Color Studies
The Color Studies Working Group is built on the temporal and geographic ubiquity of its central subject. Color is a material, visual, philosophical, aesthetic, and cultural concern that has significance to research nodes in the arts, humanities, sciences, technology, and practice. Color studies researchers explore cultural encounters, local knowledge, communication, practice, and other topics to understand the nature of color and its effects in global environments. Its combination of universality and specificity makes color uniquely situated to explore ideas of change and continuity in multidisciplinary settings.
This group brings together scholars are engaged in color-inclusive research and those who want to explore color studies to benefit their work. We want to enhance your knowledge about color and help you build alliances among those who study color. At our meetings, you’ll have opportunities to workshop a paper or presentation, lead or contribute to discussions of formative works, and work together on Zoom-based hands-on projects. We will learn from each other about new (and old!) approaches to research about color. Diverse approaches welcome.
Please set your timezone at https://www.chstm.org/user
Consortium Respectful Behavior Policy
Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.
Upcoming Meetings
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Wednesday, September 11, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
We will discuss
Georges Roque: « Éléments de méthode d’analyse de la signification des couleurs : expression et contenu » / “Expression and content: A methodological tool to analyze color meaning”
Abstract:
This paper is a chapter from a forthcoming book, Significations des couleurs dans la peinture (17e - 20e siècles). It provides a methodological tool, based on general semiotics, to analyze color meaning, mainly in painting. The method is widely used by semioticians, but not yet (as far as I know) in the field of color. Its starting point is Louis Hjelmslev’s distinction between the expression plane and the content plane, which corresponds roughly to Ferdinand de Saussure's significant (expression) and signifier (content). As each plane is composed of several oppositions the process to create meaning consists of correlating oppositions of the expression plane to oppositions of the content plane. To give just a few examples, the opposition light/dark can be related to day/night, life/death; the opposition between saturated and desaturated can be related to happiness/sadness. In this paper I briefly examine the main oppositions used for the expression plane of color and their possible links to semantic oppositions. I am aware that such links are often too general and cannot replace the context-dependent analysis of a given artwork. However, I argue that this tool can prove useful when we try to understand color meaning in works of art.
A philosopher and an art historian, Georges Roque is honorary senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris. On color he organized four international symposia whose proceedings have been published and curated three exhibitions. Main books: La Stratégie de Bonnard. Couleur, lumière, regard, Paris, Gallimard, 2006; Art et science de la couleur. Chevreul et les peintres, de Delacroix à l’abstraction, second revised ed., Paris, Gallimard, 2009; Quand la lumière devient couleur, Paris, Gallimard, 2018; La cochenille, de la teinture à la peinture. Une histoire matérielle de la couleur, Paris, Gallimard, 2021. His latest papers published in English are: “Philosophy and Science”, in A Cultural History of Color In the Age of Industry, vol. 5, (éd. A. Loske), London & New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2021, p. 33-52 ; “Colour Theory: Definition, fields and interrelations”, AIC Journal of the International Colour Association, vol. 32, 2023, n° special Colour Theory, p. 4-16;
Please note that the text proposed for this discussion was written for publication in French. We are including along with the original an English translation made using Google’s AI translator and slightly revised.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
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Wednesday, November 13, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Paul Smith (University of Warwick) on Cezanne and autistic color perception
Organizer: Giulia Simonini
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Wednesday, December 11, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Amy Woolf and Sarah Corbyn Woolf (Woolf Color and Design) on (color palettes) and creating and color schemes
Organizer: Sarah Lowengard
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Wednesday, January 8, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
TBA
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Wednesday, February 12, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Tanne Bloks
Sowerby's Chromatometer of 1809
Learn how to use a paper tool devised by James Sowerby. (1757-1822). He published the chromaometert in A New Elucidation of Colours, Original, Prismatic, and Material (1809) to show how to visualise spectral colors and, in particular, the inverted spectrum (notoriously) discussed by Goethe in his Farbenlehre (1810)
Organizer: Giulia Simonini
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Wednesday, March 12, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
Lieb Celnik (Johns Hopkins). Revisiting "Polemics" and "History" sections of Goethe's Farbenlehre.
Organizer: Sarah Lowengard
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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
Ian Dooley (UCL) and others "Materiality of Color Printing Ink"
Organizer: Elizabeth Savage
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Wednesday, May 14, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
Joyce Dixon, title TBD
Organizer: Giulia Siimonini
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Wednesday, June 11, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
What is it about Prussian blue? [tentative]
Prussian blue has a winding history that includes a myth-like origin story, rapid international success, a range of adapted uses in art, industry & trade, medical uses, and contested efforts to understand its formation and structure.
I'm beginning to think about a meeting to discuss the multivalent nature of colors using Prussian blue as a reference point.
I would love to hear your recommendations (including your interest in contributing).
SL
Organizer: Sarah Lowengard
Group Conveners
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Sarah Lowengard
I am a historian of technologies and sciences. First a dyer and pigment maker, then a dix-huitièmiste, I am currently involved in a multi-format, multi-dimensional effort to trace the movements of a color and its production processes around the world over approximately eight centuries. I have taken this on as a way to explore how the enlaced significances of a color affect people, production, products, and the ideas about color.
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Elizabeth Savage
Elizabeth Savage (School of Advanced Study, University of London) is a historian of art and print. She specializes in pre-industrial western printing techniques, especially for printing color in late medieval and early modern Europe.
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Giulia Simonini
Giulia Simonini is a science and art historian, and a graduate conservator. Currently, she works as a postdoc in the research group “Dimensions of techne in the Fine Arts” (Technische Universität Berlin) led by Magdalena Bushart. Her research focuses on color history, color science, botanical and zoological illustrations between the seventeenth and the early nineteenth century. Recently, she authored “Calau’s Punic Wax, Lambert’s Farbenpyramide (1772), and Prefabricated Watercolour Cakes” (2023).