Even though it’s a scientific fact, there’s one reality about colour that, to me, is one of the most beautiful realities in the universe: white light isn’t the absence of colour, but rather the presence of them all. We can be blinded to see only one at a time, but the birth and basis of every hue is white.
One of my favourite quotes fits into this idea. Da Vinci once said “For those colours you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.”
The essence of how colour works is like poetry unto itself. I imagine the journey of light is like all nature’s cycles: rain falls into the ocean until it rises again as cloud, the air we exhale is breathed in by plants and made vital to us once again. Perhaps each colour yearns to find itself whole once more. No matter how we refract and split and dye it, those hues are constantly searching to realign into the pure whiteness of their creation. Their destiny is to find themselves together again.
I’ve found a film that merges the science and poetry of colour together. Portugese filmmaker Eduardo Morais has summed up how colour works beautifully in his short “Words and Thoughts in RGB”. Though interestingly scientific, the film also explores our psychological relationship with colour and how, even though we are all dramatically emotional impacted by colour, we have no real way of measuring if we’re all seeing the same thing.
“Words and Thoughts in RGB” has deservedly won a whole bunch of awards, and besides being a film-maked Morais is also a kick-ass blogger. He’s got a wickedly funny and socially relevant take on art, life, technology and more at his blog, If Then Else.
Via evasèe
shape+colour 