Presentation on Color and it's effect on emotional sense perception.

Just a few notes by Abel First-Quao As an artist, I interact with colors a lot. And color, is OBVIOUSLY very importa nt to what I do. Last week I was working on a piece in which I had illustrated t he facial profile of a woman, crying. Not because I'm that sensitive clingy arti st, but because my research on Japanese Art required me to investigate the conne ction between emotion, color, and contrast. Consequently, I ended up wondering ' To what extent does the color of an object affect our perception of it?' And so decided to make this question my knowledge issue. My presentation will focus largely on what color generally does to the human psy che in an attempt to allow the audience to understand what colors do to our emot ional perception of a certain object. The way of knowing I'll use mostly is emo tion. Warm colors refer to the part of the spectrum which ranges from red to yellow as you can see. Warm colors are often associated with human perceptions of sunsets , sunrises, human states of being such as being passionate or being energized, h appy or tired. These colors are used in western societies, and societies influen ced by western philosophy to infer a notion of happiness and enthusiasm. However, in countries like South Africa, red isn't the color for passion, it's t he color of sadness and mourning. Oddly, Red is also associated with communism. And in addition, red has also become associated with AIDS awareness in Africa as a result of the popular [RED] Campaign. Orange is more energetic and vibrant, normally associated with earth and autumn, and as a result may also symbolize change due to its connection to the changing seasons. Then because it has the same name as a fruit, it can be associated wit h health and vitality. The final warm color, yellow, is considered the brightest and most energizing. I t's associated with notions of hope due to various cultures using this color to symbolize their connection to their loved ones who go to war. Oddly, Egypt regar ds yellow as a color for mourning. In Japan however, it represents courage and i n India, it's a color for merchants. Cool colors refer to the part of the spectrum that include the colors Green, Blu e, and Purple as you can see. These colors represent nighttime, water, dark natu re, and are supposedly calming and relaxing. However, unlike the warm colors, co ol colors are based off of blue, while warm colors are not a mix of any two prim ary colors, rather they are unmixed primary colors. Green is a very earthy color due to the fact that it represents new beginnings a nd growth and relates directly to plant growth. Blue on the other hand is related to sadness, calm and responsibility. It even i ntroduces the notions of spirituality and religion in many cultures. Purple is commonly associated with royalty, containing the effects of red and bl ue seeing as it is made up of both colors. Oddly, purple is associated with mour ning, creativity and imagination. Humans cannot observe an object as it is. But rather, as we are. When you see so ccer cleets for example. Depending on who you are, disregarding its color, you a re probably going to percieve it based on your previous experience with cleets a nd soccer. Not just taking in account its color. Beyene could have more of a pos itive reaction to the cleets compared to Jasmyn. Jasmyn would probably just igno re them.

I believe that our emotional perception of an object, in regards to its color, c an be summed up in two statements. What we feel affects what we see. What we see affects what we feel. When I say what we feel affects what we see, this is to say that it's not only a bout our previous experiences with the object, but also the way we feel at the t ime. Color in this case ends up becoming secondary to what we feel about the obj ect. I for example could have had a disagreement with my parents concerning a la ptom, and then I come to school and see Mr. Lahdeaho with the same type of lapto p. Next time I see that laptop I see it with slight envy due to what happened be tween my parents and I. When I say what we see affects what we feel, this is to say that an object of an y type, and it doesn't have to be stationary at all either definitely affects ou r emotional response to the object.