Question of Research Notes to base presentation on.

Question 4. “In what ways can theory of practice inform our working practice?”

The question in its broadest sense is a generalisation regarding theory, and is also a subjective

provocative statement to be delved into deeper by an author, witness or practitioner of any subject

area.

This “provocative” status doesn’t appear to simply stem from any given fact’s or knowledge, but

rather pushes the practitioner or theorist reading it to react towards it with research in specific areas

to create or apply some tangible answer; or facts.

This process allows any user or practitioner to read it as a statement and then surmise that it can be

applied like an equation to everything.

For example (in its most primitive form, the formula would be as general as 1 + 1 = 2

Or in theoretical terms a case of, theory = Practice

But can theory really = practice, and be as simple or plainly stated as that. Practitioners who practice

in any field especially the artistic or creative humanities fields know that it isn’t easy to look at a

given theory and simply transpose it into practice.

Furthermore it can be known that practice is needed as much as to propel said practice into a state

of evolution to create any theory around that area.

Once this practice is undertaken it will allow the practitioner to make a new unique and informed

form of working knowledge to expand and reflect upon the original theory.

It can be crudely related to the provocative age old question of the “what came first the chicken or

the egg?” similarities between both questions are convoluted and show a correlation between which

comes first, in this case Practice or theory, can theory only be made after something has a base line

rooted in practice?

For instance if a man/women opens a bottle via the unscrewing of a lid, then were to inform another

person to unscrew the bottle via the same methodology, he would then have provincially passed on

a theory of “how”. However he/she would have done it tacitly, (through instinct) without any

prompt or given theory. Therefore would have resorted to a practice as a form of primary source

before evolving it into a theory to be passed on as theory.

So if any practitioner were to even begin to find a way of attempting an answer they would have to

find a suitable view point or practice on which to stand, To broach any answer and to aim there

results.

This question will be researched in this essay by applying it first to an area in which I myself would be

able to answer it best, however it will still be subjective to my field, and objective to my own views

and assumptions in the start, (meaning this will not lend itself to an empirical scientific area of

research due to the great deal of personal responses) it will be answered and applied as best as

possible using the humanities research.

Because I am both witness and practitioner to the art world I will be attempting to look at it in

specific emphasis on the creative field.

I will attempt to distil the creative arts down to a small area in which I feel I will be able to look at

“theory” and “practice” in a wide range to gage an answer.

There are many areas within the art and design spectrum to which this statement would function

and would also be able to perhaps unearth areas that need more digging or understanding, many

artist can remember theory being applied to everything as simple as life drawing to shape language;

but few in which the process can be argued or challenged in relation to “efficiency” or “relativeness”

of the theory in relation to its practice. However it can be tested.

If an artist or creative practitioner were look at the question with a view on the “creative process”

and ask something about using theory as the backbone behind the processes of creation there are

two rather intriguing ways it can be applied to wide fields.

1. How animation principals are contextualised and then taught in relation to how they are

viewed and made

2. The feeling and mood behind the colour theory, and how viewers react to it.

If a practitioner were to question the statement, and focus on the key word for example the

connection word “inform” rather than “theory and practice” and how that word bridges the later

into a state of moving or working from point A to point B to create something in the creative process

it in some ways could be seen as similar to the claim Normal McLaren made in animation about

“what happens between each frame is more important than what happens on each frame” there is a

correlation between this statement and the statement of this essay as both are questioning the

process between gaining knowledge and using it.

To this effect the practitioner and researcher would be better informed by applying it to a larger and

broader theory to start with, such as Colour theory, and what colour means, this would help the

researcher gain a better wealth of knowledge to conclude his/her research outcomes upon.

So for the benefit of communicable research the question has shifted from

“In what ways can theory of practice inform our working practice?”

To become.

“In what ways can theory of colour inform how we practice and emote towards colour?”

Colour theory

a practitioner of the arts and creative industry knows first-hand that there are very extensive

emphasis’s and ideas surrounding colour, the colour spectrum and the colour theory within ,

Animation, Art, Fine art and illustration even Graphics and Fashion, these very different area’s all

share a very innate but common understanding and ability over the colour system.

