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Seeing Visual Culture - Coggle Diagram

- - - - A Child's View of Colors (Walter Benjamin 1913-1926)
        colors shimmer in shifting nuances, make definite and explicit changes in intensity. Color serves as a boundlessness, filling the world with innocence and harmony. The hypervisibility of color is that it becomes the fluid medium of all changes. The world as a whole and a child's view of colors contrasts the other two texts whitecapes and chromophobia also linked to the ostentatious and attention-seeking subgroup. These two texts present color as a way of grasping attention, enabling the ability to keep harmony and attention. In contrast, the white as explained by the other two texts highlight a difference in view, as such, the use of a variety of colors and white both have the ability to grab attention, however in two different ways. One being a way of establishing the mood and environment and the other being a state of "cleansing" or removal of impurity.
        
        The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming 1939)
        
        The use of color in this film to showcase fantasy. Color in this case, like how it was described in the child's view of colors is utilized to create a consistent region of make-believe. The immersion into this world is a type of entrapment. Color is used to enclose people in a sense of unreality. # #
  - - - Lorna Simpson Searches for Meaning in Arctic Ice (Seph Rodney 2019)
        "language can proclaim, fix in place, define, revise, affirm, recognize, delimit, undergird"
        Meaning is a fugitive thing that fades in an out of existence. The human faces hidden within the arctic ice act as a metaphor for negotiating and making sense of what we see solely through sight. Visibility is racialized, and thus, Simpson uses arctic ice as a metaphor for how black individuals are rendered in front of the camera, but also often in life as well. In relation to Citizen, both texts showcase invisibility and hypervisibility as negatives in black individuals lives, either wiping away their individuality or emphasizing their difference or deviance to what is considered normal by society. #
    - - White (Richard Dyer 1988)
        As long as whiteness is treated as "invisible", it will continue being the default experience. To combat the lack of representation on film, there is a necessity of equal representation of races. Visibility is racialized to the extent that whiteness is normalized and all else is considered hypervisible.The idea that white skin is desired and pure is also reflected in interior design texts such as whitescapes and chromophobia, both instances demonstrate how white is used as the standard, or default skin tone and color tone# # #
    - - Colors/Black (Paul LaFarge 2009-2010)
        Being black is the color of what might have been. The visibility of their skin causes them to stand out against the rest, meaning that their individuality is built from the basis of their skin. "When people like me, they tell me it is in spite of my color. When they dislike me, they point out that it is not because of my color." Hypervisibility is not seen as a good thing for black invidiuals. The focus becomes an emphasis on their skin and race, causing many individuals to want to blend in and become invisible, as shown in Rankine's Citizen. #
- - - - Photography, Darkness, and the Underground Railroad (Shawn Michelle Smith 2021)
        use of large prints and minimalistic black panels to showcase shadowy landscapes. The aim is to bring the invisible back to light, "visualizing the black presence in the American physical and social landscape". By reorienting what was previously unseen, the viewers see black bodies being overexposed and underexposed at the same time. For both black and white paintings (White paintings and Untitled), their features both emphasize to bring out things and people that are typically overlooked. For this painting, it is bringing to light black individuals' presence in the United States while for the white painting, it aims to highlight and showcase light as a medium of art and exchange. # #
  - - - Untitled White Monochrome (Yves Klein 1958)
        
        Similar to Mary Corse's painting, the simplicity of the painting is demonstrated by the use of a singular color.
        
        White Paintings (Robert Rauschenberg 1951)
        White paintings as a way of showcasing the changes in light, reflecting the effects of shadows based on the environments they are in. In contrast to white being ostentatious, white is instead used as a medium for light to shine through. # # #
      - A Coat of Whitewash (Le Corbussier 1925)
        Law of Ripolin - demonstrating that "whitewashed walls had a spiritual and moral cleansing power". In such, he associates whiteness with purity and nudity. This also plays into the cultural construct that white is exclusive and the norm. White is seen as stagnant. It is the typical color used on the walls in most households, it is used in hospitals, museums, and most public facilities. Hence, white can be seen as the norm in both skin color and buildings and everyday objects. # #
  - - - Blue (Derek Jarman 1993)
        Blue acts as a refuge for the protagonist dealing with loss. It comes and goes, as shown through the sunsets and sunrises. Blue is used as an expansiveness and a limitlessness, coming back in sparks when coping with moving on. #
- - - - The Color of Subjectivity (Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison 2010)
        Late 19th century discovery of how "color became a paradigmatic example of private, incommunicable subjectivity". Colors cannot be uniform and thus are up to the viewer to subjectivity determine the value of a color. Again, similar to the interactions of color piece, the invisible images and the perception of color through the computer causes color to become objective and stagnant. #
        
        19th Century Insight into the Psychology of Color and Emotion (Maria Popova 2012)
        Refuted Newton's ideas on the color spectrum, suggesting that "darkness is an active ingredient rather than the passing of light". Explored the different psychological impacts of colors and their moods.