with color in such a way. These can include appropriation, detournement, and "subvertising". Others borrow for the purpose of alignment or connection to the original.

Some are physical, concrete alterations in the environment (i.e architectural), while others are pictorial. Some are individually motivated, others come out of small collaborative groups, and still others come out of tightly-organized and legitimized groups such as architectural firms. Some are artistic, some are design, some are activist and some are professional or mainstream.

Your project will demand an understanding of the color codes, and associations particular to this place (you can define the place, it need not be strictly Chicago). Some of the images above simply illustrate how certain colors and color schemes are identified with specific eras and/or genres.

Your color choices should be pointed and have a meaning legible to a broad audience. This is about using color intelligently in art and design projects that work toward civic engagement.

Create an ambitious, interesting, cogent project in your choice of media.

This is a three-week project due Wednesday, March 30. For digital: bring file (on jumpdrive). For video, upload to Vimeo if possible. I do not have Quicktime (it strangely disappeared).

ADDENDUM: NOW DUE MONDAY, APRIL 4

* Wikipedia

** Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detournement
In détournement, an artist reuses elements of well-known media to create a new work with a different message, often one opposed to the original. The term "détournement", borrowed from the French, originated with the Situationist International; a similar term more familiar to English speakers would be "turnabout" or "derailment", although these terms are not used in academia satirical parody, but employs more direct reuse or faithful mimicry of the original works rather than constructing a new work which merely alludes strongly to the original. It may be contrasted with recuperation, in which originally subversive works and ideas are themselves appropriated by mainstream media. and the arts world as they are inherently 'anti-art,' often involving the blatant theft and sabotage of existing elements. Détournement is similar to

In the United States, Frank Discussion is widely known for his use of detournement in his works dating from the late 70s through the present, particularly with the Feederz. Détournement's use by Barbara Kruger familiarised many with the technique, and it was extensively and effectively used as part of the early HIV/AIDS activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[1] Examples of contemporary detournement include Adbusters' "subvertisements" and other instances of culture jamming, as well as poems composed collaboratively by Marlene Mountain, Paul Conneally, and others, in which quotations from such famous sources as the Ten Commandments and quotations by United States President George W. Bush are combined with haiku-like phrases to produce a larger work intended to subvert the original source.

The Neue Slowenische Kunst has a long history of aggressive détournement of extreme political ideologies, as do several industrial music groups, such as Die Krupps, Nitzer Ebb, KMFDM, and Front 242.

Also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(sociology)
Recuperation, in the sociological sense (first proposed by Guy Debord and the Situationists), is the process by which "radical" ideas and images are commodified and incorporated within mainstream society, such as the movement for civil rights in the United States or the push for women's rights. It is the opposite of detournement.

A similar dynamic often occurs in the sphere of punk rock culture: many musical styles developed from punk rock (such as Grunge, Thrash metal, Metalcore, Post-punk, Indie rock, New Wave, Emo, and Pop punk) have garnered mainstream popularity; artists of these genres have signed to major labels, and have become household names in the mainstream culture. Kurt Cobain, in his journals, often expressed resentment at how his own band played into this situation. The formerly punk-rock group Chumbawumba, has attempted to subvert the recuperation concept by intentionally "selling out" but then using their earned money to donate to the radical causes that they still support.

Project 6: Traditional and Unconventional Color Harmonies

2011-02-26T17:28:00.000-06:00

Froebel gifts

Gerrit Reitveld

Le Corbusier

Mondrian , Broadway Boogie Woogie

Kara Walker

Kara Walker, Testimony, 2004

Kara Walker

http://www.designformankind.com/2009/03/custom-leaf-silhouette-portraits/

Monochromatic and Achromatic or Low-chromatic

Analogous

Complementary

Cool/Warm

Double-Complement

Split-Complementary

Triads

Tetrads

Keys

Gary Panter

Hiroshi Iguchi

Perks and Mini

Will Sweeney

Andy Warhol

Gianni Versace

Takashi Murakami New LV pattern

Takashi Murakami Original LV pattern

Nathalie Lete

Lucienne Day

Marimekko

Ikea

Marimekko

The Western idea of color harmony is based on the symmetry of the color wheel and goes back centuries. Mid-twentieth century European groups such as the De Stijl movement, and the Bauhaus based some of their programs on ideas around creating balance and harmony in art and design that would improve the psyche of all immersed in such aesthetics. Much of this was based on these artists, designers, and architects interest in perceptual psychology and the creation of harmonic conditions.