So what is colour?

It seems a simple enough statement to say that colours something we use as practitioners to show a

depth or detail to character , i.e. Simple colouring in, but the more academic route of colour couldn’t

be further away from the notion of “colouring in”.

In fact its known that colours are tones and patches that either contrast or aid an image in

jucstapostion against one another, make images appear further or closer to the viewer, depict mood

and make the witness to their state “emote” in a way that is significant to a particular genre, or

place.

Film and animation use colour to root in a more subliminal story than the one being seen at face

value. By making motifs and signifiers on a semiotic level this allows the viewer’s to feel a certain

way towards any given character or theme that may not be as clean cut and to see through dialogue

alone. Colour plays an important part with its counterpart of composition and through mise-en-

scene can create a certain path for a viewer to follow subconsciously or to associate the colour to a

specific idea, theme or mode of thinking.

There are many theory around colour and its uses. Such as,

The colour encyclopaedia definition is.

“Colour theories create a logical structure for colour. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits

and vegetables, we can organize them by colour and place them on a circle that shows the colours in

relation to each other” (Colour Matters is a registered trademark of J.L. Morton.

Graphics and Text: Copyright (c) 1995-2015, J.L.Morton, All rights reserved)

But most notable are three theories and uses the colour wheel, colour harmony and colour context.

The colour theory by Goethe (seen top right) gives context to most of the colours, assigning them a

meaning, this is the basic line I’m planning to follow.

Humanities-colour-colour theory- Goethe- colour being contextualised and then how that is

perceived.

For example, if a practitioner were to look at the colours in Goethe’s theory they would notice that

he states emotions with colour in the book, Theory of colour Goethe, J. W. von. (1810). Theory of

Colours (first). United States: John Murray.

Red

History relates many instances of the jealousy of sovereigns with regard to the quality of red.

Surrounding accompaniments of this colour have always a grave and magnificent effect. The red

glass exhibits a bright landscape in so dreadful a hue as to inspire sentiments of awe.

Red is also associated with blood.

Blue

Blue gives us an impression of cold, and thus, again, reminds us of shade. We have before spoken of

its affinity with black, for example rooms which are hung with pure blue, appear in some degree

larger, but at the same time empty and cold. The appearance of objects seen through a blue glass is

gloomy and melancholy.

Black.

Strangely I couldn’t find any record on black other than when it is balanced out or attributed to

another colour. The only other phrase was black, “representing all colours of light being absorbed”

Absorbed is an interesting word to describe black in relationship to its other colours as it instantly

conjures up an image of “taking” away from those colours.

Whereas Other designers such as Bryan Tillman a character designer works along a similar

methodology as Goethe but states that each colour can evoke something on its own but it’s the tints

and shades of those colour in conjunction to one another that can help tell a story.

“Notice how a different shade or tint applied to the base colour changes what the colour is saying

about itself. The darker conveys more anger and rage, the lighter conveys a softer love and tone”

Tillman, B. (2011). Creative character design (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Taylor & Francis.

Figure 1 (characters by Brian Tillman)

Is this true in all fields?

I think for the purpose of this essay it is worthwhile pointing out these ideas are extremely

subjective to colour for creation of mood and emotion, and able to be looked at and applied in

relation to a certain route, in this case .Paint, or film, and their use of colour within there.

It is also worth pointing out that I will be looking at specific colours Red, Black, Blue and in there

darker hues in conjunction with one another, and if they still convey the same response when

isolated, testing the theories by both Goethe and Tillman,

Whilst also looking at their contextualisation within the world of film and painted/ illustrative images

and not on a wider scale.

For instance from a fashion of design point of view black can be seen as stylise, sleek and trendy and

completely counteracts and contrast the use of the colour in an art format.

As a practitioner.

The research I have conducted already into the question had led me to think of times I have used

colour and the theory given as a primary user.

When I make a piece of art I use the colour wheel and colour harmony but without knowing it

making it very tacit in its approach.

