Category: Color

The surprising pattern behind color names around the world

November 10, 2017

“In 1969, two Berkeley researchers, Paul Kay and Brent Berlin, published a book on a pretty groundbreaking idea: that every culture in history, when they developed their languages, invented words for colors in the exact same order. They claimed to know this based off of a simple color identification test, where 20 respondents identified 330 colored chips by name. If a language had six words, they were always black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. If it had four terms, they were always black, white, red, and then either green or yellow. If it had only three, they were always black, white, and red , and so on. The theory was revolutionary — and it shaped our understanding of how color terminologies emerge.”

What are the limits of human vision?

April 17, 2017

“Wondrous as it is, our sense of vision is clearly not without certain limitations. We can no more see radio waves emanating from our electronic devices than we can spot the wee bacteria right under our noses. But with advances in physics and biology, we can test the fundamental limits of natural vision. “Everything you can discern has a threshold, a lowest level above which you can and below which you can’t,” says Michael Landy, professor of psychology and neural science at New York University. ”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150727-what-are-the-limits-of-human-vision

The Women with Superhuman Vision

April 15, 2017

“A tiny group of people can see ‘invisible’ colours that no-one else can perceive, discovers David Robson. How do they do it?”

“Today, she knows that this is a symptom of a condition known as “tetrachromacy”. Thanks to a variation in a gene that influences the development of their retinas, people like Antico can see colours invisible to most of us. Consider a pebble pathway. What appears dull grey to you or me shines like a jeweller’s display to Antico. “The little stones jump out at me with oranges, yellows, greens, blues and pinks,” she says. “I’m kind of shocked when I realise what other people aren’t seeing.””

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision

How do language and lifestyle affect your perceptions?

April 15, 2017

Part of an interesting video series, Do You See What I See. The first part of this link shows an African tribe, the Himba, whose language and environment differ so much from ours that they are able to distinguish different shades very differently from us. The link below is for the part that shows the Himba tribe. At the bottom of the video player are links for the rest of that show.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl7eh1_horizon-do-you-see-what-i-see-part-4-4_shortfilms

Here an article about how those same people are able to discern optical illusions better than people who live in modern societies.

The Astonishing Vision of Namibia’s Nomads

“The Himba people of Namibia can see fine details and ignore distraction much better than most other human beings – a finding that may reflect the many ways that modern life is changing our minds and abilities.”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170306-the-astonishing-focus-of-namibias-nomads

Some women are born with hyper-sensitive eyes that can see the world in ways most of us cannot even imagine. What’s it like to live with this gift?

March 29, 2016

“Some women, however, are “tetrachromat”. Thanks to two different mutations on each of the X chromosomes, they have four cones – increasing the combination of colours they should be able to see. The mutation isn’t very rare (estimates of the prevalence vary and depend on your heritage, but it could be as high as 47% among women of European descent), but scientists struggled to find someone who reliably demonstrated enhanced perception.”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160316-i-can-see-colours-you-cannot-perceive-or-imagine?ocid=gnl.ppc.sponsored-post.facebook..KeyWee_March_US&kwp_0=122626&kwp_4=568355&kwp_1=298926

The world’s first thesaurus of colour shades: What kind of yellow is an egg yolk?

March 6, 2016

thesaurus-red

“I started to fall in love with words that could do double duty,” admits Sundberg, “colours you could load with metaphorical meaning and would give a reader more information than simply hue.

“For example, ‘porcelain white’ evokes stature, texture, possibly even a time period. ‘Watermelon pink’ makes you think of summer, sweet things, makes your mouth water. ‘Chartreuse’ feels sharp and bold, adds a hint of magic. My goal became to create a spectrum of words that I could endow with meaning and help add new layers to my stories.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/design/the-world-s-first-thesaurus-of-colour-shades-what-kind-of-yellow-is-an-egg-yolk-a6877791.html?mc_cid=c28053bf7b&mc_eid=34e2887073

What’s the Color of Your Favorite Song?

October 20, 2015

“Imagine yourself as a graphic designer for New Age musician Enya, tasked with creating her next album cover. Which two or three colors from the grid below do you think would ‘go best’ with her music?

“Would they be the same ones you’d pick for an album cover or music video for the heavy metal band Metallica? Probably not.”

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/08/21/color-song/

Before Pantone Color Chips, There Was This 300-Year-Old Book

May 31, 2015

image

Not quite how I would use this for TOK but it’s really really cool.

“This one-of-a-kind book was created to demonstrate how watercolors could be manipulated to change shade when different measurements of water were added to the mixture. The concept of mixing one’s own colors as a primer on color theory will surely be familiar to any first-semester art student, but Boogert’s example is notable for its thoroughness — he filled approximately 800 pages with every example imaginable.”

http://www.refinery29.com/original-pantone-color-book

12 fascinating optical illusions show how color can trick the eye

March 1, 2015

checkershadow_illusion4med

“Changing a color’s appearance by changing the background or lighting is one of the most common techniques in optical illusions. As the examples below show, colors can change dramatically against different backgrounds. (If you’ve ever held a sock up to something black to see whether it was black or navy, you understand the concept.)”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/27/12-fascinating-optical-illusions-show-how-color-can-trick-the-eye/?tid=pm_business_pop