the art + science of seeing
volume 2 issue 4 volume 2.4 winter 2010 Cosmos 79
Cosmos
Contents
Glimpse  
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C olor
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Fluorescence in the garden
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Christie Marie Bielmeier
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Ordering Colors A multifaceted problem
Carolyn Arcabascio
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Rolf G. Kuehni
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retrospect Processes for making the best and finest sort of prussian blue with quick-lime; Concerning the secret of a red gum...and Concerning the source of an illusion... Color Matters
Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
seeing red on mars Adaptation and the influence of the environment on color appearance Michael A. Webster
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waves of color An ecological valence theory of human color preference Karen B. Schloss & Stephen E. Palmer
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Odili Donald Odita
Cover Images Odili Donald Odita, Fusion, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 120 inches. OD06.010.
interview with evolutionary biologist Hopi hoekstra
playing (with) color Fred Collopy
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relatively speaking The relationship between language and thought in the color domain Debi Roberson & J. Richard Hanley
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color-Struck Quilting and colorism in the African-American community Lauren Cross
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Human potential for tetrachromacy Kimberly A. Jameson
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singed bedroom, weekend afternoon Arto Vaun
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watercolor science Transparent watercolor through the eyes of an aerospace engineer Christie Marie Bielmeier
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(Re)views Blue & The Wizard of Oz Ivy Moylan
online
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INTERVIEW HP Color Scientist Nathan Maroney Lauren Cross
fluoresence in the
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by Christie Marie Bielmeier
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Garden
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bouquet of red roses tells your sweetheart you are sorry,11 but to a bee it’s a fluorescent green beacon for pollination.
Long thought to attract insects with colors in the humanly-visible
light spectrum, one pioneer of underwater fluorescent photography is discovering that flowers also produce light outside the range of human visual perception. In the darkness of underwater coral reefs, species produce light to help them stand out. Photographers have captured these striking images from deep in the sea, but now Dr. Charles Mazel, engineer and marine biologist, is collecting images from his own backyard. Using a [high-intensity LED] flashlight with a [custom, proprietary] blue-light [interference] filter and a pair of yellow-tinted glasses, Mazel probes his house for objects that fluoresce. Substances that fluoresce absorb light, or energy, from an external source and, in turn, emit a light of a different color, or wavelength. While Mazel has found that many food items in his kitchen fluoresce—including peanut butter, olive oil and broccoli—most recently he’s been photographing flowers from his garden. Mazel collects his images using a standard camera to photograph a Beetle on White Impatiens flower; (top) photographed in white light; (background) photographed with blue light excitation and matching barrier filter All Photos Courtesy of Charles Mazel.
subject in natural daylight. Then, returning at night, he uses the same camera with a blue-light filter on the flash and a yellow filter on the camera lens. The resulting images are beautiful—and surprising.
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“Our normal visual experience is that everything that reaches our eyes is a combination of all colors—because we see reflected white light,” explains Mazel. Humans are accustoming to viewing objects in a broad range of light, but fluorescence is a narrow range of light, which tends to be pure and saturated.
