I just watched a video that blew my mind a bit (it is NSFW- but those who know me know I am fluent in both sarcasm and four letter words) and I'm thinking about how to integrate it into teaching. I'm a bit of a color theory junkie. Like most disciplines, there is a foundation of technique and vocabulary that must be understood and mastered to serve as a base for the artistic practice it supports. As is outlined on wikipedia article Subtractive Color, the science behind color has corrected the antiquated red, blue, yellow as primary colors theory. The understanding of why we see colors as we see them is now more broadly understood. These primaries don't even touch on deeper definitions of color which include value (how dark or light) and intensity (saturation or how much black or white is mixed in with the hue).
In lighting design the primaries have always been cyan, magenta, and yellow, and if you've ever changed the toner on a color printer, you've seen the same. Ink is basically paint. Over the years, my students have struggled to mix a clear "rainbow" color wheel and now I understand why: you can't find good secondaries unless you actual start with true primaries. Now I need to find good colors in the Winsor Newton color chart to swap out.
Color IS culture. Some languages don't even have words to describe certain colors, while other languages have more than one. This spring I visited the Kelsey Museum which had an exhibit on Ancient Color. In addition to providing a good overview of the science, culture and politics of color, we were reminded that the Ancient World was a vibrant one, filled with color. At that time, I also happened to be reading The Secret Lives of Color. It's a beautiful book with 1-3 page essays covering the histories of about 75 different colors.
It's a bit of a rabbit hole for sure, but there are a lot of marketing folks who spend a lot of time using color as part of their branding (logos, sports teams, political campaigns,etc...). As a costume design, the stage is the canvas, and understanding an audience's relationship with color sometimes informs my choices as a designer in deciding what a character wears. We in theatre are all storytellers, and color is part of our culture, history, and collective memory.
Here are some other fun links to explore color theory:
(And yes, for those of you following along at home, all these resources are in my database; that's how I found them so quickly)
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