Ramblings

I don’t trust colors

8 March, 2005 (05:06) | Ramblings

So i already have mentioned on how a color could look like another color to someone else, and we would never really know. but i have just been thinking about all the problems i have with colors recently. first off the difference between pigments and light. the primary colors in light are red, blue, and green, while in pigments, it’s red, blue, and yellow. what the crap is up with that? i thought yellow and blue made green. with light, if you put all the colors together, you get white. with pigments, if you put all the colors together, you get an ugly brown, sometimes black. why are these different? why aren’t colors consistant through medium?

the polar extremes in light is darkness (which is assumed to be the absense of light) and light itself. with pigments, black and white are the polar extremes, and white is assumed as the absense of any other color. that bugs me. white is a color, right? i could argue it both ways. if you want to turn a pair of red socks white, throw in some bleach, and it will take the color out, leaving the the absense of color; namely, white. So perhaps white is not a color at all. That would explain why you can’t buy white dye. you can buy dye of all colors at your local walmart to throw into your laundry machine and dye stuff any array of colors, except white. that would just be too useful to recover mistakes of the misplaced red sock or chapstick in the washer. this argument reminds me of polar bear fur actually being clear, not white. but that really isn’t a problem with colors themselves, just with people misrepresenting the truth over and over without questioning its factuality; another problem altogether.

Ofcourse white is a color though. We have white out, we have snow, we have cocaine. These things are white! not the absense of any other color. there are degrees of white too. Mother of pearl comes to mind.

Which leads me to my other rant on colors. Nomenclature. I don’t trust colors because you never know what color you are talking about. the world was not created with a 12 pack of crayolas. With all the standardization codes out there for everything, you think colors would be something that would be standardized. computer code is the only semblance of order to the multitude of colors. with the hexidecimal representation of colors, 16,777,216 (16x16x16x16x16x16 combination) colors are defined by code, but not by name. Even then, colors can be manipulated and ruined by browsers, monitors, and people’s own eyes. which leads me to believe that color is a matter of personal opinion and biological interpretation. Think about that next time you are at a red light.

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Comments

Comment from Nephthie
Time March 12, 2005 at 6:56 pm

Hmm, deeply philsophical, but the question arises, does it really matter? If I see “red” but my “red” is your “green” is that really relevant to anything? Maybe if you are stoned, but aside from that, I’d rather think about other things… like why Ayn Rand sucks so damn much.

Comment from Nephthie
Time March 12, 2005 at 6:56 pm

Hmm, deeply philsophical, but the question arises, does it really matter? If I see “red” but my “red” is your “green” is that really relevant to anything? Maybe if you are stoned, but aside from that, I’d rather think about other things… like why Ayn Rand sucks so damn much.

Comment from Runering
Time March 15, 2005 at 7:34 pm

colours rule! especially the purty ones and the ones than come with the flashing lights outta the box in my living room

Comment from Runering
Time March 15, 2005 at 7:34 pm

colours rule! especially the purty ones and the ones than come with the flashing lights outta the box in my living room

Comment from zeta
Time March 18, 2005 at 4:18 am

Discourse #1:
Just one comment on colors of pigments… an object emits (emotes?) a color because all other colors are aborbed, and we only see the color that is most greatly NOT absorbed. So when you look at a red sock, what you’re really lookin at is a sock that is “every color except red”…

Discourse #2:
Some people have neuropathic associations of SOUNDS to colors… you say “hamburger” and they get a bright flash of blue. They listen to music and see colors instead of just hearing the song… mozart is supposedly quite pretty. A person’s name develops a new level of attractiveness.

Discourse #3:
Cats and Dogs aren’t color blind… they just can’t see colors AS WELL as humans. That’s why my damn cat always screws up when I ask to pick out my clothes.

Comment from zeta
Time March 18, 2005 at 4:18 am

Discourse #1:
Just one comment on colors of pigments… an object emits (emotes?) a color because all other colors are aborbed, and we only see the color that is most greatly NOT absorbed. So when you look at a red sock, what you’re really lookin at is a sock that is “every color except red”…

Discourse #2:
Some people have neuropathic associations of SOUNDS to colors… you say “hamburger” and they get a bright flash of blue. They listen to music and see colors instead of just hearing the song… mozart is supposedly quite pretty. A person’s name develops a new level of attractiveness.

Discourse #3:
Cats and Dogs aren’t color blind… they just can’t see colors AS WELL as humans. That’s why my damn cat always screws up when I ask to pick out my clothes.

Comment from lowlight
Time April 1, 2005 at 5:05 pm

My cat picks out my clothes, but didn’t do it right until I just beat the shit out of him a couple times. Suddenly he took an interest.

They’re not color blind – they’re what I call “color lazy”

Comment from lowlight
Time April 1, 2005 at 5:05 pm

My cat picks out my clothes, but didn’t do it right until I just beat the shit out of him a couple times. Suddenly he took an interest.

They’re not color blind – they’re what I call “color lazy”