When I was drawing a piece of work for my Ma and I wanted to make it very scary and foreboding

my first instinct was to use black and dark tones, but why? There was no theory around this telling

me

“To create a scary image you need to do this…” it came to me tacitly.

And this is where the threads of the question and the research I had conducted started to form one

line; I had identified in section 2 that there was a correlation between semiotics and subliminal

messages about colour being fed to us without words, and I also identified in section one the notion

of when an idea becomes theory, and when it is practice.

This has led to the crux of this investigation, I now want to know about all the theories of colour we

have and how they work when we each have a different knowledge of colour, and how the process

works from being fed theory, to how we use that.

For instance do we use the theory given as practitioners because we have been fed this information

in class and use it as a limiter or threshold to stop us looking at other sources and in doing so

become close minded; allowing us to look at previous art and what came before as guidelines but

never actually inventing something knew or aiding in the theory as were simply following a protocol

Or are their people out there who have no colour theory and yet can relate to the same results as

those of us who do which would lead us to think more about the tacit knowledge and cultural

implications of colour that lead to signifiers and colour concepts for the individual practitioner?

For further research I want to look into limiters and how they work to aid the close minded state.

Look at the threshold theory and how we stop looking correctly when we reach a threshold.

Theory’s around colour that we have been feed very culturally and also academically.

The circulative nature of theory and how it goes round, and when that stops.

The idea of colour as tacit knowledge but universal to the practitioners through theory.

The uniqueness of colour to the individual through colour concepts and then look at many people

exploring the same ideas.

This will then feed my working review into the question and how it can be applied before moving

onto a conclusion.

To start off ill look back at the question posed through the research I have already conducted.

Looking at these theories from the angle of a practitioner and witness.

The idea that colour has one particular use in its style being created by paint, Goethe has said that

black and blue and reds all have one particular field in which they function, and together would only

form images like these.

Hell: Hans Memling, c1485

Photograph: Musee des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg

2. The Nightmare: Henry Fuseli, 1781

3. The Red Bersker (unknown)

Goethe theory would allow practitioners to believe that the colour black, when associated to other

colours especially red and blue will set in a mood, one that appears nasty and angry and makes the

witness to those paintings feel those emotions; this starts a circulative process as the theory can be

seen to yield some proof that each of these images is unpleasant, and attribute that to colour it sets

in the start of theory to practice making these images a previous art source and reference to draw

upon for any willing to learn how to “use paint the Goethe way”

So any observer to this theory can already start to see how the stated theories are then formed from

such a point, and in doing so become a recognised theory which is then consumed in that way and

only practiced in the way outlined.

Whereas Tillman’s theory says it’s only the darker tones in conjunction to each other that are aiding

to the notion of any `feeling` or `mood` within the image

So he already approaches the colour theory as a new theorist using Goethe as a base and then picks

up the mantel from the previous theory and correlates the two about Dark tones evolving it slighting

but in doing so reinforces the theory. However he has broken the circulative nature of colour by

saying it is ONLY Darker tones in conjunction not just the colour’s in general making this more a

more Spiralative theory due to the evolution and addition of the subjective word “dark” into theory

for more practitioners to use when reading `how` to use colour.

These theories can then become limiters (a process to which any output is restricted to a certain

range of values irrespective of the size of the information.) This becomes a problem when the

limiters are used in the way we pass on knowledge, instead of allowing the theory to grow and

evolve it allows the user or witness to become spoon-fed by a set of rules already outlined by the

theorist.

Through a theory such as Goethe’s and Tillman’s a practitioners can become close minded to the

state of any new colour innovation because the existing theory can make the practitioner

complacent and reluctant to look at the newer or different multitude of ways in which `theory of

colour` and colour in general can become related to feeling and mood through use in art and

illustration, movies and media.

The theories act as guides that then allow a practitioner to gorge, produce and make a sea of

endless images based strictly upon these set of rules; and also as a catalogue, encyclopaedia of

previous images that adhere only to those known respected theories.