Wikedepia's entry on "Color Theory" mentions a bit about older color theories of harmony in relation to current understandings of the impact of culture and other variables on color taste.
...color harmony is a somewhat misleading notion in that responses to color can be influenced by a range of different factors including individual differences (age, gender, etc); cultural and social differences; as well as contextual, temporal and perceptual factors.^[2] In addition, given that humans can perceive over 2.8 million different hues^[3], it has been suggested that the number of possible color combinations is virtually infinite thereby implying that predictive color harmony formulae are fundamentally unsound.^[4] Despite this, many color theorists have devised formulae, principles or guidelines for color combination with the aim being to predict or specify positive aesthetic response or 'color harmony'. Color wheel models have often been used as a basis for color combination principles or guidelines and for defining relationships between colors. Some theorists and artists believe juxtapositions of complementary color will produce strong contrast, a sense of visual tension as well as 'color harmony'; while others believe juxtapositions of analogous colors will elicit positive aesthetic response. Color combination guidelines suggest that colors next to each other on the color wheel model (analogous colors) tend to produce a single-hued or monochromatic color experience and some theorists also refer to these as 'simple harmonies'. In addition, split complementary color schemes usually depict a range of analogous hues plus a key complementary color. A triadic color scheme adopts any three colors approximately equidistant around a color wheel model. Feisner and Mahnke are among a number of authors who provide color combination guidelines in greater detail.^[5]^[6]

Color combination formulae and principles may provide some guidance but have limited practical application. This is because of the influence of contextual, perceptual and temporal factors which will influence how color/s are perceived in any given situation, setting or context. Such formulae and principles may be useful in fashion, interior and graphic design, but much depends on the tastes, lifestyle and cultural norms of the viewer or consumer.

As early as the ancient Greek philosophers, many theorists have devised color associations and linked particular connotative meanings to specific colors. However, connotative color associations and color symbolism tends to be culture-bound and may also vary across different contexts and circumstances. For example, red has many different connotative and symbolic meanings from exciting, arousing, sensual, romantic and feminine; to a symbol of good luck; and also acts as a signal of danger. Such color associations tend to be learned and do not necessarily hold irrespective of individual and cultural differences or contextual, temporal or perceptual factors.^[7] It is important to note that while color symbolism and color associations exist, their existence does not provide evidential support for colour psychology or claims that color has therapeutic properties.^[8]

Our project involves playing with colors in combination-and exploring notions of colors may combine to create harmony stemming from 19th and 20th century color science and aesthetics-which we will create or combine with other elements, in pattern or image.

Analyze these and other textile patterns that you research, for use or non-use of the traditional color harmonies discussed here. This project is about the creation of traditions of, as well as invented or observed harmonies applied to pattern design.

Consider the possibility of not using the structure of the color wheels and the relationships created within it to create color combinations. Or consider that a harmonic combination is not the only possible desired effect. You might want to make a non-harmonic image. Or you may find that, like in Nathalie Lete's work, especially the bags above, colors are in such complex combination that they cancel out the notion of a scheme, yet they are beautiful. In Warhol and Versace's works above, the primary function of color is as reference toward the creation of meaning: in Warhol the reference is to popular commercial color, and in Versace the reference is to Warhol. For many of the younger designers' works pictured above, symmetrically-based color harmony is simply not the focus of the work, even though it is sometimes present.

1) For some designs, use only the traditional color schemes described and pictured here-those based on the symmetry of the color wheel, create different designs, patterns, or images if using painted or digital means. These can be digitally manipulated/photo-based, or not; image , pattern, or any kind of design. If you have an idea (such as the leaf or the "Paris" image that has colors within the silhouette) that does not exactly conform to the project description, please feel free to discuss with me. The color schemes or harmonies pictured above are borrowed from Color Workshop, Becky Koenig. Koenig outlines the traditional harmonies that are based on the symmetry of the color circle: Monochromatic, Achromatic or Low-Chromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Double-Complement, Split-Complement, Triadic, Secondary Triadic, Tetrads, Keyed.

A harmony involves a minimum of 2 colors, but is usually 3-5.

