What colour do you see?
Sheel
There is a poem by William Carlos Williams called “The Red Wheelbarrow.” It goes like this:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
The image that this poem conjures up for me has not only the red wheelbarrow with white chickens standing about or pecking the ground, but a greying wooden structure behind both. The foregrounding of a gleaming red paired with specks of white by the poet almost automatically calls forth a contrasting background as a foil in the mind’s eye. How does this happen? What is it about colours that urges a complementarity even where it is not overtly stated? What are our perceptions about colour and how do colours impact us? Looking for answers can take us on some interesting journeys.
Day 1 – Physics: A play of light
To begin with, let’s look at what colour is: it is, quite literally, a play of light. Colour is a quality of light, as Newton demonstrated by using a prism to distribute white light into colours that we can see. Taking a cue from the seven musical notes, he labelled the colours he saw – VIBGYOR or the colours of the rainbow. Beyond one end of this visible spectrum is ultraviolet light and at the other end is infrared light, neither of which humans can see. Our eyes only detect a certain range of wavelengths of light: each colour that we perceive is in fact light of a different wavelength. When we see something as being of a specific colour, what we see is light of certain wavelengths being reflected or scattered away from the object: the rest of the light is absorbed by the object!
The human eye can detect numerous shades: according to scientists, millions and millions of colours. There are tiny colour-sensing cells called cones in the retina which detect light – some distinguish red, others blue and yet others green. Synthesizing the information provided by these three cones, the brain distinguishes various colours – not just the hue, but also their intensity and mood. Lighting and environment too have an impact on the colours we see, making the same object look and feel different at different times!
Activity 1: This is a two-part activity that works for the lower grades, the first to be conducted in a dark room and the second in bright sunlight.
a) Late in the evening, turn off all the lights so that the room is dark. Are any colours visible in the absence of light? What about once the eyes get used to the dark? What can they now see?
b) During the day, take an old CD out into the sun and turn the side without the label towards the sun. Can they see the colours of the rainbow on the disc where the sun catches it? Now take the CD indoors, where there is no direct source of light and see if the same colours are visible.
In class, discuss: (a) why one cannot see any colours in the dark, even though one may be able to distinguish objects in the room once the eyes get used to the dark, and (b) why one sees the rainbow colours while outside, but not indoors. While the cones in our eyes help us see colours, it is other photoreceptors called rods that allow us to see in the dark, and these also help us sense movement!
You could also tell them about black: when all the colours of light are absorbed by an object, it appears black – so black is not really a colour, but the absence of colour!
Activity 2: Red, blue and green are the primary colours that Newton identified and yellow is derived from red and green. Yet we are taught that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue, and we see in art class that blue and yellow are mixed to get green. Get the children in the higher grades to find out more about the two kinds of primary colours.
Taking the activity further, you can share that in printing, it is pigments of the secondary colours derived from the red, blue and green (cyan, yellow and magenta) that are used, along with black. Why is this? This is a good way to get them to find out about additive and subtractive colour mixing! Check out some of the videos here http://stephenwestland.co.uk/youtube/understandingcolour.htm for a deeper understanding of colour.
Day 2 – Biology: Multi-coloured life
Colours are all around us: the living world never ceases to surprise and delight us with its colours. From multicoloured vegetables to cherry blossoms to fall colours to the natural defence mechanism of camouflage used by a host of insects, reptiles and other larger life forms and perhaps even some plants, colours create a wondrous world for us. But when do we begin to perceive all these colours? According to specialists, newborn babies are initially only able to see black, white and some shades of grey, and it is only by the time they are about a month old that their vision develops enough for them to see the colour red. Colour vision, as with other milestones, develops over time, and it takes about a year for babies to be able to see various hues and shades of colour. Scientists believe that the evolution of colour vision in humans has been at the cost of the sense of smell: even a mouse has about 1,000 types of cells for detecting smells, but humans have only about 350!
| Colour blindness Although the human eye has the ability to see various colours, the colours that one person sees may not be what another sees! The sensitivity of the cones in each person’s eyes causes the difference. There are people who cannot easily distinguish colours or the difference between similar shades of colour, a condition known as colour blindness. Ordinarily, colour blindness is minor and people with the condition can easily manage their lives. But sometimes, people may find it difficult to tell the difference between the colours on traffic lights and even have vision loss. For a long time, there was no way to correct colour blindness. But now, Science Focus reports that new lenses with special filters that can intensify the separation between various wavelengths of light are being tested and they are helping the colour blind see better. Not only this, but the lenses also help to improve the response of the photoreceptors in the eyes, according to Prof. John S. Werner. See https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/glasses-for-the-colour-blind-make-visible-a-whole-world-of-colour/. |
Other living creatures may see differently from humans, based on the kinds of cones in their eyes. The mantis shrimp has a range of colour vision that far exceeds any other species in the animal kingdom, including ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths and polarized light too!
