Colour

In National Public Radio’s Radio Lab, they examined the purpose, foundations and overall experience of colour. They began by introducing the first person to remove the religious foundations of white light: Sir Isaac Newton. He placed a series of prisms up to a section of white light and rather than say a white light creates a rainbow, he said that the prism showed the division of white light into its constituents, proving that light is a physical thing. Furthermore, the speaker said that color has an objective reality but that the colours that we see are subjective. I would say that statement is very true. Due to the fact that light, and therefore colour, is physical it has an objective reality; however, because of the weaknesses of our eyes we cannot always see the true colour. For instance, I am colour blind and in my case I have trouble seeing certain shades of green, browns and grey. I have no doubt there is an objective true colour, even if I cannot see it. I think this gives a different dimension to how we see art because as we interpret colours differently, we might interpret the meaning or the feeling of the painting too.