2) For others whether digitally or in gouache, create patterns/designs full-bleed (to the edge of the paper) that explore alternative color schemes to these classic schemes. Whether painted or digital, these should be complicated and careful. You are also free to explore these things in photography, video, film, sculpture, or other media. Please ask me if you have such an idea.

You will be asked to explain your working rationale and inspiration for each in the critique.

You will be graded on the quality of thought and execution of your work.

Use the assignment as an opportunity to be visual and conceptually (or both) inventive.

You will be graded on your level of craft, engagement, and invention.

This is now a two-week assignment: time to research, develop, and edit. Due Monday, March 14. Install in classroom at beginning of class, or send to me via email by 6:00 a.m that morning.

I have credited images above when the artist/designer was verifiable. Those left blank are unknown.

Reading, to be read by Wednesday March 2

2011-02-24T08:05:00.003-06:00

i am emailing you all a PDF reading assignment, to be read by next Wednesday, March 2nd.
the reading is a short selection from The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes by Michel Pastoreau, who writes on the social history of art and design in western culture. This pertains to our next project period which will utilize pattern and deal with concepts of harmony. Be prepared to discuss the reading in class.

Project 5: Color, Ephemera, Depiction in Animation

2011-02-20T10:00:00.001-06:00

Walt Disney, Peter Pan, 1953

Hiyao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle, 2004

Hiyao Miyazaki, x

Hiyao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle, 2004

Hiyao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle, 2004

Hiyao Miyazaki, Ponyo (poster), 2008

Tex Avery, Wolf, year unknown

Steven Speilberg, Animaniacs, 1993-1998

Walt Disney, Fantasia, 1939

Walt Disney, Dumbo, 1941

Walt Disney, Little Mermaid, 1989

Walt Disney, Lady and the Tramp, 1955

The Philosopher in Meditation, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1632

The Third of May, Francisco Goya, 1808

Georges de la Tour

Woman in a Red Hat, Johannes Vermeer, 1655-1670

Man in a Golden Helmet, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1650

Eric Fishl, Bad Boy,

Student Work:

Animation can be a great vehicle to study color and depiction, based on general analytic principles. Animation generally uses broad flat areas of color, and exploits the principles of the three attributes of color that we have learned. In this project, we will examine the mechanics of color and value use in depicting ephemeral phenomena such as direct and indirect light/illumination, shadows, reflections, fire, smoke and transparencies (all that are not solid objects). The Tex Avery example above (burlesque dancer) is a great example of wonderfully simple depiction of light and shadow in a spot lit stage scene. Glowing light and dramatic shadows are the hallmark of several earlier Disney films such as Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan (all pictured here). Dumbo, a mostly day-lit story, has less dramatic shadowing, but still quite effective. Many Hayao Miyazaki films, such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle handle dramatic lighting such as fire quite well, using color strategies similiar to much historical European painting, such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Se la Tour, Carravaggio. The depiction of water and translucency in his Ponyo is also quite beautiful and effective.

For this assignment, you will create digital images that depict such ephemeral phenomena. You will either use found images, or create your own images from scratch, or some combination thereof.

If using found images, morph character(s/objects) from one scene with one sort of light with other scenes. Lighting, shadows, etc must be altered to make a cohesive image, with a sense of a cohesive lighting source. You may also invent scenes, based on a cartoon cell or photograph, or completely invent scenes.

We will screen parts of a couple of animations to analyze the depiction of these phenomena.

Please speak to me if you need a primer on basic Photoshop and/or Illustrator.
If doing these digitally is a great difficulty for you due to equipment access, you may paint instead. In this case make 4 paintings on paper.

Create seven to ten (10) digital images (dependent on the complexity of your images). If creating variations of the same single image, create twenty (20). Project due Monday, February 28 at ^:00 a.m. Please e-mail me your images by 6:00 a.m. that Monday, October 4th so i can organize them to project. You do not need to print these unless you want to.

Project 4: Camouflage: Visual and Metaphorical

2011-02-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

Part 1
Please read the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelig
as we will be screen this film in class.

Part 2

Most of the ways that we explore color in this course are rooted in the cultural. this week we'll take a look at ways color operates in the natural world, specifically the animal and plant worlds, there is much of interest.