Recap so far

What I’ve learned so far is that the there are many theories around colour but the most well-known

is Goethe and then his theory has been adapted over the years by nearly every contemporary artist

who have an individual use of colour, but all use the colours in the exercise `black, dark red, dark

blue` in the ways Goethe outlined.

This theory has led to these images becoming objectively used to make compositions darker, more

horrifying and more repugnant to viewers, aiding in the narrative of pieces. But there must be more

in it than the limiters suggest, for instance there must have even been a reason why Goethe when

setting down his knowledge of colour `knew` that these colours meant something, (linking back to

paragraph one that states practice before theory or theory before practice) and unfortunately

because Goethe didn’t mention any of these in his works as to the reason behind WHY he thinks this

for colour it is left to me to find out whether there is a connection tacitly to colour before theory is

set in.

For this I am going to visit St Johns School and do an exercise with the student there and get there

response to colour and how it works, (as they have no colour theory supplied at that age)

I want to look into the connection between tacit knowledge against theory to understand if a

“theory” around colour really goes have any part in aiding the practice or not; or whether it is a

more personal and universal response we all have, or it is a western and cultural theory we have.

I’ll be looking into theorist that disagree with Goethe and Tillman, such as Zena O Connor and Maria

Popova. And how we are fed colour in context to see if the question can be answered.

Tacit knowledge, the idea of tacit knowledge comes up a lot, for instance opening a lid, riding a bike,

turning a corner , knowing that fire burns and this can be attributed to the notion that we all

instinctively relay on our senses as a race of humans to inform us of touch, muscle memory and

smell.

So for fire, a human can feel the discomfort to the skin when they are getting close to fire and it

shoots a connection to the brain telling them to withdraw.

Riding a bike we need to be shown but then becomes second knowledge with muscle memory

So there are different degrees of feeling and touch, but there must be a physiological understanding

to them as well, and this is where the idea of colour comes in. it cannot be touched or grasped, it

cannot hurt or harm us, make us love or comfortable but is more sensual and holistic in its approach.

For instance as both Goethe and Tillman say about blue and light tones in those colours it creates a

human response to feel comfortable.

However there is a physiological connection bonded from early age with other colours as well before

we consciously know the definition of `colour`, black is the colour or tone of the abyss a child sees

when the lights go off, and the colour they associate to the lack of sight, and noises such as creaking

floorboards allow the subconscious to become anxious when confronted with the lack of light.

Dark red, this is the colour of blood, and burns, fire, and hot dangerous things which allow the child’s

subconscious to feel uncomfortable towards them in this hue

Dark blue is a funny colour; it allows many to think of the sky, cars. T shirts, and more normal

images, but in conjunction to the dark or night it becomes a voided colour and one that subtracts

from its usual feeling and aids in the enhancement of darkness, and it think its unnatural to a child

who is surrounded with stereotype blue’s in a Koresh, school, toys, t-shirts, water, to see this in its

tone and naturally with light sources dark blue can only be seen in the night, or twilight times of days

which already couples it with blacks.

(Image from Tv series Mummy Dearest, sourced from google)

(Insidious Chapter 1 Dolton’s room, Google images)

The idea that these colours would only mean something we responded to the theory around colour

is an interesting statement, and the idea that the theory around colour would inform practice is a

mild debate that I found needed exploring more, as you can see these images are made through film

(people who have studied theory) but they represent the ideas made subconsciously from an early

age tacitly.

Ethnographical research in school.

I began by finding many Disney images and closing in upon many areas of `dark` colour in the images so they would be seen in isolation from the image they portray and seen as unique colour. And from this angle I would be just showing the colour to see how the children would engage or react to it without the depiction of images. The findings I would obtain from this experiment from the children would allow me to test the idea of tacit knowledge towards colour, and then colour in conjunction to images.

I chose to enlarge images such as the poster for Brother bear that showed a large area of shade, and

show this to the children as it would only be the `black` they would be seeing, and to my surprise,

some of the words I got back associated to it were

“Blank” the children saw nothing

“Night time” because it was dark like night

“Bad guys and monster’s” because this was a colour they associated to those types of characters.

