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Seeing Visual Culture, Many of the resources from the class discuss color…

- - - - Metaphors of light can indicate changes in world and self understanding. The Allegory of the Cave shows light as knowledge. It is a dignity and strength above beings.
    - - In this piece, historian Stoichata is interviewed. Her interpretation of Plato's cave is that the people can't see directly into the light, meaning they can't see reality, only the shadow of reality, which in this case is light. They must renounce the shadow world to see reality. She also talks about the importance of shadow throughout history, such as the Renaissance, primal fears, and religion.
    - - The Shadow is the story of a man's shadow who runs away to live his own life only to return years later. In this story, the shadow is representative of the evil side of someone and is literally brought to life. The shadow is ultimately the main character's demise, to the point it is as if the man was the shadow the whole time.
    - - This piece details Dawoud Bey's "Night Coming Tenderly," a series of dark photographs. The images make visible the histories of photography and the African American freedom struggle. The atrocities committed against African Americans are brought to life represented by darkness and photography.
        
        Dawoud Bey, “Night Coming Tenderly, Black”
    - - Metaphors of soul and death
      - Exist but also don't exist at the same time
      - Verifies the reality of the real world
      - Imitation of truth
      - Multiplicity and identity
      - Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun, 1766. This paintings exaggerates shadows, with only slivers of light that could be made to represent knowledge.
    - - In this movie, the darkness represents duality. The movie follows a woman who becomes mute and is taken care of by another woman. The dark tones and scenes of randomness lead us to believe they are the same person, or alter egos.
    - - Mother of George is about an African woman in America, who marries someone who is unable to conceive a child with her. Her husband's inability to have a child puts a strain on her identity as a Yoruba and an American. The dark tones and focus in some parts of the movie and bright, colorful palettes in others signal changes in tonality and emotion.
  - - - White is affiliated with cleanliness, virginity, peace, modernity. White is Purity
        
        Richard Dyer, “White"
        
        Dyer explores both the racial and physical aspects of white. Investigating cinema, he finds that whiteness has dominated the industry, with black sometimes thrown in to accentuate the whiteness even more. Whiteness is both nothing and everything, which is the center of its representational power.
        
        Robert Rauschenberg, White Paintings
        
        The whiteness is these paintings are full and blank. They can represent white's silence, simplicity, and pristineness. It also works to exaggerate shadows in our world.
        
        Yves Klein, Untitled White Monochrome
        
        Yves Klein shows white in the physical sense. Both nothing and everything, his use of white evokes its emptiness but also purity. It can be said to be representative of white culture and cleanliness in general.
    - - Derek Jarman, “Into the Blue"
        
        Derek Jarman, "Blue" (film)
        
        “Blue gives other colours their vibration”
        
        “Blue transcends the solemn geography of human limits”
        
        Jarman was diagnosed with AIDS and had to take medicine which caused him to see the world as blue. He related blue to waiting for death. The color blue could represent his experience better than anything else.
        
        “Blue is the universal love in which man it is the terrestrial paradise”
      - Blue associated with:
        
        Wealth (Lapis Lazuli)
        
        Protect the dead against evil (Egypt)
        
        Decorate churches (religious)
        
        Endlessness of sky
        
        Dyed clothing of workers (Romans)
        
        Blue is poor workers (middle ages)
      - Carol Mavor, excerpt from Blue Mythologies
        
        After losing her daughter, the protagonist finds a blue lollipop she had been saving for her, and instead eats it herself in grief. This piece is about blue in relation to death and inevitability. Blue is representative of goodbyes and grief, but also youth.
      - Seph Rodney, Lorna Simpson Searches for Meaning in the Arctic Ice
        