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Comparing the white light and blue light photos of flowers, one is drawn to the pistil and stamen area at the center of the petals. Also, the pollen brightly fluoresces. This color placement may be startling since human eyes cannot interpret colors within this range under normal light conditions. It’s not important that humans can’t see these details because we don’t pollinate the flowers, but to bees it may be a question of survival. Bees and many insects have ultraviolet vision and photoreceptors that interpret a broad range of wavelengths. The plant’s patterns account for this. To attract bees for pollination, it is advantageous for a plant to have a bull’s-eye with dark circle around a bright center. Therefore, the plant would grow petals that are ultraviolet-reflective and a pistil or stamen that is UV-absorbent. To create dark areas, the plant produces pigments that absorb ultraviolet light—and as result fluoresce. Current research has proven that plants have these patterns and bees can see them, but which pigments are UV-absorbent is unclear. Mazel hopes to use his life-long experience studying underwater fluorescence to find some of the answers. “I got intrigued by what would happen if you swim around in [the ocean] in the middle of the night with an ultraviolet light,” says Mazel, whose college hobby was underwater photography. Back in the 1980s, the MIT ocean engineering student had little interest in the science of fluorescing plants. Instead, he focused on the aesthetics of the striking images. Mazel began to question whether the green light emitted from one species was the same as another. Mazel says, “I found out that scientists didn’t really know what was going on. They were somewhat aware of the phenomenon of fluorescence in corals, but little scientific data [existed].” This lack of information prompted Mazel to pursue a doctorate in Marine Biology from Boston University. Soon after he began his research, he realized he needed an instrument to scientifically compare fluorescent
colors of two different species—so he engineered one. In 1994, Mazel prototyped the first diveroperated, underwater spectrofluorometer, which was funded by SeaGrant of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The handheld instrument measured the excitation created by fluorescing creatures and allowed Mazel to study coral reefs without disturbing the environment. Mazel’s first instruments used ultraviolet (UV) light because, like most people, he associated UV light with black-light posters and mineral displays of fluorescing rocks. Using these instruments, Mazel investigated what wavelengths were most common in fluorescing organisms. After studying spectral data, Mazel was convinced to try filtered blue light instead. From his college lab, Mazel scrounged up some blue light filters and stuck them over a lowpowered light. One night on a dive in the Bahamas, he tried both the high-powered UV light and his cheap blue light. Mazel says, “That weak blue light killed the powerful UV light. More things fluoresced and more brightly. You miss some things—nothing’s perfect, but blue is just way, way better… Fluorescence has more potential to influence color in the ocean because the environment—as you go deeper—tends toward monochromatic.” In water, red, orange and yellow wavelengths become absorbed very quickly. Therefore, fluorescing these colors really makes a species stand out. After graduation, Mazel continued improving his underwater instruments and began working with the Ocean Optics at the Office of Naval Research. While Mazel’s instruments were used for military applications, he was still able to spend time in the ocean. Underwater with his blue-light, Mazel imaged coral reefs that appeared brown in natural light, but exhibited vibrant color under blue light. Also, he found mantis shrimp, which burrow deep into the ocean floor, showed fluorescing markings that could be used to ward off enemies. Mazel began to wonder what role fluorescence played on land. Many scientists thought that land-based plants and animals didn’t use fluorescence because fluorescing is inefficient. To fluoresce, a plant must absorb light (which isn’t 100% efficient) and then, of that light, only a fraction of the energy fluoresces. If this process is 10% efficient, a very bright fluorescence is created. It was assumed that reflecting light, which doesn’t require energy,
was widely use to make plants standout. However, the backgrounds of these flowers may tell a different story.
Color
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autumn 2009
Mazel is quick to point out that just because something fluoresces, doesn’t mean it has a function. Not all light emission may be utilized—some may just be decoration. But, weeding out the “pollen beacons” from “decorations” is what Mazel plans on investigating next—one backyard garden at a time. w
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The images of a brown grasshopper in the green grass look completely different under blue light. The green grasshopper strongly contrasts with the red stalks. Here, it appears that fluorescence is an accidental byproduct of photosynthesis, which is the process of absorbing energy from sunlight and converting carbon dioxide into energy. The chlorophyll, where photosynthesis occurs, fluoresces red.
REFERENCES Eisner, T. For Love of Insects. 2004. Harvard University Press. Mazel, C. and Fuchs, E. “Contribution of Fluorescence to the spectral signature and perceived color of corals,” American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, 48(1, part 2), 2003, 390-401. Mazel, C., Cronin, T., Caldwell, R. and Marshall, N. “Fluorescent Enhancement of Signaling in a Mantis Shrimp,” Science, January 2, 2004, Vol 303. (Background) Fluorescence photograph of yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia). (Below) Fluorescence photograph of grasshopper.
