Positioning paper one... Find Something In The Nothing.

So why colour?

Colour has an extraordinary capacity to create powerful psychological effects on its viewers - a power that artists can manipulate for their own ends.

The use of colour in art has of course come a long way over time. Colour from the times of Picasso and Van Gough has really evolved from not just being able to look at it on a canvas but now we can be fully immersed in it. Rothko's work started the idea of immersive colour but Turrell has found a way to use colour that was almost unimaginable even 50 years ago. The idea that we can take colour from something that is presented to us and alter it so that we almost become part of that colour itself, is a recent concept, and is developing year on year. It seems no exaggeration to say that art has, as yet, only found the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is possible with immersive colour. The idea and concept of the Ganzfeld Effect and the development of art work using it as an underpinning principal is still in its infancy. It seems likely that in the years ahead it will be transformative to our collective understanding of not just what it means to ‘see’ colours, but what it means to truly experience them.

With regards to physiology, studies have been carried out that looked into the effect colour can have on the body - for example changes in heart rate or muscle function have been investigated with varied findings (Gerard, 1958; Wilson, 1966; Hustmyer 1974). Additionally, in a study carried out by Jacobs & Suess (1975) it was found that when participants where fully illuminated in different colours (yellow, red, green or blue trialled) anxiety levels changed. It was found that red and yellow groups were tenser than when compared to blue and green groups.

Further studies have been carried out that look into the Ganzfeld effect when immersing participants in a full field of colour. The Ganzfeld effect is German for 'complete field' which is designed to create the absolute loss of depth perception in a viewer. This can be caused by what is described as “exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field” (Metzger, 1930). Most commonly referring to looking into an unbroken field of colour when spoken about in studies relating to vision, the brain begins to try to make sense of the uniform colour field that is seemingly never ending. The brain begins to cut off the unchanging signal from the eyes and a flickering occurs  that appears to begin as black spots in vision (Pütz, Braeunig & Wackermann, 2006). However, in some cases the black spots then begin to form geometric shapes as if the brain is tricking the eyes into seeing things within the colour field that make sense, rather than the boundless colour (Wackermann, Pütz & Allefeld, 2008). It is therefore clear that colour does have an effect on people. As of yet there has been no perfect answer for what specific colour does what exactly and why colours actually have these particular effects. The only thing that is clear from the research is that colour does indeed have a large effect on people. It has therefor been suggested that more research into the effects colour can have on people should be carried out to gain a more rounded picture of why and how these effects take place.

As such I have been creating my own version of the Ganzfeld experiment to further my own personal understanding of what colour means to me. This experiment requires you to cause yourself temporary sensory deprivation, and be immersed in an uninterrupted field of colour. In order to do this you much apply a set of headphones that are playing white noise, apply half a ping-pong ball to each eye, taped down. Then once laying down in a comfortable position, shine a light, of your desired colour onto your face. The ping-pong balls act as an object that filters the light to your eyes and visually what you see after a few minutes is the uninterrupted colour. The idea is to try to lay for around 40 – 60 minutes to fully experience it, however effects can occur from as early as 8 minutes in.  I have so far carried out the experiment once on myself with just one colour. I am continuing to collect equipment in order for me to get a variation off the colours I desire. I don’t wish to say too much just now on my personal experience doing the experiment. I don’t wish to influence anyone else’s experiences when I (hopefully) convince them to let me do the experiment on them. I’m very interested in hearing about the experience people have and how it may differ between each person. On those that will inevitably have some kind of expectations, through talking to me of what may happen, and those that I will bring in with absolutely no previous knowledge of what to expect. I plan on conducting numerous sessions with people, with as many colours as possible, filming them during the experiment and then having a discussion after to hear about their experience.

Turrell once said “For me it was important that people come to value light. To value light as we value gold, silver, paintings, objects. Its not something that you form with the hands like wax or clay you don’t carve it away like wood or stone you don’t assemble it like welding. And it’s kind of learning your craft, it took a while for me to learn how to work with light so that you really felt its physical presence and came to value it” (Turrell, 2013). I am just now only scrapping the surface of my understanding of what colour truly means, what it means to each individual person on a very rudimentary level, and how I can utilise my experiences doing these experiments in order to inspire and inform my practice.

Bibliography

Gerard, R. (1958). Differential effects of coloured lights on psychophysiological functions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.

Jacobs, K, W & Suess, J, F. (1975). Effects of Four Psychological Primary Colours On Anxiety State. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 41. pp207-210.

Metzger, W. (1930). "Optische Untersuchungen am Ganzfeld." Psychologische Forschung: pp6-29.

Pütz, P., Braeunig, M., & Wackermann, J. (2006). EEG correlates of multimodal ganzfeld induced hallucinatory imagery. International journal of psychophysiology. 61(2). pp167-178.

