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
The deadline for applications to attend the final CREATE event in Norway is coming up – end of January. Please take a look at the CREATE webpage – http://www.create.uwe.ac.uk/ – and think about putting an application into this event. If accepted you will receive funding for travel and living expenses and, more importantly, you’ll get a fantastic networking opportunity to meet about 100 other people from all around Europe who are as interested in colour as you are. You don’t have to be European to qualify but you probably need to be based in Europe.
The venue in Norway is stunning and well worth the trip.
Today is the last day you can register for the Color Imaging Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico to qualify for the early-bird registration fee. This annual event is one of the foremost conferences in Colour Imaging and provides useful networking opportunities. The conference web site is http://www.imaging.org/IST/conferences/cic/
This week I was honoured to be the invited speaker at the 5th National Conference of the Italian Colour Group. I decided to address the meeting about two of my research projects that to some extent attempt to bridge the gap between art and science.
In 1959 CP Snow – a Cambridge University academic – delivered a famous lecture entitled The Two Cultures that led to heated and widespread debate. Snow argued that the lack of communication between the sciences and the humanities was a problem that inhibited solution to the world’s major problems.
I believe that Snow’s argument is still valid today. Interestingly I bought The Times to read on the plane to Palermo – where the colour conference was being hosted – and to my surprise that very day’s edition had a substantial article about The Two Cultures – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6862299.ece
The Times writes that Snow said “There is something wrong with a civilisation, he said, where knowledge is so compartmentalised that people can count as highly educated and yet be wholly ignorant of huge swaths of what other highly educated people know. How could scientists not read Shakespeare? How could literary people never have heard of the second law of thermodynamics?”
In terms of colour, I believe there was more cross-over between the sciences and the humanities in the 18th and 19th centuries than there is now. I am not convinced that the problem that Snow articulated has gone away. Perhaps the divergence between the two fields is an inevitable result of specialisation? Possibly, but I don’t think so. I think there is room (indeed, a requirement) for specialists. However, we also need to find a way for people working in colour to in the arts and humanities and in the sciences to communicate more effectively to each other. Because, we have much to learn from each other.
In my experience some scientists do not want to communicate outside of their narrow discipline. Others, would like to but seem unable to do so without recourse to specialist language (e.g. mathematics). In the arts, if anything the willingness to communicate “across the gap” is even less.
One organisation that has worked hard for many decades to encourage debate across the science-art divide is the AIC (the International Color Association”. You can find their website here – http://www.aic-colour.org/
I know from the nice stats that wordpress provide that a lot of people read my blog. But not many people leave any comments 🙁
It would be rather wonderful if – having read this – you left your view at the bottom. Is there a gap? Is it a good or a bad thing? How can we bridge it?
ps. I am not holding my breath waiting for the responses 🙂
By chance, another Xerox story. Xerox have introduced a method for making colour adjustments to images based on natural langauge. There is a nice demo you can try out – http://open.xerox.com/xeroxproject/natural-language-color
The technology is available in the Xerox Phaser 7500 colour printer. Interesting.
As an alternative to laser or inkjet technology, Xerox offers solid-ink technology printers. A solid-ink printer uses solid sticks or blocks of ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges. Xerox claims that solid-ink printers offer better colour consistency, are less expensive per sheet of printing and are more environmentaly friendly, producing less waste than lasers and inkjets – http://www.office.xerox.com/solid-ink/enus.html. The technology uses solid inks that are melted and sprayed onto the page as droplets, in a manner not dissimilar from inkjet printing. But because the inks are solid at room temperature, they can be supplied in blocks that are simply dropped into the printer, rather than being contained in a cartridge.
Now solid-ink technology is available in the UK with the launch of three Xerox ColorQube printers. However, they are out of the reach of the home user, costing around £13K each.
I have discovered a nice plug-in to powerpoint that allows me to synch voice and animations – this is my first attempt. An audiovisual guide to the chromaticity diagram:
Color Designer
Nike, Inc.
Beaverton, Oregon
As a Color Designer in Nike Sportwear, you’ll work under the direction of the Design and Color Leaders to lead a category to create innovative color design solutions for a line of footwear. You’ll collaborate with category cross-functional teams to create a merchandisable line from concept to retail presentation; build innovative, retail viable color solutions for category or gender-specific lines; create seasonal direction of color; and lead color merchandising strategies and stories seasonally. You’ll also research and deliver color, design, market and lifestyle trends that influence and impact the product category process from product briefing to product concept to salesman samples. You’ll plan and execute color designs; collaborate with Design, Product Marketing, Development and Material Designers to focus color solutions for market success; finalize product details; and proactively follow through on the execution of color on each product.
See http://www.coroflot.com/public/job_details.asp?job_id=23381
I just came across another interesting colour site – www.colorexplorer.com
This site provides a free service – you can upload an image and the site will extact a colour palette from the image (you can specify how many colours you wish to extract). Palettes are notated in hex codes and RGB values.
I just tried with with one of my images and chose to extact three colours; the result is shown below:
If you want to use a photograph as an inspiration for interior design, for example, you can write down the RGB values and then go to www.easyrgb.com – this site allows you to convert RGB values into commercial paint codes.
I joined the Society of Dyers and Colourists in about 1983 when I was undertaking my doctorate at Leeds University. I mainly joined for the fun to be honest, but as a serious young student I think I thought it may have some positive effect on my career. Little did I know that I would be still a member some 25 years later and that during that time the SDC would have been a very important part of my professional life. Through the SDC I have gained technical knowledge (through my membership of its technical committees such as the Colour Measurement Committee) but also met many kind and knowledgeable people in the world of colour. And I’d like to think I have put something back too through my role on the editorial board of the journal Coloration Technology and, more recently through my role as founding academic editor of the SDC online journal Colour: Design and Creativity.
I would encourage anyone with an interest in colour technology or colour design to have a look at the SDC. They are based in Bradford but have an international presence and hold meetings all over the world.
Visit their web site http://www.sdc.org.uk/
The SDC even has its own blog – http://sdc-colourblog.blogspot.com/