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www.glimpsejournal.com Glimpse
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t is a warm August evening and I am standing on the outside catwalk of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at
Palomar Observatory near the top of Palomar Mountain. As I gaze to the south, the summer Milky Way arches overhead, up and beyond the massive dome. The night is cloudless and I follow the Milky Way as it stretches in front of me all the way down to the south-
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ern horizon. My focus is pulled to a wide glow to the southwest: San Diego. The many lights of the city and its satellite communities intrude on the skies over the mountain. I do not have a direct view of the lights. The mountain itself is in the way. Suddenly, the 1000-ton dome silently rotates, turning me clockwise so that I now face north. Inside, astronomers line up to look at a new research target. Outside, I now see the lights of Temecula, Riverside County and more. These lights are closer than those of San Diego, and their glow intrudes higher into the sky. The mountain does not directly obstruct these lights, which allows me to see their colors: orange, yellow and white. The orange lights are a comfort to me—the white lights a concern. From the astronomers’ perspective, not all streetlights are equal. The key is their color. In the daytime sky, a rainbow reveals that sunlight is a combination of all the colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) as the white light of the Sun scatters in a beautiful arch of color. Even on clear days that are without rainbows, we see some evidence that sunlight is a blend of color, as our atmosphere scatters a portion of it making the sky appear blue. Similar to sunlight, a white streetlight contains a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow. Also like the light of the Sun, a streetlight can brighten the sky through light that is either misdirected or reflected upward. This effect is strongest if the streetlight contains blue light in its mix of colors.
Stars wheel above the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. Sky glow from city lights is evident behind the dome.
volume 2.4 winter 2010
By Scott Kardel
Cosmos
Dimming the Lights: Astronomy and light pollution
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(Left) Bright, white LED streetlamps, like those seen here in San Marcos, CA, could pose a great threat to astronomy. (Above) The spectra of 2 street lamps spreads out the colors of each.
Blue light is particularly dangerous to astronomy because if it happens to end up in the sky, it makes the sky brighter than the other colors do. This is due to Rayleigh scattering, the same effect that makes the daytime sky blue. The result: In the day or in the night, blue light equals a brighter sky, one that all too often hides the stars from city dwellers, and obscures faint astronomical objects that are of interest to astronomers.
pressure sodium (LPS) lights offered the best compromise. LPS lights emit enough light to maintain safety and security in parking lots and street corners, while putting out a limited amount of color with no blue light. These conditions are ideal for astronomers, who can simply use glass filters to block colors produced by the LPS lights, leaving the rest of the color spectrum available for studies of the universe.
It wasn’t always this way. In the 1930s, when the site was selected by George Ellery Hale, the sky above Palomar was always dark. Over time the cities grew and the sky brightened. This brightening of the sky is what astronomers call sky glow, or light pollution.
White light, though, is another story. As a mix of all the colors of the spectrum, the only way for astronomers to filter out white light is to keep the dome closed, throw in the towel and give up on learning about the cosmos.
To counter light pollution’s damaging effects, in the 1980s, Palomer Observatory’s parent institution, Caltech, lobbied for legislation to protect Palomar, and the design of orange, low-
In the age before big cities, there was no light pollution. Everyone throughout the world saw pristine, starry skies. The night sky played a role in myths and creation stories from
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Babylonia to North America, and is a common motif in modern works of art such as van Gogh’s Starry Night. This inspirational experience has now faded away for virtually everyone. Almost two-thirds of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way from their home. Worse still is that they are unaware of what they are missing. Just over twenty years ago, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) formed to raise awareness on the problems caused by light pollution and to ultimately reverse its hold on us. The IDA estimates that over 2 billion dollars of electric energy is wasted annually in illuminating the night sky.1 The energy used to produce this wasted light contributes directly to the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere that cause global warming. The IDA suggests that to simultaneously conserve energy and combat light pollution, outdoor lights should be directed downward, dimmed or even turned off when they are not needed. Further studies have suggested that light pollution has a negative effect on many forms of wildlife and possibly even human health.2 Streetlights, especially those with blue in them that are located near beaches, have been found to confuse hatching sea turtles, leading them away from the ocean and to their deaths. Newly hatched sea turtles instinctively look for the reflection of moonlight off of the ocean to know which way to turn to leave the beach and head for the water. Blue streetlights often send them in the wrong direction.
