I once read that 20th Century research indicated that most people dream in black and white but that modern research reveals that most people dream in colour. The difference is attributed to the fact that in the early 20th century the majority of people spent a long time looking at black and white media. I came across this idea again in The Times today. Sadly, I can’t link to the story because The Times Online is no longer free. Boooo. In fact, I read this in The Review section of The Times today (paper version – I am too mean to pay for the online version). The article stated that a Japanese study published this month by the American Psychological Association found that most people in their sixties dreamt in black and white while the majority of university students (the implication being, I suppose, that these represent a much younger subset of the population) dreamt in rich colour (rich colour – not just colour!). The researchers suggest that younger participants had grown up watching colour TV. However, a psychologist – Ian Wallace – was quoted as saying that he thought this explanation was unlikely sine television represents a tiny part of the visual field and old viewers would have spent far less time watching television that we do today. In fact, the main article was about REM and about how having too much deep REM sleep where we dream could be associated with depression. Anyway, I think it must be very difficult to actually know whether people dream in colour – you could ask them when they wake up, but remembering could, of course, be the result of a false memory.
Category Archives: news
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The invention of colour
If I was not going to Sweden on Monday – where I have to examine a PhD in colour harmony – it would be nice to attend the lecture I just saw advertised in Bristol by Philip Ball. The lecture will trace the chemical history of the pigments in an artist’s palette. Painters once had to be chemically literate. The lecture is taking place next Tuesday – see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2011/7503.html
Warwick prize for colour
A while ago I wrote about a novel whose main theme was colour. I thoroughly recommend it and if you have the means you should pick one up.
However, it is a shame that the novel was published a few years ago because this year the Warwick prize for writing 2011 is to be based on a special theme: colour!! The short list includes a piece about camouflage and mimicry in nature. There is a £50,000 prize for the winner which will be announced later this year.
coloured keyboard
When I bought my first mac this year – A mac book pro – I was really pleased with the keyboard. The backlighting is a really cool effect and makes the keys really easy to see. However, I came across a whole new meaning of backlit keyboard today.
The new Luxeed U5 illuminated keyboard allows the user to select one 430 backlit colours for each of the keys. The intended use for this is for gamers who may want to use colour coding to make it easier to identify keys with certain tasks.
colour blind to traffic lights
Colour blindness afflicts about 1 in 12 men in the world. Women are far less affected because they have two X chromosomes. Men only have one X chromosome and therefore there is no backup if the gene for good colour vision is damaged or changed. Of course, colour blindness is a misnomer. Very few people indeed are really colour blind and the term colour defective is scientifically more correct. So-called colour blind people have trouble discriminating between colours that the rest of us see as different. Most commonly the difficult is in telling reds and greens apart which is where the term red-green colour blind derives from. Though people need to be able to pass colour-vision test before they can be employed in certain professions (such as being an aeroplane pilot) where colour decisions are critical, everyone is allowed to drive a car. Even though traffic lights are red and green!!
The argument for allowing colour blind people to drive has always been, I think, that drivers quickly learn the positions of lights. Red, is on top, amber in the middle and green on the bottom. However, is that red-amber-green order used everywhere in the world. It is used in the UK where I live. But elsewhere?
Whether to do with the order of the lights or not, several studies have shown that colour blindness is a risk factor in driving. Hence the development of the UniSignal (Universal Signal Light). Developed in South Korea the UniSignal uses different shapes for different colours so that drivers can recognise which light is on whatever the order in the particular city in which they find themselves.
Kandinsky would approve!
Color Marketing Group
I have been thinking of attending a meeting of the Color Marketing Group which is to be held in Amsterdam on 26-28th May 2010. Amsterdam is only about 45 mins by plane from Leeds so if I can get a flight I will go. It looks a really good event. For further details see www.colormarketing.org
pink balls anyone?
Cricket authorities have been experimenting with pink cricket balls. A cricket match in Abu Dhabi used new pink cricket balls for a game that took place under floodlights.
The argument is that the traditional red ball used in cricket, being of a relatively deep shade is hard to see under night conditions even with floodlights. The recent experiments seem to have been a success. John Stephenson, Head of Cricket at MCC (the world’s most famous cricket club), said “We have proved that the pink ball is clearly visible in day or night conditions and that day/night first-class cricket is a viable option for cricket administrators. Certainly the pink ball itself could be improved – such as by darkening the seam so batsmen can pick up the spinning delivery – but I don’t see an insurmountable block to progress.”
It’s not a view necessarily shared by the ICC though. The ICC is the International Cricket Council. “The MCC has been great in initiating trials around the world, but before we look at these projects we need to establish up front, from a scientific point of view, what makes sense,” said Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager of cricket. “The balls that have been developed so far are still a long way off being able to last 80 overs,” he added. “They just get too dirty. The beauty of the red ball is that it keeps its colour even when it’s old.”
The ball shown below is a pink ball after 14 overs (that’s 96 deliveries for the non-cricket-aware colour lovers).
For further information see – http://tinyurl.com/yhak2g5
A pink ball was used for the first time in a match in England on 21 April 2008 in a match between an MCC XI and Scotland. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7352516.stm
the colour purple
Much was made in the media this week about the front bench of the labour party (UK) all wearing purple during the announcement of the budget. However, remarkable though it was, it is not a totally new phenomenon. On a number of occasions in 2009 and even 2008 leading figures in the government have been seen wearing purple.
In fact, even in December 2008 Zoe Williams was writing about this in the Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/08/fashion-ties-purple-gordon-brown. Zoe points out that the latest trend for wearing purple by politicians was probably started by Michelle Obama who famously wore the colour in August 2008.
Perhaps the labour politicians believe that purple represesnts a third way, halfway between red and blue (the colours traditionally associated with the left and right of UK politics respectively). Or perhaps they feel that it gives the impression of power and establishes them as the rightful winners of the forthcoming election. Purple was the colour worn by emperors and senators of course. Whatever the rationale, it is surely not a coincidence.
Colour ownership?
Can you own a colour?
The answer is almost certainly not. However, the law on colour use in branding and marketing is complex and there have been several high profile cases of companies slugging it out over the use of colour. I have previously posted about the dispute between Google and Microsoft – http://colourware.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/four-colour-primaries/.
There are two other high profile cases I know of. One is the objection by Orange (a British Telecoms company) to the use of the colour orange by Easy Jet – http://tinyurl.com/y8la766. The other is the dispute between chocolate manufacturers over the use of the colour purple in chocolate wrappers – http://tinyurl.com/y9cgyum.
However, in a paper published in the open access colour journal – Colour: Design and Creativity – Paul Green-Armytage argues that the key to many of these disputes about colour ownership lies in the definitions of colour. See http://www.colour-journal.org/2009/4/6/index.htm to read Paul’s full article.