The Code is not Coloured Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity John Henry Martin A thesis in the fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Master of Design (Honours) undertaken at the School of Design Studies, Faculty of the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales. 2012 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date ……………………………………………................. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed …………………………………………….............. Date ……………………………………………................. AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date ……………………………………………................. The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity ii Abstract Do we need a philosophy of colour technology? Automation of reproduction technology will relegate graphic design to the ranking of visual art, a fate that crafts such as weaving, ceramics and glass have suffered. The twentieth century saw the demise of specialist fields such as drafting, woodcut, engraving, etching, letterpress, gravure, lithography, photography and web. Software will democratise graphic design processes, allowing everyone to be a graphic artist. The automation and democratisation of colour reproduction have come to fruition as digital workflow changes the graphic designer’s role. This change makes apparent the history and effect of colour reproduction; it is an unexplored discipline, the printed word thus far dominating graphic art theory and history. Real world practice involves antagonisms between art directors, graphic designers, prepress men, printers and clients. If your average human is to be a graphic artist, our accumulated colour cognisance requires sharing. Technological change indicates that colour reproduction had traditions, methodologies and expertise not widely known. It is the aim of this paper to lay bare this colour history. Colour and light in science, philosophy, optics, printing, visual arts, photography and graphics have culturally fixed and reductive histories, requiring recovery, examination and collation. When a technology becomes successful, it becomes invisible; its processes are blackboxed and visible to specialists alone; only inputs and outputs are generally apparent. A colour technology history requires these blackboxed processes to be unpacked. Primary sources in this history such as research papers, biographies, and trade journal accounts of methods are classified as events, instead of historical dates and fact markers, to demonstrate an unbroken continuum of human thought and invention that is traceable to thought’s earliest recording. Corporatised promotional guides and handbooks supplement the history, despite their bias for appearing scientific and successful, with knowledge presented as a body of unquestionable facts. Art histories mark the end of the pursuit of verisimilitude as coinciding with the invention of photography; however, graphic art imaging continued the inheritance of this pursuit. Automated exactly repeatable colour verisimilitude was its nirvana, achievable through mathematicophysical descriptions of colour science and measurement. This thesis explores the creation of this code by theories and practices of scientists, philosophers, graphic artists and twentieth-century corporations and international authorities. Subsumed into our machines it has led to our technorealist faith in technology and to the demise of scepticism regarding colour realism. The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity iii Contents iii Abstract iv Contents v Acknowledgments 1 1. Introduction 19 2. Repeatable Colour Verisimilitude 51 3. Design from Colour 111 4. Science and Colour 151 5. Colour Fixation 223 6. Blackboxing Colour 262 7. Conclusion 267 8. Glossary 277 Appendix: Timeline 345 Appendix: Human Research Ethics Advisory (HREA) approval The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity iv Acknowledgments I have been indebted in the preparation of this thesis to my supervisors, Wendy Parker and Associate Professor Leong Chan from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, for their patient listening of my incoherent ramblings about craftmanship, theory, poesis, techne, episteme, opponency and trichromacy. Their kindness, support and academic experience have been invaluable to me, this work would otherwise have not been possible. I am grateful to Digital Pre Press Supervisor Peter Rimmer from Offset Alpine; Michael Wallace from Inkmatters Pty Ltd, Brooke Harrison from Pod Print Pty Ltd; Marcus Piper and Christey Johansson from one8one7; and Professor Stephen Dain from the Faculty of Science School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of New South Wales all of whom shared their colour experiences with me. These discussions assisted in my finding the direction for this work. Many thanks to Margaret Rose, who patiently assited with proofreading the text. The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity v Figure 1: René Descartes, Treatise on Man, drawn by Gerard van Gutschoven, 1664.1 1. Introduction And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has authority, to be by nature the part which is in front. And of the organs they first contrived the eyes to give light… – Plato, Timaeus, 360BCE2 The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity 1 All things are set on a background “Paint a few good pictures instead of hundreds,” my mother reminded me my dealer Ray Hughes had remarked; “I have done nothing that way,” said I. Thomas Young, “The Last Polymath” in his Course of Lectures strove to catalogue all the sciences and mechanical arts of his day. Denis Sepper in Goethe Contra Newton describes Johann von Goethe’s colour science as “naive induction,” because his Zur Farbenlehre historical section attempted to outline all known theories of colour to his day.3 Leong Chan, my first art director and now master’s supervisor, patiently shared his graphics knowledge with me. Not forgetting this I strove to share my own. Wendy Parker, my supervisor, tells of the apprentice tradition that sustained workshop knowledge: at a master’s death an apprentice inherited the workshop, tools, and his wife! My twenty-first century colour management hell inspired this thesis because printer’s first proofs had become contract proofs. So file accuracy required ascertaining before allowing then to leave my office – I had inherited the prepress craft without the knowledge. I bought an Epson Stylus Pro 4000 and EFI Designer Edition RIP, the salesman installing it pointed to ∆E colour matching function that was to solve all my troubles. ∆ in mathematics means difference or change and E (Empfindung in German) means sensation. This thesis is my attempt to understand colour difference sensations. I apologise now – I have not the genius of Young, and as with Goethe the examination of science versus art and object versus subject has led to an overblown and unruly colour story. I could have told an easier story, but I have not changed. The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity 2 A Philosophy of Technology Figure 2: Josef Albers, Interaction of Color: Color Triangles (Goethe Triangle), 1963.4 Figure 3: Munsell Book of Colour as reprinted in Penrose Annual, 1927.5 The Code is not Coloured: Blackboxing Colour, Light, Graphic Arts and Modernity 3 Figure 4: William Henry Fox Talbot, Top: Three of the very small cameras