Final Capstone ProjectFor ages, we have unknowingly used certain colors to express our emotions. Across the world, people have mostly agreed upon these colors to express our emotions without ever communicating this to each other at all. We have all seen it in some way. Red to describe anger, blue to highlight sadness, yellow for happiness. But have you ever sat down and asked yourself why? Why specifically do we do this without knowing we are? Why do some people see their emotions as different colors? Why does everyone not see the same colors for their emotions? Well, there is an answer.
We are wired that way. Our brains use colors to connect emotions to more tangible ideas like everyday objects or interactions with others. Color is the reflection of light off of objects which our eyes are able to pick up. Each of the colors we see starts as a different wavelength of light before it enters our eyes. Our eyes read these wavelengths to identify the colors they see and start to color our thoughts. Red has the longest wavelength followed by orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet. Colors have three properties according to professor Andrew J. Elliot. They have hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue is the name given to a color based on it’s mixture or combination of other colors. Saturation is the intensity of the color you see. And brightness is how light or dark the color is. Shifts in those three properties create infinite colors to use in our everyday lives. How we react to these colors depends on their kind of specific combination of hue, saturation, and brightness. Sometimes the hue, saturation, and brightness come together so perfectly that our brains are able to relate it to intangible ideas such as emotions. We see it all around us but never think about it. But why do humans kind of do this? It, for the most part, is thought to come from what we have been taught to associate with colors, but sometimes it can be a personal connection. Think about the Disney movie Inside Out, where each character is an emotion portrayed as a different color. First, you have sadness with the color blue. Humans have always associated the color kind of blue with sadness, it is even called being blue. Blue is seen as a calming color most likely because of its connection to the sky and oceans, both calming visuals. When people are feeling sad, they generally turn towards nature to make themselves kind of feel better. Next, joy is shown with the color sort of yellow. Yellow has always been associated with bright, cheery concepts such as the sun. Throughout history, yellow has been used to represent happy and easy times. The next emotion shown is fear demonstrated through the color purple. In history, purple has been associated with royalty because it was an expensive color to create. The rich being the only ones to own purple items made the lower class fear the power that it represented. So, even now, we use the color purple to show fear. The movie uses the color green to represent disgust. Most items that are considered to be gross are connected to the color green. But green can also represent a very calm and soothing feeling, mainly for its connection to nature. The expression “having a sort of green thumb” is a good example of this connection. Plants and nature in general show life and growth making it refreshing color. Finally, the movie kind of uses the color red to show anger. Red represents stopping, errors, and danger. It has started being connected to failure, which causes anger.This concept of anger can also be seen in nature. Apes compete for mates and land by showing their red chests and suggesting it would be dangerous to fight them. Red is the most studied color in history which is probably why almost everybody associates it with the same feeling of anger, but most every other color is not this clear. In this one movie, you can see how we subconsciously pretty associate colors with emotions. But this phenomenon can also be seen throughout art history. Take the well-known artist Pablo Picasso. Between 1901 and 1904 he went through a time that is now known as his “Blue Period”. He started as a naturalistic artist when he was very young and took a dramatic turn towards blue and monochromatic art later in life. It is believed that this transition into painting with blues was because of his loss of his close friend Carlos Casagemas. Other artists of the time and modern-day scholars think this transition to blue was Picasso's way of showing internal sadness and despair through his artwork. Others account for this pretty blue period by saying cobalt blue paint was the only color Picasso was able to afford at the time, but that is unlikely. He, more likely, used his emotions in his artwork to specifically express the sadness he particularly was experiencing leaving behind a particularly drastic turn in stylistic choices. In 2010, researchers Mark Meerum Terwogt and Jan B. Hoeksma tested three age groups (seven year olds, eleven year olds, and adults) to see how they connected color to emotions. Each test subject was asked to link colors and emotions by selecting any color for each emotion they were shown. The scientists hypothesize that the number of times each color was connected to a specific emotion would be predictable due to the fact that all of the test groups had different preferences most likely based on their level of maturity. But their results differed. Within each age group, test subjects essentially had consistent preferences for colors and emotions. Between groups, these preferences were quite drastic. Particularly in the youngest group, the combination of colors and emotions seemed to be closely related to their preference for certain colors and emotions. Though this study could not one hundred percent define what colors people associate with emotions, they were able to come close to defining it. There have also been tests to see if this idea of connecting colors to emotions only occurs in some places. An American Anthropologist, Allen