This last was the most interesting because they were joining the colour up with motif’s which are

ironically made from people who know colour theory as animators, movie makers and they have

used the colour as a semiotics code. (More about semiotics in next section)

I enlarged and image of a Graphic Drawing of Dracula found on Pinterest. And allowed them to see

the large area of red, but not dark red, and with it black and cream

The response were

Grass, they thought the lines in the beige were grass blades

Fire, maybe the red was a glow of some kind because it looked warm?

This was interesting that when given a few extra lines and taken the idea of `dark` out of the

equation to test both Goethe theory in figure one (black images) and now Tillman’s in image 2 with

soft colours, it was interesting to find that they related more to the second one as a depiction of

something rather than a feeling, this could have been because of the interference of shapes and

strokes in the image whereas image one was more tonal.

When I revealed the first image was in fact….

(Disney brother bear)

And the second image was in fact.

(Dracula)

It was amazing for me as a researcher to see that their opinions changed, they then swapped around

and told me how great brother bear was and spiralled into conversation unrelated to colour and

how evil Dracula was, this reinforced my notion that adding an image or depiction to the tone would

illuminate any idea of what the colour meant. Whereas based purely on colour alone, they didn’t

matter about tone or where it was placed; which is what colour is always about.

For instance this one hand Disproves Goethe theory about where these colours should be used and

how, as well as Tillman’s that its only Dark Colours that evoke these responses in characters, as they

knew Dracula as evil even in these light tones, and that brother bear was `good` even in tones that

would subject otherwise.

This also could have been down to the added imagery so it couldn’t be imperially proven to disprove

or dispute both theories.

Colour as Semiotics

As it was said earlier on in section one and the section on colour as tacit knowledge, colour can be

implemented to fit the notion of a stereotype, we carry with us a primordial idea of colour and its

workings from tacit understanding, I,e night and dark, creepy sounds etc. and film makers use this to

their advantage, and so it was no wonder that the children associated Dark colours, to Dark Things.

It becomes a pattern

A signifier- the signified- result

A signifier is something like a noise that makes the viewer respond to an image or thought, for

instance

Meow= cat, and a cat= meow, they go hand in hand also making an indexical image.

Cartoon animators and film makers would also have woven this into adult, and kid’s television to

help us as adults be equally as scared of these responses.

The ID of the brain as allows us to retain memories and allows us to play them out in a way that is

safe, for instance through movie, and it loves to allow us to become scared; and what better way

than to take the tacit human feeling of fear and colour and make an indexical chain

Dark colour-dark people-scared

Black-evil-bad things

And so on

For instance there are two clips bellow that show both how adults are stimulated by the idea of

colour and theory, and also how children are fed colour theory from an early age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSrujrLx0GQ

(Insidious)

This image allows the viewer to enjoy a feast of `bad` things and be thrilled, all through the use of

dark colour and cinematography, this implements both Goethe and Tillman’s ideas and theories.

And then

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oBvNFMt9Ic

(Ralph Bakshi Lord of the rings 1979, Orcs attack Helms deep)

The dark colour needs to be digested as a signifier of `badies` to children, and so the use of dark

tones allows them to feel something towers these characters, but it’s also straining the subconscious

tacit knowledge of the colour.

So if we have all these Tacit knowledges and feelings that are the only “added” to by colour in

theory, can theory really be a more informative way of looking at colour, or can we carry on without

I t using only the tacit knowledge we have.

There are ideas around the subject that we as practitioners have all these theories but actually

colour concepts are different to everyone. And that colour is representative of a story that belongs

to the individual, and that we can’t be told what any colour is.

For example

This is an evil colour?

Well is it ?, not particularly on the outside, but if an individual has had a very objectively bad

occasion in their life, some trauma and the room they were in was painted orange I dare say they

would have a problem with the colour, but theorist say it is a warm colour reminiscing of the sun and

relaxation?

Whereas a graphic designer may love the colour black, why? Because on an individual note it may

represent something to them that there proud of in their work, it may be a colour their comfortable

working with.