Activity 3: Divide the class into three groups. Each group could look at how colour is used by (a) plants, (b) insects and reptiles and (c) small birds and mammals. They could look at aspects like flower colours in pollination, colour-matching as well as disruptive colouring for camouflage, plumage in bird mating, etc., and present their learnings in class. You could look up these sites for some fascinating information:
- the section on pollination at https://www.plt.org/educator-tips/mutualistic-relationships-plants-insects.
- the sections on colour-matching and disruptive colouring at https://www.plt.org/educator-tips/camouflage-nature-examples.
The psycho-physiological effects of colour are also well-known. Colours are thought to impact our mental state and emotions and may even create sensations within us. For example, the colours in the red and yellow part of the spectrum – various shades of red, orange and yellow – are thought to be sunny or warm colours that excite or stimulate, whereas colours like blue and green are cool colours, and are thought to have a soothing effect. In contrast to these, brown, grey, and black are considered melancholy or gloomy. Despite such associations, all these colours may have a vibrancy that derives from the manner in which they are combined – say in food arrangements.
Activity 4: In groups, get the children to collect and make charts of pictures of food from various cuisines that looks delicious to them. Display the charts in class: what would each like to eat and why? Does the colour of the food have anything to do with their choices? Does it in any way excite their appetite? Or their sense of taste and smell? Discuss why this is so.
Activity 5: In the higher classes, you could get children to find out about the relationship of mood and colour as well as colour therapy, its ancient origins and contemporary usage. Alternatively, they could explore how the concept of chakras or energy centres of the body in ancient Indian systems is linked with colours and colour therapy.
Day 3 – History and Culture: A motley past
Perhaps the earliest known colour used by human beings is ochre. The discovery of hundreds of lumps of ochre, some dating to about 100,000 BCE, in the Blombos caves, including pieces with honed points like crayons, and two pieces of ochre rock with crosshatch designs dating to about 70,000 BCE, has led archaeologists to believe that colour was first used for body-paint rather than prehistoric rock art. Since then, more natural colours were discovered and used, both of mineral as well as of plant and animal origin. Later, colours began to be made synthetically as well.
Activity 6: Use the chemistry lab in your school to acquaint children with materials of different colours – the March 2013 issue of Teacher Plus has activities that would be a great value add!
This article on the role of analytical chemistry in revealing information about the use of colours in ancient times is a useful resource that you could delve into for your own research before the class: https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/10872110/Colors_in_the_Prehistoric_and_Archaic_Era.html.
Activity 7: Divide the children into groups of five or six. Get some groups to find out more about natural colours and others about synthetic colours. How are they produced and what is the impact they have on the environment?
The first colour to be synthetically manufactured was purple. William Henry Perkin, a chemistry student, discovered the process accidentally during an experiment to find a cure for malaria. Before this discovery, purple dye was the most expensive to obtain. In ancient times, the colour was extracted from the Murex snail and as more than 12,000 snails were needed to extract one gram of purple, it was extremely expensive, worth three times its weight in gold!
Activity 8: In the ancient city of Tyre, Murex snails from the Mediterranean Sea were killed to extract the colour from their bodies. However, the native Indians of Central America extracted the liquid dye with yarn and returned the snails to the water. Get the children to find out the impact of these two alternative methods of producing purple. You could also get them to read up about how, in Mexico, purple is still produced in the ancient American Indian manner. Here’s an interesting short video on why purple has been rarely used on flags: https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/Zeu6QxKu.
In Europe, the colour purple represented luxury and extravagance in ancient times because only the royalty could afford it. Many other colours too carry cultural or regional connotations: for instance, in India and Pakistan, blue represents the Indian side and green represents Pakistan, although the Sri Lankan and Bangladeshis too have blue and green uniforms respectively.
Activity 9: In class, you could get the children to delve into this aspect of colour: do different colours have different values in different cultures? Alternatively, you could choose to tell them how a colour caused a peasant revolt in India: the 1859-60 Indigo Rebellion.
