This podcast centers on my research and understanding of color, color usage, and optics as they relate to theories of human color perception in the making of visual art and design. By Ed Charbonneau, an artist (drawing & painting focus), and an adjunct faculty member in the Foundation and Fine Arts Departments at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. (Content expressed does not reflect the views of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design)
Discussion of the speed of light, polarization, glare, mirages, and what any of that has to do with Michelangelo. (See cangiantismo and shot silk.)
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Discussion of how our perception of blues and greens remain strong in low light, and how that may have impacted the use of lapis lazuli (and other blue pigments) prior to the invention of the electric light bulb.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Why did Homer repeatedly describe the color of the ocean as wine-dark in the Iliad and the Odyssey? Could the sky have been purple or violet in the days when Helen and Achilles lived in mythological Ancient Greece? Discussion will focus on the possible ways in which the ocean could have been similar in color to that of a nice Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir wine.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
In Zur Farbenlehre (A Theory of Colours, or, A Doctrine of Colours) of 1810, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe worked to dismiss Newton’s findings of the nature of spectral light and sought a return to Aristotelian views of color. Why no love for Newton? This episode reviews Goethe's theories and how he introduced psychology to the understanding of human color perception.
“A great mathematician [Newton] was possessed with an entirely
false notion on the physical origin of colour….” - Excerpt from A Theory of Colours.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Also known as vibrating colors or scintillating colors. Discussion of the chromostereopsis effect will explore how colors are perceived in 3-dimensional space, even when located on a 2-dimensional picture plane; how reds advance and blues recede.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Given the properties of color (hue, value & chroma), do value contrasts work to form the most effective focal points? This question is addressed in relation to color vision's adaptability to view contrasts in hue and chroma over those of value and brightness. Also, could our vision as babies affect how we perceive value contrasts today?
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Have you ever noticed that the color of sunlight changes throughout the year? It is thought that this is due to our shifting perception of a color known as Unique Yellow. Discussion will center on how this phenomenon occurs.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Is black plastic recyclable? Check out the World Economic Forum for more information on how it is recyclable, but rarely recycled. This episode focuses on a potential color theory explanation as to why it is that black plastic is used frequently as food packaging.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
A prior version of this episode erroneously stated a connection between Mary Gartside and the writing of Johann von Goethe. This new episode was recorded as a correction and published on April 24, 2023.
Mary Gartside was a painter, teacher, and color theorist who lived in England from 1755-1819. More information about Gartside can be found at: The Winterthur Museum's Program in American Material Culture, Sussex Research Online, and Medium.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Correction: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly stated the Jacob Christopher Le Blon was the first to identify cyan, magenta, and yellow as the three subtractive primary colors in 1723-26. Le Blon invented three and four color printing, but used red, yellow, and blue as his primaries. It wasn't until 1905 when Thomas A. Lenci of the Eagle Printing Ink Company, in New York City, used cyan, magenta, and yellow as his primaries and the CMYK method was invented.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
Please find more information to each episode on the Chromosphere website.
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