HMV – THEORY AND CONCEPT RESEARCH

HOW WE SEE?

Humans have five senses; hearing, smell, taste, touch and sight. My project’s main focus is based on sight and our visual sensory system. Our visual receptors are located in the eye and they are triggered by light, colour and movement. (1)

In order to understand the importance of sight and the power and role of colours within our lives I wanted to better understand how we are able to see and how our brain translates the information we receive through our eyes.

‘Our eyes are responsible for four-fifths of all the information our brain receives. Here you can find out more about how we see.’

(The eyes | Protecting sight | Sightsavers, n.d.) (2)

A brief biology of the eye and how it works

The key to our vision is light. The objects and images we see is due to light reflecting off of the physical things’ surface. This reflection hits our eye and firstly processed through the cornea, located at the front of the eye, essentially acting like a window. Our pupils control the amount of light that enters the eye and it is surrounded by the iris. As our eyes are round, they bend the entering light and by doing so they create an upside down image that hits the most complex part, the retina. The retina’s purpose is to turn light into signals, which eventually reaches the brain and turns the image the right way up.

HOW WE SEE COLOURS?

The human eye and brain together translate the reflected light to form colours. To simply put it, colour is just light. The colours we see are wavelengths of light that travel through air. These wavelengths are like waves in the ocean, sometimes shorter and more frequent, other times longer and less frequent. Each colour has its own wavelength and frequency, so the difference in colours is essentially the difference in wavelengths.

According to Kassia St Clair, the colours we perceive and associate an object with is due to light being reflected off the surface of that object into our eyes. Different things are different colours, because they absorb some wavelengths of the visible light spectrum, while others bounce off. This phenomenon creates the various wavelengths and frequencies that our eyes process and translate to a colourful image through light. (3)

‘The secret Lives of Colours’ by Kassia St Clair is the first book I bought a while ago about colour. The first of many. My fascination with colours have merged the past few years. Without colour life seems dull. I was astonished to learn from her book that ‘the colours we perceive an object to be is precisely the colours that it isn’t: that is, the segment of the spectrum that is being reflected away.’ (3)

So basically, a ripe tomato for example, is red because the tomato’s skin soaks up most of the short and medium wavelengths (blues, violets, greens, yellows and oranges) and the remainder, reds, hit our eyes and processed by our brains.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

Sir Isaac Newton has shaped and defined our modern understanding of light. He published a series of his experiments in 1672. Through his work he discovered the visible spectrum of light and observed the way each colour of light would bend as it passed through the prism. (6)

I will not go in too much detail about the technicality of his experiments. An interesting thing to read into and learn about. Especially as a design student who is heavily inspired by colour, I felt it is important to have a more detailed understanding on how we see and perceive colours and how they form.

The famous spectrum and prism created by Newton is featured in many science books. As a person who was never too keen about science I always associated this symbolic image with Pink Floyd’s album cover; ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. The beloved band and its most popular album created a trend, a new fashion that is still remembered, used and ‘worshipped’ by fans.

Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis created the iconic cover for the band. They have created many other many other memorable album covers, such as Led Zeppelin’s ‘House of the Holy’ – which is another interesting, elegant yet exciting design, heavily driven by colour.

“Hipgnosis had been given minimal creative direction by the band other than a suggestion by keyboardist Richard Wright to “do something clean, elegant and graphic.”

(Deal, 2017)

The inspiration/reference image the designers used were in fact of a prism with a colour beam projected through it – an image they have recognised from physics textbooks.

ALBERT H. MUNSELL

I felt it is appropriate to mention Munsell’s name, as the fundamentals of colours are based on his theory. Again I don’t mean to go in too much detail. This is not a history lesson, just interesting facts that helped me better understand the concept of my work for this project; colour.

“Munsell colour order system is based on a three-dimensional model depicted in the Munsell color tree. Each color has three qualities or attributes:

1. Hue – color such as red, orange, yellow, etc.
2. Value – the lightness or darkness of a color
3. Chroma – the saturation or brilliance of a color” (7)

MY CONCEPT – COLOUR AND MUSIC

As it turns out Newton and Munsell shared the concept of likening colour notation to music notation. Newton included musical notes correlated with colour in his original colour wheel. (6)

Fundamentally both colours and music have a very powerful effect on humans. Though they target and trigger different senses, they both create strong psychological, symbolic, sociological and emotional responses. The colours of a room or environment equally changes our emotional and physical response as music. In a bright and colourful room we feel more energetic, more elevated. An upbeat song makes you want to move. Colours and music affect and create moods.

SYNESTHESIA

In essence this phenomenon is our perceptions or senses working together. A mixture of two senses working together at one time,  prompting unusual sensory responses to stimuli. People with synesthesia “hear colours, feel sounds and taste shapes” (8)

Some of history’s greatest classical composers, including Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov, had synaesthesia, to name a few. They would associate colours with pitches, seeing musical notes as colours.

I began to wonder; though I do not have synesthesia, not that I am aware of at least, I often listen to music and picture various colours and shapes that would pair well with the beat. Almost like creating the visuals for a motion design or video clip. I always listen to music. I never leave my house without my headphones. It feels like suicide to dive into the London public transport without them. Music is like protection for me (and greatly assists me to block out the stupidity of the general public). I equally love colours. Colours and patterns. I thrive when the combination of these three come together.

I paid even more attention to the music I listen to during my travels. I tried to pair each sound/beat/tune with an appropriate colour. Solely based on feelings and emotions that the music and the colour triggers. Personally I always viewed deep notes as darker colours and high tones as bright shades.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 Best Practice: Sensory. n.d. Strategies According To Sense – Best Practice: Sensory. [online] Available at: <https://sensory-processing.middletownautism.com/sensory-strategies/strategies-according-to-sense/#visual> 

2 Sightsavers. n.d. The Eyes | Protecting Sight | Sightsavers. [online] Available at: <https://www.sightsavers.org/protecting-sight/the-eyes/>

3 St Clair, K., n.d. The Secret Lives Of Colour.

4 The Star Garden. n.d. Newton’s Theory Of Light. [online] Available at: <http://www.thestargarden.co.uk/Newtons-theory-of-light.html> [Accessed 2 June 2020].

 5 Deal, D., 2017. “The Dark Side Of The Moon”: How An Album Cover Became An Icon. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/@davidjdeal/pink-floyds-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-how-an-album-cover-became-an-icon-e95bae0bdc32>

6 Munsell, A., n.d. Sir Isaac Newton’s Influence On The Color Wheel | Munsell Color System; Color Matching From Munsell Color Company. [online] Munsell Color System; Color Matching from Munsell Color Company. Available at: <https://munsell.com/color-blog/sir-isaac-newton-color-wheel/>

7 Munsell Color System; Color Matching from Munsell Color Company. n.d. Munsell Color Notation & Color Test; Dimensions Of Color | Munsell Color System; Color Matching From Munsell Color Company. [online] Available at: <https://munsell.com/about-munsell-color/how-color-notation-works/>

8American, S., 2006. What Is Synesthesia?. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-synesthesia/> [Accessed 2 June 2020].