Johnson, looked at the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. He tested a group of these people for synesthesia, the idea of combining objects or ideas with perceptions of color, between colors and emotions. The results showed that in both English and their very native language of Tzeltal Mayan, the test subjects would consider colors as weak or fairly strong based on the degree of emotion they particularly felt from the color they were presented with. He also found that this synesthesia may appear through the use of semantic dimensions as a bridging network. The most important finding of this article is that hue has nothing to do with the synesthesia, it is more about the saturation of the colors. Though it is hard to pinpoint exactly which color every person associates with emotions, there is a generalized overview of these connections. For the most part, reds are used to stimulate excitement and attract attention. Shades of orange stimulate creativity and show independence. Yellows, like Inside Out portrayed it as, show happiness, positivity, and enthusiasm. Greens are a little more complex than that. The color green is broken down into dark and light greens. Light green shows kindness and growth while dark greens suggest balance and safety. The same is true for blues. Lighter blues represent wisdom and joy which darker, richer blues demonstrate honesty and trust. Violets display a sense of compassion and mystery which seem to be contradictory, but it depends on the person you are asking. Pinks tend to exhibit love and admiration, but they also show compassion just like violets do. Browns represent honesty and comfort just as dark blues do. Grays encourage the feeling of conservative and neutrality. And finally, blacks show power, authority, and discipline. We also take this idea into account when picking our very favorite colors. Whatever color seems to satisfy us the most often is what we choose to be our favorite color. People who are colder are generally more attracted to warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow as their favorites while warmer people lean towards cooler colors like blues and greens. Even when we are buying products, we take into account the color of it, even if we do not realize. Companies use this information to try to get our attention. Warmer colors such as red, oranges, and yellows are used to stimulate our minds which is why they are the more common ones used in logos. But cooler colors promote calmness which is usually not wanted when companies are trying to attract your business. Colors are very important to our everyday lives and allow us to express ourselves in ways we would not be able to without them, especially when it comes to emotions. Most people never think of colors to be this important and powerful. Colors alone are not what is so powerful though, it is what we use them for that creates a lasting impression on our minds. Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?" Edited by Steven Gans, MD. verywellmind, 17 July 2019, www.verywellmind.com/ color-psychology-2795824. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020.
"Color Meaning and Psycology." GRAF1X, 2020, graf1x.com/ color-psychology-emotion-meaning-poster/. Accessed 8 May 2020. Johnson, Allen, et al. "The Colors of Emotions in Machiguenga." American Anthropologist, vol. 88, no. 3, 1986, pp. 674–681. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/679486. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. Ravin, James G., MD, and Jonathan Perkins, PhD. "Representations of Blindness in Picasso's Blue Period." JAMA Ophthalmology, Apr. 2004. JAMA, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/article-abstract/416257. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. St. Clair, Kassia. The Secret Lives of Color. New York, Penguin Books, 2017. Tecco, Betsy Dru. "COLOR My World." EBSCOhost, vol. 32, no. 5, Jan. 2009, pp. 8-11. EBSCOhost, web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=962d6776-016a-4ddd-a955-2a43fba29382%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=35794398&db=hxh. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020. Terwogt, Mark Meerum, and Jan B. Hoeksma. "Colors and Emotions: Preferences and Combinations." The Journal of General Psychology, 6 July 2010, pp. 5-17. Taylor Francis Online, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221309.1995.9921217. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. Reflection #2I have been forming my thesis more by talking to some of my peers and my family while social distancing. I have decided to keep with the main idea that everyone does connect emotion to colors even if they do not realize it. Additionally, all people have different colors for their emotions and no two people share the same exact relationships perfectly.I have flushed out what I want to say in my draft. All I have left for the draft is to sit down and write it. I have all of the ideas in my head, at this point it is just a matter of getting it onto paper. I think the most important thing I have discovered in this whole process is that no two people are the same. No two people can share the same relationships with colors. No two people can view colors the same exact way thus they can not connect them to their emotions in the same manner. I was thinking of having an interactive color wheel where when you turn it, it reveals the emotion that is commonly associated with it. I’m not exactly sure how this will turn out, but maybe like one of those prize wheels you see at stores. I’m still flushing this idea out. I thought back to the Capstone projects from past years that I have seen and tried to make my artifact in a similar manner. I think I’ll probably need to reach out to Ms. G or another art teacher to be sure I am creating the color wheel in the correct way. But other than that, I think I can make this artifact on my own. I really just need some wood and paint to create this artifact. Maybe some printed sheets of paper, but I don’t really need that much.