Phosphorescent, Florescent, Iridescent, and Interference Colors
These are examples of colors that cannot be recreated with basic artists paints. Phosphorescent and florescent are similar: they are colored materials that absorb light and re-emit it back out, appearing to glow. Phosphorescence re-emits at a slower rate of time. Iridescent and interference colors are those that appear to have hue changes from varying angles of perception due to surface properties and levels of transparency. These types of properties have been developed in paints and inks, so that the molecular structure of the colorants mimics that of the qualities of objects. Bioluminescence is the emmision of light by a living creature, such as a firefly.

Visible Spectrum of Ours and Other Species

From a bee's-eye-view, the UV colors and patterns in a flower's petals show where the nectar and pollen are.

Color as Warning and/or Signal
Warning coloration-the opposite of camouflage-serves to render an animal conspicuous and rememberable to it's enemies.

Attraction (Food Supply)
Lungwort flowers change color with age from red to blue. Young red flowers have a significantly greater pollen and nectar reward and are significantly more often unpollinated than old blue ones. In this way, lungwort plants direct pollinators to reproductive, highly rewarding red flowers. Floral color change is a mechanism that increases the efficiency of pollen transfer.

Attraction (Mating)
Birds use plumage color to recognize and select potential mates. Through color and pattern, they can identify the same species.
As a part of a mating ritual, the male of this bird genus (sorry i forgot what kind of bird) gathers items all of a chosen color (seemingly at random), and brings the bits back to his nesting area. This is meant to let females know he is ready to mate.

Camouflage
A way of avoiding detection by other species, that allows an otherwise perfectly visible creature to become indiscernible in it's environment. This crab can change colors from bright to dull when it senses a predator.
Roger Hanlon, a marine biologist at Woods Hole, Massachusetts who studies the camouflage skills of the cuttlefish and octopus, has found natural camouflage systems correspond to three disguise templates: uniform color, random patterns within a single color variation, and disruptive patterning that disguises the body outlines. These correspond to color, texture and outline as the three most important perceptual mechanisms for object perception. The first two mechanisms degrade the color and texture cues for outline, and the last degrades the cues for object recognition from perceptible outline.

Working in pairs, create a camouflage pattern on a sheet of Bristol that hides in an environment on the 5th floor. When complete, the class will judge the effectiveness of each team's camouflage.

• You will choose work-partner(s).
• You must use a full sheet of paper (9"x12"), no cutting it down.
•You will adhere with tape or other temporary adhesive.
• Your chosen site and subsequent sheet must utilize at least three color/texture areas.
• You may not use the bathrooms, stairways or otherwise block a fire exit.

Due Monday, February 21.

Project 3: Color in Context/Simultaneous Contrast

2011-02-04T09:21:00.007-06:00

J.W.M Turner

Josef Albers, one color as two

Josef Albers, two color as one

1. value contrast

2. complementary reaction

3. subtraction

4. Josef Albers, Bezold Effect

In studying the basic attributes of color and how to mix and match colors, we have looked at color as an isolated phenomena. Now we will place it back into the world, and look at how context affects the appearance of color.

If you remember from the images I shared with you the first week, the Law of Simultaneous Contrast was conceived by French Chemist M.E. Chevereul in the late nineteenth century. He stated: "In the case where the eye sees at the same time two contiguous colors, they will appear as dissimilar as possible, both in their optical composition and in the height of their tone." This theory was widely influential amongst nineteenth European painters, such as Van Gogh, Monet, Turner and more. It was the very basis for the Divisionist, or Pointillist movement (i.e.; Seurat). In the mid-twentieth century, Bauhaus artist, as well as Black Mountain and Yale legendary teacher Josef Albers made it the center of his approach to color, in his own work and his teaching. He was endlessly fascinated with how color is relative, how much appearance can fool the eye, and the instability of the perception of color. Albers broke down simultaneous contrast into three types, or reasons for the effect. These are Value Contrast, Complementary Reaction, and Theory of Subtraction. We will utilize these in this assignement.

Your assignment is to create a total of five in a series of simultaneous contrast exercises designed to help you understand and internalize the principles.

One panel should demonstrate value contrast and should be comprised of two very different value surrounds each with the same color center.

The next panel should demonstrate complementary reaction and should utilize a color and a neutral gray surround with the center squares being the complement of the color surround.

Next, demonstrate the principle of subtraction by using a neutral gray and a color surround, and a center chip that is related to the colored surround (secondary to primary, secondary to tertiary).

Lastly, create one page with two surrounds that makes one color appear as two, and then a fifth page that makes two colors appear as one, also using two surrounds.