Activity 10: There is a current conception that blue is for boys and pink for girls. Get the children to debate whether and why/why not this is appropriate. At the end of the debate, you could tell them how, in the early 20th century, pink was thought to be a stronger colour more suitable for a boy, while blue was allied to beauty and purity and thought to be a good colour for girls. It was only in the 1950s that the notion that pink was a feminine colour and blue a masculine one took over!
Day 4 – Language: Coloured and colourful expressions
This association of colours with what we see around us and our everyday experiences has led to a huge descriptive vocabulary as well as many metaphors of colour.
Activity 11: A good way to get children thinking beyond ‘light’ and ‘dark’ as descriptive terms for colours is to put up a list of words such as in the list given below on the board (these are just a few, try finding others!), and to sort which are purely descriptive and which could have the name of a colour attached to it.
| ablaze | bright | brilliant |
| dappled | dull | electric |
| festive | fluorescent | garish |
| gaudy | glazed | glittering |
| glowing | iridescent | loud |
| luminous | lurid | muted |
| stunning | vibrant | vivid |
With regard to idiomatic expressions, as Manaswini Sridhar pointed out in an article* in Teacher Plus (Jan 2017), http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/colour-idioms-list-and-their-meanings/ is a good site to explore and use in class. Another online article offering interesting information is https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/the-colourful-history-behind-the-science-of-colour/.
Activity 12: There are many such colourful expressions in other languages as well. For instance, the Hindi expression “lal-peela ho gaya” means to become very angry, while “hara ho gaya” means to be renewed again. Get the children to make a list of at least five such expressions from their own languages and list them alongside expressions using the same or similar expressions – one column for expressions that are similar in meaning and another if the colours used are similar. This activity can help them see in what respects colour is perceived similarly or differently in different cultures.
In contemporary times, skin colour is an aspect of discrimination. Some of us may perhaps be able to think of such discrimination within our communities, or even homes: for instance, as a child, one may have been favoured by a grandparent because one was ‘gori’ or fair – a throwback to the days of the British. You could have some animated discussions in the high school language classroom around such issues.
Activity 13: Biological anthropologists tell us that the DNA of all the members of Homo Sapiens is more than 99.9% the same. Given this, what can one make of racial discrimination that tries to group people into categories such as Black, Red, Yellow, Brown or White? Who are “people of colour,” and why are they so called? Get the children to think of the issues involved in differentiating on the basis of colour.
Activity 14: Colour is also an aspect of gender identity, as we saw earlier with the pink and blue labelling. In higher secondary classes, Pride flags could be a topic of discussion. Learn more about some of them at https://www.colorsexplained.com/pride-flags-color-meanings/.
Day 5 – Art: The mechanics of colour
The best canvas on which to watch the play of colour is the sky. Among the most spectacular sights on this planet is the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Not everyone gets to see such sights, but if you’ve ever looked up into the skies at sunset or sunrise, you would have noticed the colours change quite rapidly. Or if you’ve been up in the snowy mountains, you may have noticed the colours of hillsides and valleys abounding with natural beauty.
We humans have often tried to capture the colours of life in art, right from prehistoric times. One form of art that is lesser known is the art of glass sculpture – the glass artist Dale Chihuly’s work is memorable for the striking colours he uses in his large blown-glass sculptures.
Activity 15: What difference do colours make? Try this simple activity to help young children discover this: https://arvindguptatoys.com/toys/Colourmagic.html. You could make a picture yourself for very young children, or help them make it if they are old enough. You could extend this activity into a lesson for older children using another activity to illustrate how colours can be blended with one another to make new colours, using the ideas and video at https://arvindguptatoys.com/toys/colourmixer.html.
Activity 16: Here are a few colour names that are not very commonly used: amaranth, amber, cerulean, ecru, fuchsia, lapiz lazuli, mahogany, mauve, onyx, shamrock, teal… Look up these and other shades online and get the children to identify them before you tell them the name of the colour. Depending on their age, you could also get the children to engage in a hands-on experiment to test how colours can literally change colour by mixing paints to get various hues, tints and shades. A whole host of new colour names and other vocabulary related to techniques of art can also be explored in the process, not to mention bringing in some math by asking them to figure out what quantities of which colours are being used to create various gradations of colour.
You could end the project with the children creating a display of all that they have learned about colour, if time permits. In any case, before we sign off on this project, here is another thought-provoking video for you that offers an insight into the use of colour in Greco-Roman sculpture: https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/w56AMI7l.
Also available at https://teacherplus.org//add-colour-to-your-language/
The author is a writer and educator who enjoys writing for teachers and children. She can be reached at sheel.sheel@gmail.com.