        Simpson interprets blue as both white and darkness. The iceberg is integrated with written language and human faces, symbolizing human connection to color.
    - - Wizard of Oz is the first movie to use color as a plot device. The film utilizes the relationship between color and fantasy, representing the child’s fantasy of stepping into a world of color. The individual colors symbolize different aspects as well, such as red for danger and green for life.
- - - - The air of Los Angeles allows for light to have a certain uniqueness to it. It attracts people from all over the world and Angelenos take pride in it. It impacts emotional state and brings happiness.
    - - "To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior." The ocean and sky turns ominously glossy, affecting the mental state of everyone in LA. It completely changes the environment and pushes people's emotions to the edge.
    - - Plato, The Allegory of the Cave
  - - - The author describes the whiteness of a house he visited. The white was almost accusatory, reminding you of everything you were not. Everything was too pristine to the point where you could not relax. It was as if nothing could escape. The color white in this case makes you feel a sense of unreality.
      - This image of "modern" architecture demonstrate's white's starkness and unreal feel.
    - - "Color is an essential part of how we experience the world, both biologically and culturally." There is a psychological impact of every color on emotion.
    - - Color is used to repackage a film. It can serve to unify a projected world and create artificial environments Color reflects emotion, and is responsible for futuridity.
    - - Not about political liberty, but emotional liberty
      - What it means to survive after death of someone you love
      - Blue is death, grief, and sadness
    - - White can refiningly enhance beauty. It can make you feel royalty and happiness. It can be a sacred color, even being associated with religion. However, white can also heighten terror to its peak when it is seen on the bear or whale.
    - - A series of poems about the various meanings and emotions evoked by color and light, many of which are abstract.
- - - - Acconci would follow someone until they went to a private place. While this happens, he feels like he is not a subject. Watching in such a way gives him a sense of power and invisibility. Calle did something very similar. Both gave an interpretation of the power of surveillance.
        
        Following Piece, Vito Acconci
        
        “Optics is the politics of positioning”
        
        Sophie Calle, Suite Venitienne (1981)
      - All light Everywhere (dir. Theo Anthony)
        
        This documentary analyzes the ways in which surveillance and sight have evolved over time. Investigating aspects such as blind spots, police body cameras, and pigeon cameras in WWI, sight has affected the way society functions today.
      - The Panopticon
        
        Michel Foucault, “Panopticism”
        
        Architectural concept where everything is seen by overseer in tower. Prisoners can’t see who’s next to him or overseer
        
        In this system, you become a body in governance. To see someone is to possess them.
        
        In the context of society, the panopticon creates a system where prisoners govern themselves, much like how we obey laws and norms.
    - - H.G. Wells, “The Country of the Blind”
        
        “The Country of the Blind” shows us how much societies can differ from our own. It can be seen as an anti-imperialist allegory and also the limits of assimilation. The story is of a world not based on sight, and a community not conditioned by sight-based language.
      - Blind figures in history and literature like Tiresias, Oedipus, and Justice
        
        Hegemony of Vision, edited by D. M. Levin
        
        This book explores how our society is centered on vision, exploring the evolution of philosophy and various forms of visual media.
      - Georgina Kleege, “Blindness and Visual Culture: An Eyewitness Account”
        
        "Visual culture entails a meditation on blindness, the invisible, the unseen, the unseeable, and the overlooked"
        
        Everything about our society is tailored to the sighted
        
        We are quick to underestimate the blind. The Hypothetical Blind Man, subject to many experiments and philosophical thought, is used as a center of pity to make us appreciate our gift of sight.
        
        Georgina Kleege, “Molyneaux Redux”
        
        Similarly to the Hypothetical Blind Man, experiments can undermine the blind. The experiment that says that if a blind person is gifted sight, would they be able to distinguish a shapes like a cube and sphere, undermines the blind's abilities other than sight. People don't realize that the blind may not want the ability to see.
  - - - Claudia Rankine, excerpt from Citizen
    - - Ralph Ellison, excerpt from Invisible Man
      - Gordon Parks, Emerging Man, Harlem, 1952
    - - This article investigates invisibility in the modern day. What is shown and how coverage subsides in natural disasters, making the true impact mainly unseen. Also the use of the empty chair to represent the Dalai Lama when photos of him were banned. Invisibility can be impactful, even if it is unseen.
    - - Visual culture has been detached from human eyes, becoming largely invisible. Much of what we see now is made by machines. Digital images are different than those of the past. As such, our relationship with images has changed. "We no longer look at images–images look at us. They no longer simply represent things, but actively intervene in everyday life"
  - - - White is often seen as purity, shown in entertainment and media.
        
