A Critical Theory of Colour Concerning the Legality and Implications of Colour in Public Space
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CONSUMING COLOUR: A CRITICAL THEORY OF COLOUR CONCERNING THE LEGALITY AND IMPLICATIONS OF COLOUR IN PUBLIC SPACE BY MICHELLE CORVETTE DEPARTMENT OF ART GOLDSMITHS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON DECEMBER 2015 / MAY 2016 1 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Michelle Corvette, declare that this thesis has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. © 2016 Michelle Corvette 2 DEDICATION To my angel 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” ~ William James There are many wonderful individuals to whom I owe a solid recognition of gratitude for helping me complete this thesis and the accompanying degree. I sincerely thank each and every one of them from my heart and may the blessing of support be returned twice fold upon them. Specifically, I would like to express deep appreciation to Goldsmiths College, University of London’s Art Department and Richard Noble for continued support and the opportunity to be part of an exceptional art community. To my supervisors, Andrea Phillips and Stephen Johnstone, for their time, generosity, and knowledge. To my viva committee members, Roger Burrows and Sherman Sam, for their adroitness, support, and erudition. To my upgrade committee members, Jules Davidoff and Mark Harris, for their assistance, suggestions, and expertise. To John Chilver, Suhail Malik, Michael Newman, Catherine Grant and Ian Hunt for their guidance and scholarship. To my family: Bruce & Emma Anderson, Bryce Anderson, Frida Catlo Corvette, and to my friends: Christina Stanhope, Joy, Eddie, & Taylor Yeh, Tommy Taylor, Sugarbush Sayavong, Josh, Mary, & Hannah McMurry, Mimi & Joe Holt, Kyoung Kim, Megumi Tsuchiya, Emily Rosamond, Nuno Ramalho, Francisco Lobo, Manuel Angel, Carolina Rito, Linda Stupart, Krista Clark, Ed Peston, and others for their kindness, foundation, and humanity. Finally, to my love, Dylan McMurry, for his understanding, patience, enthusiasm, and unconditional love. For keeps. 4 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the legality of colours and the implications of colours within public spaces. By legality of colours, this thesis references the quality or state of being in accordance and observance of laws that address colour. Colour is a phenomenon of visual light perception described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation in tandem with the understanding that colour is a vibrating wavelength interpreted through the brain within a complex neurobiological construction. What are the impacts, force, and agency of colours in public spaces? How do colours re(produce) socio-cultural power relationships in neoliberal societies? How do colours contribute to fixing and replicating social, national, and economic differences? In what ways do colours either implicitly or explicitly work as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion? It is argued that colour is a mechanism for the commodification of public spaces within neoliberal societies. By commodification, this thesis refers to the theory used to describe the process by which something that does not have an economic value is assigned a value and thus illustrating how market values can replace other social values. Colour has been controlled, manipulated, and regulated within public spaces by authoritative powers to psychologically influence human populations. Within this argument, a concern for the effects of colour in public spaces has predominately been overshadowed by a concern for capitalization. An understanding of the historical trajectory of the control of colour immersed with the perspicacity of how colour becomes a device of capitalism is essential. Case studies analyzed draw attention to utilizations of colour by dominant forms of authority such as the colour elite nexus and government institutions. Colour is revealed to be a process and is therefore multitudinal and complex. The unraveling of these threads will provide a sharpened sense of colour and the implications of colour within public spaces. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... 6 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. 8 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 10 The Social Production of Colour ................................................................................... 10 Colour is Dangerously Complex .................................................................................... 26 SECTION I ............................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER I - HISTORIOGRAPHY OF COLOUR PART I .......................... 31 Colour ............................................................................................................................ 31 Colour Ontology ............................................................................................................ 36 History of Colour ........................................................................................................... 38 Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods ............................................................................... 39 Egyptian Period .......................................................................................................... 41 China .......................................................................................................................... 45 Greek and Roman Periods ......................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER II – HISTORIOGRAPHY OF COLOUR PART II ...................... 49 Middle Ages ............................................................................................................... 49 Organic Chemistry and Synthetic Colours ................................................................ 55 Colour Theory and the Punch Period ......................................................................... 61 World War and Colour Consumerism ....................................................................... 62 Continuing Use of Colour in the Market Economy ................................................... 65 Contemporary Colour and Capitalism .......................................................................... 67 SECTION II .......................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER III - LEGALITY OF COLOURS ................................................... 71 Colour Court Cases ....................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER IV – COLOUR ELITE NEXUS ...................................................... 82 Colour Elite Nexus ......................................................................................................... 82 Colour Forecasting Trade Associations ........................................................................ 83 The Color Marketing Group (CMG) ......................................................................... 84 The Color Association of the United States (CAUS) ................................................ 86 International Colour Authority (ICA) ........................................................................ 88 Colour Management Organizations ............................................................................... 89 Pantone ....................................................................................................................... 89 International Color Consortium (ICC) ....................................................................... 93 International Commission on Illumination (CIE) ...................................................... 93 CHAPTER V – BIOPOLITICS OF COLOUR ................................................. 95 The Biopolitics of the Colour Elite Nexus ...................................................................... 95 Biopolitics .................................................................................................................. 95 Neoliberalism ........................................................................................................... 100 CHAPTER VI- PERCEPTUAL HUMANISM ................................................ 103 Biopolitics of Colour .................................................................................................... 103 Consciousness and Unconsciousness of Colour .......................................................... 113 Areas of Resistance - Perceptual Humanism ............................................................... 118 Understanding the Gap of Perceptual Humanism ....................................................... 124 6 SECTION III ...................................................................................................... 128 CHAPTER VII - COLOURS AND PUBLIC SPACE ..................................... 128 To Understand Colour = To Understand Public Space = To Understand Power ...... 129 CHAPTER VIII – MAKING THE UNCONSCIOUSNESS OF COLOUR CONSCIOUS ...................................................................................................... 139 Olafur Eliasson ...........................................................................................................