Visual Culture
Color
Lighting
Seeing
Sight requires light in some form. Light could be physical, or "light" could be abstract
"Good" Color
"Bad" Color
Color is a social construct.
White
A Coat of Whitewash: The Law of Ripolin
Le Corbusier extravagantly connects purity, cleanliness, morality, and perfection with a specific white paint.
Light and White are similar
Light
Plato's Cave
Dark
Interplay of Light and Dark
Light reveals. Light is truth.
Light As a Metaphor for Truth
Blumenberg finds that the conditions for Plato's Cave is artificial. The darkness and the light are human-influenced.
Nevertheless, light still emits truth. The "naturalness" of the truth, however, is debatable.
Darkness as a shroud against truth
Black
Black is emptiness
Colors/Black
Paul La Farge comment upon black's dubious nature as a color. In the Cabinet Magazine, he writes:
"I was going to write, the color black, but as every child knows black isn't a color" (2009-2010)
Black is missing things, hiding things, and likely doesn't exist.
The interplay between color and sight
Both sight and color are manipulated
click to edit
Color is manipulated by people, be it through a presentation or as an observer.
Light exposes a surface
The Minds Eye Sacks notes that a blind person understands the abstract meaning of light.
Invisibility: that which cannot be seen cannot be understood. Yet, the concept is well-understood within human context.
The Shadow
Andersen's story details how a man's own shadow overshadows him. In a literal manner, darkness hides the truth.
Fact of Blackness
Fanon proclaims that black indeed has meaning, albeit somewhat twisted. Black is only "black" when it is amongst other colors.
click to edit
click to edit
19th-Century Insight Into The Psychology of Color and Emotion
Popov discusses how color can be cultural. A color isn't a static definition. A color can change based on how one perceives it and how it is presented.
Chromophobia
Color is subject to heavy prejudice within Western Culture. Batchelor argues that color is seen as diametrically opposed in such cases.
Dark and black are the same. Both are an emptiness, a lack of color.
Duality of sight:
An invisible watcher can see but cannot be seen. The watched cannot see but can be seen.
Molyneux Redux
Kleege's article presents a most intriguing concept pertaining to asking whether or not a person who had never experienced "light" the way "normal people" have is indeed blind. Do they understand what color is? Do they understand how color is?
click to edit
Sophie Calle's Suite Venitienne, is a stronger take on Acconci's project. Instead of hinging upon watching without being noticed, Calle's project relies on not being seen by the subject, at all.
Vito Acconci's art project, Following Piece, demonstrates the almost arbitrary nature of sight. His "art" hinges upon watching without being noticed.