But does anyone actually think about these things? Answer yes.

Maria Popova a Bulgarian critic and writer states her thought s regarding colour in her blog entries

and she states.

“Art places practice before theory, which after all, is the conclusion of practice Just as the knowledge of acoustics does not make one musical so no colour system by itself can develop one’s sensitivity for

colour. This is parallel to the recognition that no theory of composition by itself leads to the production of music, or of art”

This is an interesting theory, especially when you think about colour and theory as circulative process, similar to this.

Popova’s idea that theory Is just the concluding part of a primary practice makes sense when you

think that something has to be started and created before a theory can be made around it,

I.e. a car needs to be made before someone can make a theory as to which wheels are best for it, or

how to drive it.

The same theory is true of art, but this also doesn’t allow the involvement of tacit knowledge in the

equation which may look something like this.

The inclusion of tacit knowledge (raw knowledge of colour) then being used as the primary starting

point to form a theory, allow the process to evolve and therefor become more or a spiral than a

circle

So already there is a correlation between the two forms of the theory, one starting with tacit and

one that doesn’t, however the primary theory of Goethe took a lot of time to evolve due to the

nature it has as a theory not allowing the tacit knowledge to play a part to form Previous art, it only

allows are to be created through a set of rules that can then be read.

The spiralative format allows innovation to be used, and also allows for more colours to be treated

in this way by using the same principals, aiding creation and feeling through tacit knowledge which

will also allow the practitioners to use their individual colour concepts as well as theory to make

more than what is `theorised` as the colours of evil and mood.

Popova also states on her blog,

`Practical exercises demonstrate through colour deception (illusion) the relativity and instability of colour. And experience teaches that in visual perception there is a discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect`

This quote was proven to have some footing when I went to the school, many of the kids have already assigned the colour to motifs that are universal, so blacks and darks were considered evil and scary, but they also have a feeling that allows them physiologically to draw that conclusion through their tacit knowledge or own personal experiences, this allows them to be semi close minded because they cling to what they have been fed contextually about colour.

Many films and movies will seek to aid this colour pallet, as stated earlier. But kids are also taught from an early age that red, black and blue all mean something back in the monotone and dark hues, Disney persistently allow the villains to be made from these three dark tones, or at least two. So kids are also force fed this theory subconsciously by people who would have studied colour at an industry level.

From experience as an animator I know first-hand that the villains are always darker hues, but there isn’t a short explanation on Disney films to tell the kids `why` but they know instantly without the character doing anything bad or villainous that “there are the bady!” ….. How? This can be due to the physiological tacit connection to the colours which starts to play with the idea that colour is `illusion` and that they colour work as a trigger to signify anything bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=88&v=Jx2OGSuQWz4 These examples all play the part in reinforcing the psychological triggers and primordial responses we have to colour from a species level that I talked about earlier, and you can see it is fed through in more ways that just adult Film, but even children’s movies. This is where the threshold comes into play. Threshold concept is a relatively new theory made by Rianne Jennifer Rourke and Zena O’Connor Originally introduced by: Meyer and Land in 2003 The definition of a threshold concept are “theories that offer a viable method for describing different levels of understanding a subject that has now been adopted across a variety of disciplinary areas”

So area’s such as colour that are now steeped through many theories of their use in art, creativity and how the hues and tone can influence, can then become so vast that it confuses the practitioner so they only rely on the theory of basics such as Goethe’s and their allow their own tacit knowledge to fill in the blanks. So the use of a threshold concept in conjunction to the theories becomes relevant when the primary theories are so vast they end up being counter intuitive and encourage the practitioner through confusion of what’s right and wrong and sheer variety to simply abandon them and to encourages them to draw from more personal experiences to gain an outcome. So can it be true that the theory of any one given practice will allow the practice and practitioner to become better informed? If there are many more theories which mimic and become a language to be copied can any expansion be made possible at all, and if they all begin to contrast can they function as a definitive for the practitioner? Mayer and Land said in there paper `you must unlearn what you have learned` before being able to apply new or unique perspectives that allow the process to grow, so it would allow more tacit understandings of colour to be applied rather than the use of any one theory which will be only relevant to those who already know it, understand it or feel the same way. However it does need to have some rational behind it, knowing that these darker hues mean and emote in certain ways can be as effective if taken at that base level, only when they are applied with a definitive guide by guide theory do they then contrast any other theory and take away the individualism that the witness of author/ practitioner feels through the art of practice. And so then the practitioner would allow the process to be a way of understanding colour other than rules, Mayer also stated “once a theory is obtained it cannot be revered or even made to change” which implied the said theory would act as a limiter. By working on the threshold concepts, theorist Zena O’Connor added to the debate by saying in her paper “black listed: why colour theory has a bad name in 21st century education”

