I had to work late last night, so I tuned into episode 3 of your radio show. I just listened while I worked. Good show! Anna, your pretty cool.
Did you know Goethe developed a theory of Color (formally it is called the Theory of Colour)? His theory rivals Newtons theory of corpuscular light, which evolved into Einsteins theory of photons. Of course most physicists line up with Newton and Einstein, but Goethe’s idea is pretty interesting nonetheless.
Basically, to Goethe darkness was not the absence of light. Darkness has just as much substance as light – it is just polar opposite. Color is produced at the boundary between darkness and light. If Darkness is introduced into Light, there are blues and purples at the boundary. If Light is introduced into Darkness, there are reds and yellows at the boundary.
OH! When you said you sound like Nicolas Cage (or he sounds like you!) I started laughing out loud! You guys really sound alike! Does anyone else on this blog have a celebrity sibling? I don’t. (But my sister will someday.) I got to tell you, you seem to handle that pretty well. I think I would get annoyed pretty fast if it were me!
@Anna – do you know if you are related to a Nathan Pacheco? He’s an opera singer – pretty good too! I’m not sure where he grew up, but he attended college in Utah.
Sorry, I’m kind of an outsider when it comes to all of this film and art stuff. I’m not sure I know who that is
But nonetheless, that’s very interesting that his theory finds practical use. On the physics side of the world it is more of a novelty.
The Goethe color wheel does make me wonder about something – what would I see if I could see beyond infrared and ultraviolet? The color wheel makes it seem like the colors cycle around. This reminds me of notes on a scale. One cycle is an octave. If I play a C#, it is always a C#, regardless of the octave. Might it work the same way with color, given a capable set of eyes? What would I call “Red” if I could see 3 octaves of color? “Low Red”, “Middle Red”, “High Red”.
I am glad you here, Eric. I like these kind of questions. It makes me think of my young experimental days in which I was trying to prove we see music and hear film. I made some interesting discoveries via the use of subliminals. If I hid something in my film i.e. a one frame snapshot of a clown, most people didn’t see it, but if I add a very low frequency to the music, a low drone that you feel, sense, more than hear, everyone sees the clown. The reverse happened as well. I could slow down a baby crying, sample it and add it to my soundtrack. No one could tell that there was a baby crying being used as part of the musical harmony. When I added microscopic movement to a camera shot, a very subtle zoom for example which you can’t see but you sense, many in the audience could hear a baby crying. For some reason I called these experiments Equal Art Synthesis. I have to try and remember why.
That is a very interesting observation. So you were noticing some type of coupling between the perception of different senses.
The one frame only lasts 1/24th of a second (assuming your video is sampled at 24 frames per second), which is a very high frequency from the standpoint of the human eye – it should be imperceptible. It is interesting to me that a low audio frequency would enhance the ability for the mind to resolve a high visual frequency.
There have been experiments where test subjects could determine a tactile difference between colors. For example, the color red could be distinguished from blue by the way it felt to the fingers. Only a few individuals had this highly developed sense. It has been some time since I read this research so I cannot site a reference. Could it be that color produces vibrations, such as an audio frequency, that the gifted among us can detect?
Microwaves are less energetic than visible light waves, yet 700 Watts of microwave energy cooks my food better than seven 100 Watt light bulbs . The reason for this is that water molecules resonate at the 1 centimeter wavelength – the microwave wavelength.
In the beginning of the quantum revolution of physics, it was noticed that certain elements seemed to emit, or absorb, very specific frequencies of light. This set of frequencies can now be used to identify the elements that compose distant stars, just by looking at the light.
It is definitely possible that light resonates with elements, or molecules that reside in the proteins composing our nerves. These elements may become energized in the presence of light of a specific color. If this is the case, then a person may be able to “feel” colors.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I had to work late last night, so I tuned into episode 3 of your radio show. I just listened while I worked. Good show! Anna, your pretty cool.
