As one of nature’s most exciting phenomenon, the rainbow is a fascinating subject for artists to explore. It is also an interesting way to begin to examine our own perception and understanding of colour, the rules and application of which determined our ideas of colour harmony and balance within the digital canvas we create. In creating the work 'rainbows', we were led more by a sense of awe at what was unfolding rather than a deep knowledge of the reasons for it occurring. The filming of the piece 'a landscape symphony in 22 movements' at Rumbling Bridge was an early stage; the particular day that the rainbow appeared was after a major thunderstorm with a torrent of water flowing down the River Braan. The rainbow sequence was captured as the spray from the rushing water began to create high volumes of mist against the rock formations beneath the bridge. The changing weather on the day created a momentary window of bright sunlight, at the perfect angle, to create the wonderful film images that were taken. The finished edited work not only for us conveys the extraordinary events of that day but led us to engage in a deeper understanding of colour and colour theory.
theory
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
English mathematician and physicist. Sir Isaac Newton is considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time. Early in his career, he became interested in the study of optics. Newton suspected that colours occur because sunlight is a combination of different colours of light, and that various interferences cause colours to appear by separating the sunlight into its different components. To prove this, in 1660 he used a special type of prism to “split” a sunbeam into its component colours—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—the colours of the rainbow.
Newton's work in optics led to his creation of the colour wheel. Today, scientists call these colours “the spectrum of visible light” light that the human eye can see. Visible light is only a small part of the total energy spectrum known as the electromagnetic field, which also contains shorter waves (infrared, radar, radio) and longer waves (ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays) invisible to the human eye. For the romantics, this is a terrible demystification. The proper reaction to the rainbow should be awe and wonder at the beauty of nature. Now the beauty of the rainbow has been reduced to matter, motion and mathematics.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
German poet, novelist, and philosopher.
Goethe German poet and champion of naturphilosophie. Objects to the idea of light as matter and motion, and to the application of mathematics. Human experience, not matter is primary. What we perceive is true and real, not secondary. Colours a result of the clash between light and dark - the purest colours are those we perceive to be so. In the early 1800’s Johannes Wolfgang Goethe, the greatest poet of his age, spent a great deal of effort in composing a treatise on colour. He was in his fifties, and Napoleon was roaming about Germany. It was a time when, as he puts it, "a quiet, collected state of mind was out of the question” Yet he persisted, inspired by the importance of the topic ("all nature manifests itself by means of colours to the sense of sight" and goaded on by what he perceived to be glaring inadequacies in the prevailing theories offered by Newton and his successors.
What is it that Goethe did not like about Newton's theory of colour? The central role it accords to light as the bearer of colour. According to Newton, the theory of colour belongs to optics and through it to physics in general. But light is not visible in itself, Goethe argues back, so it cannot be coloured; colour first emerges as things are perceived by the human eye. Ever the poet, he puts it this way: "a dormant light resides in the eye... and may be excited by the slightest cause from within or from without" and make colours spring forth. Hence for him "the theory of colours, in strictness, may be investigated quite independently of optics" . No wonder, then, Goethe continues that the received theory has nothing to say about the colours themselves, which first emerge in perception: about their inherent properties, their relations, affinities, contrast, and so forth. There is a vast realm of truths about colours that Newton's theory cannot reach.
What Goethe offers to fill this gap is something like a phenomenological analysis of our experience of colour. Goethe's original proposal was "to marvel at colour’s occurrences and meanings, to admire and, if possible, to uncover colour’s secrets" To Goethe it was most important to understand human reaction to colour, and his research marks the beginning of modern colour psychology. He believed that his triangle was a diagram of the human mind and he linked each colour with certain emotions. For example, Goethe associated blue with understanding and believed it evoked a quiet mood, while he believed that red evoked a festive mood and was suggestive of imagination. He choose the primaries red, yellow and blue based on their emotional content, as well as on physical grounds, and he grouped the different subsections of the triangle by 'elements' of emotion as well as by mixing level. This emotional aspect of the arrangement of the triangle reflects Goethe's concern that the emotional content of each colour be taken into account by artists.
With thanks to:
http://www.eric-karle.com/bb-HRFnotes.html
Quicktime video clip from 'rainbow':
Clip from 'rainbow' (2.6 MB)
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