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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00190
- Thesis Title
- Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color from Paper to Pixels: A Physical and Neuropsychological Analysis
- Author
- Mariah Elizabeth Klaneski
- E-mail
- mklaneski AT wesleyan.edu
- 2nd Author
- NULL
- 3rd Author
- NULL
- Degree
- Master of Arts
- Year
- 2007
- Number of Pages
- 271
- University
- Wesleyan University
- Thesis Supervisor
- David L. Beveridge
- Supervisor e-mail
- dbeveridge AT wesleyan.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- NULL
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Science and Art
- Copyright Ownership
- Mariah E. Klaneski
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English
- URL where full thesis can be found
- NULL
- Keywords
- color interactions, Josef Albers, Interaction of Color, HSV, hue, saturation, value, neuropsychology, neuropsychological, physical, color vision, spectrocolorimeter, Adobe Photoshop
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This thesis investigates the physical and neuropsychological underpinnings of color interactions. Both technical and empirical analyses examine a hypothesis regarding the relative relationships of three perceptual dimensions of color: hue (H), saturation (S), and value (V). The framework for this study lies in the work of artist and teacher Josef Albers (1888–1976) and his comprehensive study of his empirical observations of color interactions published in Interaction of Color (1963). Scientific and technological means unavailable during Albers’s lifetime reveal a new clarity regarding the physical dimensions of color interactions that complement the perceptual emphasis in his methods. A spectrocolorimeter was used to measure the HSV properties of each of the colors in Albers’s original silkscreen prints. Later, “Variants” were constructed in Adobe® Photoshop® to study the relative and absolute relationships among H, S, V. It was found that H and S relationships are relative, while V relationships are absolute. In addition, the study looks at how color interactions “work” in the brain, juxtaposing classical arguments regarding simultaneous contrast with an examination of current neuropsychological research regarding color vision and color contrast. The outcome from this research includes an interactive computer module based on Albers’s “Make 1 Color Look Like 2” exercise created in conjunction with this project. Still in its inception, this technology-driven initiative seeks to offer a new alternative to teaching color in an effort to propel Albers’s methods into the 21st century.