Did you know Goethe developed a theory of Color (formally it is called the Theory of Colour)? His theory rivals Newtons theory of corpuscular light, which evolved into Einsteins theory of photons. Of course most physicists line up with Newton and Einstein, but Goethe’s idea is pretty interesting nonetheless.
Basically, to Goethe darkness was not the absence of light. Darkness has just as much substance as light – it is just polar opposite. Color is produced at the boundary between darkness and light. If Darkness is introduced into Light, there are blues and purples at the boundary. If Light is introduced into Darkness, there are reds and yellows at the boundary.
OH! When you said you sound like Nicolas Cage (or he sounds like you!) I started laughing out loud! You guys really sound alike! Does anyone else on this blog have a celebrity sibling? I don’t. (But my sister will someday.) I got to tell you, you seem to handle that pretty well. I think I would get annoyed pretty fast if it were me!
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:48 pm
@Anna – do you know if you are related to a Nathan Pacheco? He’s an opera singer – pretty good too! I’m not sure where he grew up, but he attended college in Utah.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
oops! I guess it was episode 4 that I listened to last night? Whatever # it was, I assume it was live, and you were talking with Anna.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I am related to a Patrick Pacheco who is a writer that interviews Celebrities..
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
The great Vittorio Storaro keeps Goehe’s Book of Color close when he lights and shoots a movie.
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Sorry, I’m kind of an outsider when it comes to all of this film and art stuff. I’m not sure I know who that is
But nonetheless, that’s very interesting that his theory finds practical use. On the physics side of the world it is more of a novelty.
The Goethe color wheel does make me wonder about something – what would I see if I could see beyond infrared and ultraviolet? The color wheel makes it seem like the colors cycle around. This reminds me of notes on a scale. One cycle is an octave. If I play a C#, it is always a C#, regardless of the octave. Might it work the same way with color, given a capable set of eyes? What would I call “Red” if I could see 3 octaves of color? “Low Red”, “Middle Red”, “High Red”.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:57 am
I am glad you here, Eric. I like these kind of questions. It makes me think of my young experimental days in which I was trying to prove we see music and hear film. I made some interesting discoveries via the use of subliminals. If I hid something in my film i.e. a one frame snapshot of a clown, most people didn’t see it, but if I add a very low frequency to the music, a low drone that you feel, sense, more than hear, everyone sees the clown. The reverse happened as well. I could slow down a baby crying, sample it and add it to my soundtrack. No one could tell that there was a baby crying being used as part of the musical harmony. When I added microscopic movement to a camera shot, a very subtle zoom for example which you can’t see but you sense, many in the audience could hear a baby crying. For some reason I called these experiments Equal Art Synthesis. I have to try and remember why.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:47 am
happy b-day
January 24th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
That is a very interesting observation. So you were noticing some type of coupling between the perception of different senses.
The one frame only lasts 1/24th of a second (assuming your video is sampled at 24 frames per second), which is a very high frequency from the standpoint of the human eye – it should be imperceptible. It is interesting to me that a low audio frequency would enhance the ability for the mind to resolve a high visual frequency.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
There have been experiments where test subjects could determine a tactile difference between colors. For example, the color red could be distinguished from blue by the way it felt to the fingers. Only a few individuals had this highly developed sense. It has been some time since I read this research so I cannot site a reference. Could it be that color produces vibrations, such as an audio frequency, that the gifted among us can detect?
January 25th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Microwaves are less energetic than visible light waves, yet 700 Watts of microwave energy cooks my food better than seven 100 Watt light bulbs . The reason for this is that water molecules resonate at the 1 centimeter wavelength – the microwave wavelength.
In the beginning of the quantum revolution of physics, it was noticed that certain elements seemed to emit, or absorb, very specific frequencies of light. This set of frequencies can now be used to identify the elements that compose distant stars, just by looking at the light.
It is definitely possible that light resonates with elements, or molecules that reside in the proteins composing our nerves. These elements may become energized in the presence of light of a specific color. If this is the case, then a person may be able to “feel” colors.