Wackermann, J., Pütz, P. & Allefeld, C. (2008). Ganzfeld-induced hallucinatory experience, its phenomenology and cerebral electrophysiology.Cortex. 44(10). pp1364-1378.

Turrell, J. (2013). The light inside. www. Mfah.org/exabitions/past/james-turrellretrospective. Last visited 16/01/2015.

Mahnke, F. (1996). Colodr, Environment, and Human Response: An Interdisciplinary Understanding of Color and Its Use as a Beneficial Element in the Design of the Architectural Environment. USA: Published by John Wiley & Sons

Ganzself

Psychological and Physiological Effects of Colour:

Hello! So here is some of what I have on this subject,

Scientific research underpinning colours effects on people Extensive research has been undertaken to investigate both the psychological and physiological affects colour can have on a person. Over the last 100 years this field of research has expanded enormously and this section will provide an overview of this advancing knowledge: firstly by looking at the starting point of research, when the idea of colour and its effect on the body were first being investigated, before moving forwards chronologically to the modern day. Early research into this topic looked into the effect of colours on people’s moods and emotional state. For example Hevner (1935) found that various colours were perceived differently by participants, with the colour red tending to be seen as ‘happy’, whilst blue was seen by participants as a ‘serene’ and ‘dignified’ colour. In a later study carried out by Lewinski (1938) it was observed that by changing the lighting or illumination in various painted rooms the 50 participants reported different effects. It was found that the yellow and red rooms were described as "most unpleasant" with the green and blue being said to be "most pleasant." Later still, experiments by Goldstein (1942) found that red was ‘disagreeable’, ‘upsetting’, ‘exciting’ and ‘imposing’ compared to green that was found to be both ‘soothing’ and ‘agreeable’. Yellow and red in conjunction with each other where found to have an expansive effect (increasing the external world) while blue and green had the opposite effect. As these experiments demonstrate, colours impact the moods of the viewer, who then tend to project those perceptions onto the colours themselves. 6 There was however what seemed to be a move away from scientific research into colour and its effects on people after these studies were carried out. It has been suggested that to a large extent Dr John Ott and his controversial hypothesis on the subject sparked much debate, and as a result this particular subject came back into vogue some twenty years after the work outlined above. Ott himself is known in the art industry for his time lapse photography and his work in carrying out a number of studies into the effects of colour on people during the 1950s and beyond (Ott, 1958). Ott’s work looked at great detail into different theories behind colour’s effects on viewers. He had varied findings, though nothing proven to be statistically significant, throughout his different lines of studies (Ott, 1958). More recently, studies have been carried out that have demonstrated statistically significant results when participants were asked to look at specific colours. In these studies it was found that when focusing on blue compared to pink (different ends of the light spectrum) pink elicited a reduction in strength compared to blue (Pellegrini & Schauss, 1980; Pellegrini, Schauss & Birk, 1980). This research lead to the suggestion that colour could be used to help people become less aggressive and reduce violent outbreaks due to the ‘tranquillizing’ effect the colour was said to have. To test this hypothesis, an experiment was carried out that trialled the use of painting a block of American federal holding cells in prisons pink. The idea was to reduce the number of violent outbursts and aggressive behaviours. The findings of this study carried out by Pellegrini et al (1981)were inconclusive and no significant difference was found. However, looking at a trend of violent outbreaks across the year in the participating 7 prisoners it was found for the first month, there were the least outbreaks compared to the rest of the year. Month on month the number of outbreaks increased until back to a normal level, which stayed consistent for the rest of the trialled year. These results, though not statistically significant, point to further work for investigators, as it would be consistent with this data to suggest that, whilst pink is indeed able to reduce emotional arousal, extended exposure may lead the viewer to habituate to their surroundings.

Ganzfeld

Breathing Light, truly sums up Turrell's art, a perfect title for a work of art that allows you to do just that, to experience colour in a way in which it has never been done before. This work is much more than just the viewer looking at it; instead, with this work you become so entirely immersed in the colour that you feel as though it's in the air, you can see, feel, taste and breath the colour. The immersion takes the viewer to a place, when standing in the installation,where they are faced with what seems like infinite light and colour. The room is designed to appear seamless, as though there are no walls and your brain begins to attempt to work out where the colour and light is coming from - this is part of the magic of the work and truly realises the Ganzfeld Effect.  

The ganzfeld effect (from German for “complete field”) or perceptual deprivation, is a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field. The effect is the result of the brain amplifying neural noise in order to look for the missing visual signals.

Here you see people carrying out their own versions of the ganzfeld experiment, without having to build a massive large scale room installation! By filling the ears with the sound of white noise and using a cut in half ping-pong ball taped over the eyes, you then shine the light across your face once comfortable.