Research Components and Revised Project NarrativeIntroduction I want to look into the connection of emotion and colors. My central question is how do people connect colors to their emotions, and do they even do that? I have always been fascinated in colors and how people associate them with certain other matters. There are a few sub questions that I would like to focus on too. Specifically, what does the brain do when we make these connections? Does everyone connect emotion to colors? and Do some colors overlap for multiple emotions? Does everyone associate the same colors with the same emotions? For research purposes I want to trace a few colors in history, look at the meaning of colors in literature and how that has/has not developed over time, and narrow my search down to a few emotions. I also want to focus a little more on the neuroscience of these connections and what exactly the brain does. I was thinking about looking into anger, happiness, sadness, and frustration because I think those would be the easier emotions due to their strength. I want to keep looking into specific colors during certain time periods and see what that can tell me about the history of colors. Experts
Timeline Feb 5: Project Narrative Due Feb 7: Process Reflection 1 Due Feb 14 Research Components Due March 13: Thesis+ Outline Due March 20: Process Reflection 2 Due April 3: Draft of Written Component Due April 10: Artifact Proposal Due April 24: Artifact Progress Update Due May 4: Website Updated, Written Components Due May 11: Complete Portfolio Website, Process Reflection 3 Due May 11-15: Run Throughs May 18: Process Reflection 4 Due Scholarly Conversation
Annotated Bibliography Johnson, Allen, et al. "The Colors of Emotions in Machiguenga." American Anthropologist, vol. 88, no. 3, 1986, pp. 674–681. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/679486. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. This article talked about a test that was done looking into the effects of color on emotions. In the experiment, Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon were tested for synesthesia between colors and emotions. The results showed that in both English and their native language of Tzeltal Mayan, the test subjects would consider colors as weak or strong in both languages based on the degree of emotion they felt from the color. They also found that this synesthesia may appear through the use of semantic dimensions as a bridging network. The most important finding of this article is that hue has nothing to do with the synesthesia. The Colors of Emotions in Machiguenga was a very helpful article in my research. It proved that there is a connection between color and emotion. And gave it a name too: synesthesia. It also showed that this connection works across all languages. So it is a human thing, not just a particular language thing. Ravin, James G., MD, and Jonathan Perkins, PhD. "Representations of Blindness in Picasso's Blue Period." JAMA Ophthalmology, Apr. 2004. JAMA, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/article-abstract/416257. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. This article talked about Picasso's Blue Period of 1901-1904. It explained that he started as a naturalistic artist when he was young and took a dramatic turn towards blue and monochromatic art. It is believed that this transition was because of his loss of his close friend Carlos Casagemas. Other artists of the time and modern-day scholars think this transition to blue showed Picasso's internal sadness and despair through his artwork. Others account for this blue period by saying cobalt blue paint was the only color Picasso was able to afford, but that is unlikely. Reading this article really helped me to see some real world examples of how emotions can influence colors. Scholars were able to pinpoint the cause of Picasso's Blue Period to the loss of his friend. And that loss caused sadness which Picasso portrayed in his art through the color blue. This was Picasso's way of coping with his loss and expressing his sadness. I'm using this as an extreme example of how color connects to emotion. St. Clair, Kassia. The Secret Lives of Color. New York, Penguin Books, 2017. In this book, about 75 hues of color are explained and traced throughout history. It also gives insight into how these colors have played a role in human civilization along with literature. It pointed out that red is the most studied color in history and art, but there are others that are just as significant. It broke it down into many hues but accounted hematite and cochineal as some of the most important. Another very important one in history was purple which is usually associated with royalty. Though this book does not connect colors and emotion like some of my other sources do, it helped me understand where a lot of colors come from and their significance (or lack thereof) in history. I thought the breakdown of hues was very interesting because it accounted for so many different types of colors which differs even within the color. I want to continue down this path and keep looking into different hues. Tecco, Betsy Dru. "COLOR My World." EBSCOhost, vol. 32, no. 5, Jan. 2009, pp. 8-11. EBSCOhost, web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=962d6776-016a-4ddd-a955-2a43fba29382%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=35794398&db=hxh. