Assignment 5 - Colour- Abstraction , Perception and Modernity

In 1704 Issac Newton was the man who brought attention and the understanding to colour. He did this by reflecting a beam of sunlight through a prism which created the colour spectrum. These colours were put back into another prism turning it back into white light. This experiment led to great discovery's about colour and the colour theory.

You could say Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was on the curved side of the spectrum in regards to colour and the colour theory. Goethe did not care for the mathematical perception that Newton had on colour but more the human perception. This is expressed through his quote "Newtons error…was trusting math over the sensations of his eye.” Goeth believed the sensations on the eyes was much more important then mathematical explanations. Artists saw painting as an opportunity to manipulate colour. In the 20th century the post impressionism was born. Artists started to use the own perception of light for example Vincent Van Gogh .He painted a very famous painting called starry night which was his on perception of a night sky, using swirling colours of violet haze.

Through out the course of history experiments on colour ,both scientific and artistic, has given us great understanding. Over time our understandings have developed our vision of colour so that we can contemplate and understand both sides of colour.

Assignment 4 - Ornament or Nature

I disagree with Adolf Loos' quote “The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.” Loos thought that ornament does not increase the pleasure of life.  He believed that ornament was a crime and express hatred towards it in his quote “Ornament is not merely produced by criminals, it commits a crime itself by damaging national economy”. Ornamentation was expensive due to the labour and time put into the objects. He believed that ornamentation was a waste of manpower and that it was unnecessary. He expresses this through his quote " If I wanted a piece of gingerbread I will choose one that is completely plain, it tastes better that way".

This picture above of the door handles would be exactly what Loos was against. It was most likely hand made and has a lot of craftsmanship to it. Loos would find it pointless.
I believe that ornament can enhance the aesthetics of a design. It is evidently shown through these door handles. I think the fact that it shows craftsmanship makes it more valuable and meaningful.  I think that our culture is in need of ornamentation still. In correlation to loos quote " If I wanted a piece of gingerbread I will choose one that is completely plain, it tastes better that way"  if i wanted a piece of gingerbread I would want it to be a different flavour every time, its a lot more interesting to contemplate that way.

Link to the picture is here