I recommend doing these exercises in numerical order, as they are increasingly difficult, and 4 and 5 require complete understanding of 1-3. For all five, you should replicate the Albers format: please use a 1" square in a 4" surround. Please utilize the information above (1-4) and the aforementioned reading. These visual principles will guide you in 'pushing' colors to alter appearance.

You may not use any of the color combinations in these examples.

Please remember that the colors on the screen become altered from original prints.

Project due Monday, February 14.

Project 2

2011-01-25T21:08:00.001-06:00

Mixing and Matching Color:

Using 15 examples of found color, create perfect matches to the color using your paint. Create 15 neat matching swatches and place and adhere adjacent (must touch) to the found swatches for comparison. Each sample of found color and it's matching swatch should each be approximately 2" square, though need not be a square this time. You may fit several pairs on a page, depending on how many will fit.

Desaturating the colors with their compliments (as in Project 1/Part 1) plays a very big role in color matching.

Be wary of very thin magazine stock, the colors will be very hard to match as colors bleed through from the back side. Also be wary of using certain hues, such as fluorescent or iridescent colors are not matchable with the palette that we have.

Due beginning of class on Monday, February 7. Please hang these on walls when you arrive.

fyi: the palette we use

2011-01-24T10:20:00.000-06:00

Holbein Acryla acrylic gouache:

titanium white
jet black
ultramarine blue
pure red
light yellow
light green
orange
violet

also recommended:
primary magenta
primary cyan
turquoise

Project 1 / Part 2

2011-01-23T10:32:00.000-06:00

Project One: Scales of Attributes in the Subtractive System / Part 2

This Project is due Monday, January 31, beginning of class.

Hue, Value and Inherent Value: Using 1" square increments, complete a value scale of the primaries and secondary colors, as well as black and white, in the subtractive system. These are G. O, V, R, B, Y, K (black), and W (white). Copy the chart above exactly with squares 1x1"; 10 across and 8 down. The hues will line up from top to bottom, and 8 increments of value with run across, with lightest on left and darkest on right. The left side will be pure white, and the right side will be pure black. Place each hue at its purest, unadulterated state at the appropriate value. This will illustrate the inherent value of each hue. Use black and white only to lighten and darken hues. When one squints, the values of each up/down row, should appear very clear and uniform. These should be as close to perfect in terms of their perceptual uniformity of value as you can get.

Project 1 / Part 1

2011-01-16T10:10:00.000-06:00

Project One: Scales of Attributes in the Subtractive System / Part 1
We will start this project in class on Wednesday, and it is due on Monday, January 24 at the beginning of class (we will then commence part two of the assignment). This project is meant to help internalize the three basic attributes of subtractive color; the differences between them and how they interact with each other. This project is meant to begin the internalizing of the three basic attributes of subtractive color - hue, value, and saturation - the differences between them and how they interact with each other. It is also meant to begin or continue familiarization with clean and even paint handling. Use one full sheet of paper for each chart, and sets of charts. a) Hue / Basic 2-D Geometric Structure of Color: Re-create the traditional subtractive color wheel with primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries. Draw chart in pencil, and then fill in with color. Please use the paint straight out of the tube for primaries and secondary colors. Mix commercial primary and secondaries to make your own tertiaries (material mixtures do not always follow theoretical principles). b) Saturation: Using square increments, create a saturation chart using the 3 traditional subtractive primaries and their complements. In three separate gamuts, use 7 increments between colors and make the middle square the midpoint, and therefore neutral hue between the two complements used. Each exercise will be executed in paint and will be on a separate sheet of Bristol; that is you will hand in two sheets of paper. You must use two coats of paint to get an opaque and uniform paint surface. Be as neat, slow, and careful as you can be. Some people can do this freehand, others find that using artist's tape helps them, while others paint messily, and cut our squares with X-acto knife later. Each square increment of color should be no smaller than 3/4" and no bigger that 1". You will be graded on both accuracy as well as neat presentation. Work carefully and take your time. Please be sure to have your own pushpins to hang them up at the start of class.

Welcome to AD209

2011-01-01T10:01:00.002-06:00

Marc Jacobs, Spring 2007 Fashion Show, New York

Welcome to our course blog for UIC AD209 / Color Theory. Please bookmark this page; this will be the place to look for all information on assignments, scheduling and other required information.

