Colour Literacy Forum: Colour in Context

International Colour Day

The Colour Literacy Forum is an international, collaborative effort to align university-level colour education with current design needs in the culture. The goal of the Forum is to connect faculty, students, and administrators with interdisciplinary professionals to provide cutting-edge research, curricula, tools, and resources.

The Colour Literacy Forum is a virtual gathering featuring presentations and discussions related to updating and expanding colour education in art and design programs at the university level. The forum convenes for three events per year to share information and offer dynamic networking opportunities for participants.

Register using the button at left. For complete details visit, Colour Literacy Project.

To celebrate International Colour Day, the Colour Literacy Project is kicking off its next Forum series: Colour in Context. In this series, we will explore how the spatial, philosophical, cultural and historical contexts all affect the ways we perceive colours. Part 1 focuses on how the spatial juxtaposition and illumination impact colour perception, and the challenges we face when attempting to reconcile objective reality and subjective perception.

Speaker Valtteri Arstila will present THE IDENTITY AND AMBIGUITY OF COLOUR FROM A PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Colours are often thought to be inherent properties of objects, for example,
defined by how surfaces reflect wavelengths of light. Concurringly, colour
vision is likened to colorimetry, which suggests that we can perceive colours
accurately under optimal conditions. However, this position, known as colour objectivism, faces significant challenges due to the substantial variations in individuals’ colour perceptions and differing observation conditions.

Consequently, it has been argued that finding a non-arbitrary and sensible
method to determine the true colour of any given object is difficult, if
not impossible. This debate underscores the complex interplay between
objective reality and subjective perception, prompting a reevaluation of
our understanding of colour. It raises the question of whether the colours
we perceive directly reflect external reality or whether our minds construct
them.

Valtteri Arstila is a Doctor of Philosophy, and Full Professor in theoretical
philosophy at the University of Turku. His research focus is on the empirically informed philosophy of mind. In particular, He has been interested in (i) subjective time, (ii) the relationship between
experiences and cognition, and (iii) sensory qualities (especially colors and
sounds).

Speaker Harald Arnkil will present COLOURS ARE CONTEXTUAL

Colour seems to have many identities. Colours can be given precise
designations in colorimetry and determinate colours are strongly
identified with substances such as pigments and dyes and with flowers,
minerals and other natural and man-made objects. People also have finely
nuanced preferences for precise hues, tints and shades of colour. Yet,
colours as they are perceived, seem highly dependent on context. They
are susceptible to change with both spatial juxtaposition and illumination.
Josef Albers said in the Introduction of his book Interaction of Color
(1963) “In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is -- as
it physically is.” What exactly did he mean by this? Albers seems to have
suggested that colour has two separate existences, the perceived and the
“physical”. In this talk, I will discuss the identity and variability of colour
through visual examples of both 2D and 3D situations, not forgetting the
effect illumination has on our perception of colours.
Harald Arnkil is a Finnish artist, writer, colour researcher, and founder and
former president of the Finnish Colour Association. He graduated from
Finnish Academy of Fine Art with a degree in painting, and taught art and
colour at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Harald
has published many papers on colour in art, design and architecture,
and is the author of Colours in the Visual World, a textbook for artists,
designers and architects. He was a member of the Nordic SYN-TES
research project which focused on colour and light in spatial contexts and
is a member of the Colour Literacy Project team. Harald’s paintings have
been exhibited widely, and his art is in many private and public collections.

These talks are part of the ISCC's celebration of International Colour Day