“The theoretical Paradigms and ontological (An ontology is a specification of a

conceptualization) assumptions underpinning key Western colour theories. In doing

so, it will become clear that the diversity of theoretical paradigms and ontological

assumptions evident across colour theories have resulted in ambiguity, confusion

as well as a level of incomprehensibility in regard to attempts to describe colour”

This introduces idea that there are problems being seen across many theories regarding a set guide

of “theory” when applied to colour, and all lead back to the gaining and usage of individual and

universal understanding of Colour from a human psychological level association. “Colour conveys

meanings in two primary ways - natural associations and psychological symbolism” (colour

symbolism academic paper 2009. And also through a semiotic approach and then western approach,

this introduces the last most crucial area of theory which is the cultural depiction of colour; Western

colour theory

(Image from the colour theory lecture review, colour theory academic paper)

For instance from these images you can see how some colours like black can also inform the idea of

an evil, horrible feeling due to its use in western cultural environments

Recap of research.

From all the research and researchers I have looked at, I have found a vast source of images,

theory’s and thoughts around colour and even tested some of them in a ethnographical way to test

the idea’s they cling to and rally towards to be called `theories`, and I’ve looked at it from both

angles to see if theory is really the route to inform better practice and found that a large majority of

theorists and researchers found it can’t really be answered by actually opens up a huge enquiry of

more questions.

Conclusion and answer

In what ways can theory of practice inform our working practice?

Focusing specifically on colour and colour theory alone, to unearth why we have reactions and uses

of the colours Black, Dark red and Dark blue in our art I have found that, it is important to have

theory but most of the way we relate to colour is more individualistic and comes from a shared pool

of wealth and knowledge as a species rather than any given guide.

Theory about colour should act more as a backbone not a guide as it then becomes a threshold and

depletes tacit knowledge and individuality but categorising it with a limiter, signifier or given

“feeling”, all of this then takes away from the ambiguity and random happy mistakes of emoting in a

more personal way. I discovered that mass media and the digital era has led to a influx of media

telling children what colour means what, and semiotic and subconsciously attacking the western

ideology with subliminal messages that then later form a circulative cycle which is hard to be broken.

Having a small amount of theory and understanding can’t be a bad thing? But it comes down again

to the individual and how much they as a practitioner rely heavily on witnessing art and sharing from

a pool of previous art which can make them more close minded with a mimicking language of images

to copy, whereas others will become more close minded with any theory as it may be they don’t

relate to black in any given theorised way and want to express it in another mood or light.

On a whole I would say it I very hard to say whether it makes anything better, but I would say

through the vast amount of theories against colour theory as limiters that it is only fundamental as

the base of knowledge not as a theory to take on board past the face value, tacit knowledge is a

more information and cultural learning tool which can lead to authorship and paintings of images

that fit the socio ecological life style of the ideology around us, so it very limited to how much it can

inform the individual on making art.

As a set of rules it would appear that it is negative to have these guides which are proven to stunt us

from uniqueness and so it would be counter intuitive or responsive to have them when making

practice.

But it really doesn’t have a definitive answer, the question itself allows for more sub questions to be

asked of it.

On a personal level I would say no, I don’t think colour theory helps my practice or informs how I

work past the basic knowledge of the colour wheel, I gain my work from looking at the world around

me and surmising how people react to it.