        Hilaria Loyo, “Blinding Blondes: Whiteness, Femininity, and Stardom”
        
        Loyo investigates the popularity of white, blonde stars like Marilyn Monroe and Dietrich in the "Golden Era of the Blonde." Gender intersects racial and social modalities and creates identity. Race is used to subcategorize people into superiority and inferiority. The idea of the blonde emerged from the social and cultural issues of the era.
        
        Le Corbussier, “A Coat of Whitewash: The Law of Ripolin"
        
        White is control, and white is clean. Whitewash comes from the preservation of culture and a racist past. To introduce new ideas and elements is to eliminate whitewash.
        
        Blonde Venus
        
        Insists that we see whiteness and links it to glow and celebrity
        
        Radiates femininity
        
        When emerging from ape costume, shows racial stereotypes. Emerges as a star and eradicates darkness
    - - Black Lives Matter has played a large role in abolition of racism. However, it does have to combat being downplayed and negative depiction in the media. It is through promoting black accomplishment that this can be beaten. Black is a paradox. Black is only black in relation to white. If everything was black, is there even sight at all?
    - - Fanon argues that his identity, and that of the black community, is not self-created, but rather imposed upon them due to the color of their skin. He wishes to be seen as only a man, not a black man, but society would never see him that way.
- - - - This piece explores how Kodak film had exposure which made it unable to distinguish black skin. This demonstrated that African Americans were irrelevant in a society catering to whiteness.
    - - This gallery of photos depicts not so often seen African Americans on camera with colored lenses.
  - - - The Albers tests demonstrate that color can look different depending on its surroundings. We can make one color look completely different from itself, we can make two colors look the same, and even make colors look transparent.
    - - Itten investigates color from a scientific standpoint. He asks what color is composed of, and what it truly is. He studies molecular structures and electromagnetics. He also cites Newton's use of a prism to separate colors. This investigation brings to question whether color really is objective.
    - - Children see color different from adults. They see them as boundaries. They don't associate color with objects or anything else because of a lack of understanding. They are unbiased and not subjected to emotion.
    - - Line opens the eye of man to the exterior and the land that surrounds him. Throughout history, therer has been war between line and color. This is seen in icebergs. First there is nothing, then there is depth of nothing, then blue. Blue escapes 2 dimensions.
    - - What is thought to be white is actually blue. Icebergs, ocean, and more are all blue up close. Is there really whiteness, or is it just blue?
    - - Words and symbols are better suited for objectivity over sensation and memory, but still not objective. The problem is that breaking rules of objectivity would be irresistable. Color is subjectivity - the experience of color is individualized. We each see color differently.
    - - LaFarge investigates the color black as darkness. We see in darkness because we see in one color, black. Our eyes have the potential to see, but also to not see. Total darkness is also blackness.
  - - - There isn't necessarily art, but there is certainly light. We can manipulate it like we do sound. Art is shining light on what we haven't seen, or illuminating what we wish is seen. Everything we see is physically light.
  - - - "But to what extent are we—our experiences, our reactions—shaped, predetermined, by our brains, and to what extent do we shape our own brains?" Sack's addresses this question in relation to blindness. Those who can see and are later blinded have to rewire their brains. Some forget what it is to see entirely while some still live envisioning sight, even if they can't see.
    - - This video is a comedic take on how to not be seen. They focus on how to not be seen on camera, saying that resolution of an image determines visibility. They also investigate how some of the most important aspects of our society, such as capitalism, are invisible.