Color: an exosomatic organ?

Jaap van Brakel; Barbara Saunders

doi:10.1117/12.453010

28 December 2001 Color: an exosomatic organ?

Jaap van Brakel, Barbara Saunders

Proceedings Volume 4663, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color, Color Hardcopy, and Applications VII; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.453010
Event: Electronic Imaging, 2002, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

According to the dominant view in cognitive science, in particular in its more popularized versions, color sensings or perceptions are located in a 'quality space'. This space has three dimensions: hue (the chromatic aspect of color), saturation (the 'intensity' of hue), and brightness. This space is structured further via a small number of primitive hues or landmark colors, usually four (red, yellow, green, blue) or six (if white and black are included). It has also been suggested that there are eleven semantic universals - the six colors previously mentioned plus orange, pink, brown, purple, and grey. Scientific evidence for these widely accepted theories is at best minimal, based on sloppy methodology and at worst non-existent. Against the standard view, it is argued that color might better be regarded as the outcome of a social-historical developmental trajectory in which there is mutual shaping of philosophical presuppositions, scientific theories, experimental practices, technological tools, industrial products, rhetorical frameworks, and their intercalated and recursive interactions with the practices of daily life. That is: color, the domain of color, is the outcome of interactive processes of scientific, instrumental, industrial, and everyday lifeworlds. That is: color might better be called an exosomatic organ, a second nature.

Citation Download Citation

Jaap van Brakel and Barbara Saunders "Color: an exosomatic organ?", Proc. SPIE 4663, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color, Color Hardcopy, and Applications VII, (28 December 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.453010

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available