AD 209/Color Theory
5110 Art & Design Hall
MW 9:00-11:40
Spring 2011
University of Illinois at Chicago
School of Art and Design
Professor Pamela Fraser
E-mail: pfraser@uic.edu
Office Hours: by appointment

Course Description:
This course will present a wide range of historical and contemporary color theories and will investigate the subject in terms of color science, reproduction, and communication. The course is intended to provide students with a conceptual framework for approaching color and a working knowledge of its attributes. Color is examined as it functions perceptually, and as a tool that plays a part in constructing meaning in art and design. The course is inter-media and interdisciplinary and is designed for students in all programs within the College of Architecture and the Arts. Projects will be created both digitally in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop (or similar software / freeware) and materially with gouache on paper.

Upon successful completion of the course students will have a basic understanding of both the history and principles of various theories of color vision; have developed a sensitivity to seeing color in all its attributes; and demonstrate the capacity to create legible and meaningful color projects. The course will combine scale and chart exercises designed to teach the basic logical structure of color with experimentation in students’ choices of designs (typography, textile design, cartoon, poster design, etc.) as a vehicle for color lessons.

Course Requirements:
Class time will be used for work time, discussion, demonstrations, and slide lectures. Students will be expected to work a minimum of four hours outside of class each week: reading, researching, planning and completing each weekly project. Some projects will be executed in gouache on paper, and some digitally. All digital projects must be printed and handed in class when they are due (no e-mailing).

Intelligent, considered work and good craftsmanship are important. All projects must be executed in a clear, clean, and concise way.

Readings will be assigned throughout the term and posted on the blog. These are mandatory, and students will be expected to display an understanding of the material.

Materials:
Students’ lab fees paid for paint and paper for the class to use communally. Students will purchase small hard-plastic storage cups to keep and transport paint (see below). The communal paint may or may not last the term. If it runs out, students will have to purchase more. You will need to purchase the following:

• Watercolor brushes a variety-pack is good. Make sure you have a flat 1”, and at least one very small (size 0 or smaller).
• small paper or plastic cups (“Dixie” is good)
• Lg. Cup for water (recyled)
• plastic storage cups for holding paints. Loews-Cornell makes a good 12-pk of
1 oz. cups
• artists/designers toolbox supplies: ruler, compass, scissors, X-Acto knife, pencils, mechanical pencils, erasers, artist's tape, pushpins, paper towels/rags, soap

Grading:
Your final grade will be based on the following percentages for coursework, with participation a part of the project grade.
Projects 50%
Participation 50%
The success of each project is assessed by the student’s level of involvement, imagination and experimentation; the incorporation of knowledge gained from course material; and high level of craftsmanship. Successful participation is gauged by level of engagement, and conversation either individually or group lectures/discussions.
Late work is not accepted; projects not received on time will receive an "F". If you are going to miss class on the due date of an assignment, you must e-mail me to make arrangements to get the assignment to me.
There will be a mid-term grade advisory during the 8th week.

Please keep the following School of Art and Design grade guidelines in mind, noting that average participation and basic completion of work merits a "C".

A=outstanding accomplishment, innovative thinking,
strong participation, full attendance, excellent progress
B-above-average accomplishment, solid participation,
full attendance, good progress
C=accomplished all assignments, average participation,
full attendance, little progress
D= lack of completion or accomplishment in assignments,
disinterested participation
F=failure to complete basic course requirements and/or attendance

Attendance:
Good attendance is presumed and not rewarded or reflected in the final grade calculation.
After two unexcused absences, one’s grade will drop one letter grade.
After five absences-excused or unexcused-one may fail the course.
Three times late, leaving early or arriving unprepared will equal one absence.
Absence from class is not an excuse for missing handouts or assignments, or not handing in work.Work not handed in on Mondays will not be accepted (therefore attendance on these critique days in mandatory). In the event of absence, e-mail me to discuss what you may have missed and how to make it up.

Miscellaneous:
• If you have any special needs, please speak with me about it during the first week of class.
• Students who will miss class due to religious holiday, should inform me as soon as possible of any potential conflict.
• Maintain clean work area and respect the facilities
• No phone calls or texts during class. Turn cell phones OFF.
• Computer use only with my permission.
• Schedule is subject to change

Projects:
The project schedule is roughly divided into three parts; one part spent working subtractively, one part spent working additively, and one part working in the students' choice of system and media.