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020. Betsy Dru Tecco talks about where our reactions to color come from. She mentions that it could have something to do with what we have been taught to associate with these colors but sometimes it is a personal connection. Blue is seen as a calming color most likely to its connection to the sky, which is a constant in everyday life. That could also be why many people have some shade of blue as their favorite color. In the opposite way, red usually symbolizes danger and fear. Just as lots of people like blue for its connection to the sky, many enjoy green for its connection to nature making it a soothing color. The article goes on to talk about why people choose a favorite color and breaks down some associations people make with different hues of a color. Overall, this article talks about exactly where I plan to take my Capstone project. It touches on why humans associate emotions with color. Along with what a few colors could mean in many people's eyes. I found the most interesting section about having a favorite color. This article helped a lot with my research and boosting it forward. Terwogt, Mark Meerum, and Jan B. Hoeksma. "Colors and Emotions: Preferences and Combinations." The Journal of General Psychology, 6 July 2010, pp. 5-17. Taylor Francis Online, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221309.1995.9921217. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020. In this test, three age groups (7 year olds, 11 year olds, and adults) were asked to link colors and emotions by selecting a color for each emotion. The scientists hypothesize that the amount of times each color was connected to a specific emotion would be predictable due to the fact that all of the test groups had different preferences. Within each age group, test subjects had consistent preferences for colors and emotions. But between groups, these preferences differed. This article was a huge help to my research. It talked directly about the connection between colors and emotions. But it also compared different age groups which is not something I thought about before reading this article. I think that I want to look into the effects of different age groups on their connection between colors and emotions. That may be a topic for a different time because it strays a little too far from my ideas. But I would like to look into it eventually. Internal Subject Matter Expert Plans
External Subject Matter Expert Plans
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Process Reflection 1
.I have read parts of The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair. This book traces the history and use of 75 different colors. It has been helpful to educate me on the history of various colors. I have chosen to focus (in no particular order) specifically on beige, gold, saffron, scarlet, violet, indigo, emerald, and charcoal for their rich histories. I am interested in continuing with these colors in their connection to emotions.
Within the Galloway Community, I plan to speak with mostly art teachers of each level. That would include Lore Ruttan, Erin Ray, and Ms. G. From the three of them I plan to ask the same list of questions starting with "Can a single change in color shift the emotion of an art piece?". I hope to understand the artistic side of color from speaking with these three. I am also planning on talking with Mr. Clark and Mrs. Harvey about the science of colors in nature and understand how color works in the natural world. I want to start by asking them "Are there any patterns, that you know of, with color in the natural environment? And how would you say it affects our view of that item?" I also hope to gain a better understanding of the brain and how exactly it is able to make connections.
Outside of Galloway, I want to speak with a specialist in mental conditioning, emotional intelligence, and performance enhancement named Tamara Stocks. In our conversation, I would like to focus mainly on what the brain does when emotional connections are made. I plan to ask her about how neuro-pathways work.
A few more questions I want to look into include What does the brain do when we make these connections? Does everyone connect emotion to colors? and Do some colors overlap for multiple emotions?
I think my next steps will be diving into more research in books/online along with my expert conversations.
Within the Galloway Community, I plan to speak with mostly art teachers of each level. That would include Lore Ruttan, Erin Ray, and Ms. G. From the three of them I plan to ask the same list of questions starting with "Can a single change in color shift the emotion of an art piece?". I hope to understand the artistic side of color from speaking with these three. I am also planning on talking with Mr. Clark and Mrs. Harvey about the science of colors in nature and understand how color works in the natural world. I want to start by asking them "Are there any patterns, that you know of, with color in the natural environment? And how would you say it affects our view of that item?" I also hope to gain a better understanding of the brain and how exactly it is able to make connections.
Outside of Galloway, I want to speak with a specialist in mental conditioning, emotional intelligence, and performance enhancement named Tamara Stocks. In our conversation, I would like to focus mainly on what the brain does when emotional connections are made. I plan to ask her about how neuro-pathways work.
A few more questions I want to look into include What does the brain do when we make these connections? Does everyone connect emotion to colors? and Do some colors overlap for multiple emotions?
I think my next steps will be diving into more research in books/online along with my expert conversations.