prosthetic knowledge
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Colors
Online game combines colour theory and gradient interface to match colours - more fun and testing as it sounds.
Try it out here
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Vincent Van Gogh - Colourblind?
Japanese scientist posts a theory on his Tumblr blog, asada0, tests an idea that came from a stimulated colourblind experience with the artist’s work:
The other day, I experienced the “Color Vision Experience Room” at the event of the Hokkaido Color Universal Design Organization (HCUDO), where I had invited to speak. The event’s main objective was to educate the public about the diversity of color vision which exists in our society. The event also sought to promote the idea that any time we make choices about colors, we should take this diversity into account.
The “Color Vision Experience Room” uses illumination filtered by an optical filter - providing a modified spectrum of light. In this room, the person who has normal color vision sees color the same as the person who has protan or deutan color vision. These types of color deficiency mean that certain color combinations are difficult to differentiate. I was impressed by the effort and thought that had made this room a reality.
I was able to view various items in the room, and it turned out that experiencing modified color vision by the naked eye had a stronger impact than experiencing it on a computer display in simulation. This was a revelation to me.
There were prints of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings in the room. Under the filtered light, I found that these paintings looked different from the van Gogh which I had always seen. I love van Gogh’s paintings and have been fortunate to view a number of the originals in various art museums. This painter has a somewhat strange way to use color. Although the use of color is rich, lines of different colors run concurrently, or a point of different color suddenly appears. I’ve heard it conjectured that van Gogh had color vision deficiency.
However, in the van Gogh images seen in the color vision experience room, to me the incongruity of color and roughness of line had quietly disappeared. And each picture had changed into one of brilliance with very delicate lines and shades. This was truly wonderful experience.
It goes on to experiment and examine the idea, (above, the images on the right are the originals) and the author insists that this is purely a theory.
You can read more of the essay here
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Amusing Ourselves to Death by Stuart McMillen
Old but gold, a visual comic essay comparing the future dysotopic worldviews of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.
You can see the whole strip together here, which includes a link to a pdf version.
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Why the Rich Love High Unemployment In the boardrooms of corporate America, profits aren’t everything - they are the only thing. A JPMorgan research report concludes that the current corporate profit recovery is more dependent on falling unit-labor costs than during any previous expansion. At some level, corporate executives are aware that they are lowering workers’ living standards, but their decisions are neither coordinated nor intentionally harmful. Call it the “paradox of profitability.” Executives are acting in their own and their shareholders’ best interest: maximizing profit margins in the face of weak demand by extensive layoffs and pay cuts. But what has been good for every company’s income statement has been a disaster for working families and their communities.
More here at TruthOut
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ART THOUGHTZ: Relational Aesthetics by HennesyYoungman
This is just brilliant … the way Cultural Theory should be taught.
WHAT UP INTERNET. THIS YA BOY HENNESSY YOUNGMAN, AND TODAY I WANTED TO MOVE BACK INTO THEORY A LITTLE BIT AND INTRODUCE AND EXPLAIN THIS THING CALLED RELATIONAL AESTHETICS TO YA’LL. U KNOW I LOVE YOU INTERNET, AND AM JUST TRYING TO ENWISEN YOU TO THESE IMPORTANT CONCEPTS THAT BE SCULPTING THE INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK OF YOUR WORLD. LET’S GO!
Stay to the end of the video - the best example of Relational Aesthetics in 2011 ;)
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Color Wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works via A Smart Bear
Why everything we know or understand about colour is wrong.
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“We shape our tools,” he said, “and then our tools shape us.” Technology, according to McLuhan, is an extension of our own natural faculties. Just as a knife is an extension of the hand, and the wheel an extension of the leg, writing is an extension of speech and of memory. In this general metaphor, automobiles become extensions of our personal bodies, and the city an extension of our collective skin. Electronic communication is an extension of our nervous system, just as computers are extensions of our brains. Once extended, however, these technologies are “amputated.” They exist as external and independent objects, though we remain dependent upon them.” —On Marshall McLuhan’s theory of Media as ‘The Extensions of Man’ - just as media (or technology) can extend our human capabilities, they can also amputate as well.
Kinda feels like that when Tumblr was down for me! [Link]
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Marshall McLuhan - The World is a Global Village (CBC TV)
Happy Birthday Marshall McLuhan
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Reality is a quantum computer (via alexanderpf / mattermedia)
I came up with this idea for a project (an ARG) a few years ago - it never got used :(
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On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972 (via UBUWEB)
A video documentary combining exhibition footage of the Situationist International exhibitions with film footage of the 1968 Paris student uprising, and graffiti and slogans based on the ideas of Guy Debord (one of the foremost spokesmen of the Situationist International movement). Also includes commentary by leading art critics Greil Marcus, Thomas Levine, and artists Malcolm Mac Laren and Jamie Reid. Branka Bogdanov, Director and producer.
NTSC-VHS 22 min. 1989A downloadable .avi version, also from UBUWEB, is also available
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What are Complex Adaptive Systems?
Complexity Theory
Gradually as scientists of all disciplines explored these phenomena a new theory emerged - complexity theory, A theory based on relationships, emergence, patterns and iterations. A theory that maintains that the universe is full of systems, weather systems, immune systems, social systems etc and that these systems are complex and constantly adapting to their environment. Hence complex adaptive systems. Complex Adaptive Systems These can be illustrated as in the following diagram.
The agents in the system are all the components of that system. For example the air and water molecules in a weather system, and flora and fauna in an ecosystem. These agents interact and connect with each other in unpredictable and unplanned ways. But from this mass of interactions regularities emerge and start to form a pattern which feeds back on the system and informs the interactions of the agents.
via smarterplanet
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Fractal Wrongness
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Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color by Smashing Magazine
Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in somone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background. Color theory is a science in itself. Studying how colors affect different people, either individually or as a group, is something some people build their careers on. And there’s a lot to it. Something as simple as changing the exact hue or saturation of a color can evoke a completely different feeling. Cultural differences mean that something that’s happy and uplifting in one country can be depressing in another.
Must read for any designer / creative going back over the basics.
