Color, Light and the Brain

Mary Ann found a webpage chalk full of great info about the importance of color and light on our perceptions of the world around us.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/10/09/beau-lotto-optical-illusions-ted/

This TED talk by Beau Lotto shows how our brains make sense of the information that we gather through our eyes, and the importance of light on our perceptions.



Lotto's presentation calls to mind the paintings and teachings of artist Josef Albers.

In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.
— Josef Albers
http://www.albersfoundation.org/Albers.php?inc=Galleries&i=J_1

Painter Josef Albers would challenge his students through painting exercises to explore and discover our changing visual perceptions of color by painting the same square of color on two different color fields. Artist Ruth Asawa, was among Alber's students at Black Mountain College, and she in turn encouraged daughter Aiko Cuneo to explore the world of color by doing, through Albers' painting exercises. Aiko and Lilli, in turn, have taught these same lessons to the students at Rooftop.

The Brain Pickings page had another interesting really interesting animated video to check out.

"One" is an animated short by Michal Levy, an artist/jazz musician who experiences synesthesia (she can see music and hear color) She created the "Giant Steps" animated short that made it round the classrooms a few years back. Ms. Toupin's class wrote to her and was delighted that she responded back — especially when they discovered that she lives and works in Israel! http://michalevy.com/one