Migrating birds can be drawn off course by artificial lights at night and even to their deaths through collisions with buildings. A group called Fatal Light Awareness Project (FLAP) seeks to curb nighttime lighting to protect migratory birds. Streetlights also attract flying insects (think bug zapper) and on average, kill 150 per night.3 While that might seem like a good thing to anyone who doesn’t like flying bugs, remember that insects are an important part of the food chain for bats, birds and amphibians. In humans it has been found that blue light resets our circadian rhythms. Sensors in our eyes detect the blue the daytime sky to keep our internal clocks tuned with Excess blue light at night can throw off our day/night leading to sleep disorders and possibly even cancer.4
natural light of nature. rhythm
Fortunately, light pollution is the easiest form of pollution to fight. It is much easier to properly illuminate an area or turn off unneeded lights than it is to, say, clean up an oil spill. The biggest stumbling block against fighting light pollution is the challenge of building awareness. The IDA is working hard to educate the public and to get dark-sky friendly lighting fixtures approved, while helping to draft lighting ordinances that would curb the growth of light pollution. Despite these efforts, I am concerned that even brighter times may lie ahead. New technologies in LED (Light Emitting Diode) outdoor lighting, combined with federal monies granted through
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the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are likely to bring about a tidal wave of new streetlights in the very near future that will cause further brightening of the night sky. Manufacturing light has become cheaper, and these new lights being made are whiter in color. So why are some cities looking to change their lighting? Maybe to save on energy costs, but the answer is unclear. Delivering more Lumens of light per Watt of energy expended, LPS is still the most efficient lighting source around. It is about three times more efficient than the best LED lights available, but the extra colors in a LED or induction streetlight make them look brighter to the eye than a LPS streetlight of the same brightness. This implies that LED lights could be dimmed without people even noticing. And dimmer lights mean less energy used. Yet there is a potential gain that comes with the new streetlights. Computer control, wireless networks, and instant on and off lighting now make it possible to dim or even extinguish streetlights during the wee hours of the morning when streets are vacant and most people are sleeping. It is during these times that astronomers at Palomar and elsewhere are hard at work while tax dollars are spent illuminating empty streets. Should cities choose to use after-hours dimming, they’ll save money, fight global warming and help preserve the night sky. Back on Palomar I notice that tonight, Mother Nature is on the side of astronomy. The lights below are slowly starting to wink out from west to east. A slow invasion of low marine layer clouds blows in from the Pacific and acts like a giant window shade, blocking the glare from our neighbors below. With the mountain observatory safely above the clouds, the universe is growing in its splendor. In a few hours, the invasion of low clouds should be complete and Palomar will be almost as dark as it was in the 1930s. It is a view that I wish I could share with others. w
(Left) Residents of Palomar Mountain look down on the lights of San Diego County with the stars of Orion (center) and Taurus (right) shining above. (Below) A layer of low coastal clouds can dim the glow of city lights below keeping the stars bright for astronomers
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References 1. LightPost!, “Questions With: International Dark Sky Association Part 1,” http://blog.lampsplus.com/ archive/2009/07/09/questions-with-internationaldark-sky-association-part-1.aspx. 2. International Dark-sky Association, “Blue Light Threatens Animals and Humans,” http://docs.darksky.org/PR/PR_Blue_White_Light.pdf. 3. Starry Night Lights Blog, “The Effects of Light Pollution on the Animal Kingdom,” http://starrynightlights.com/blog/2007/07/02/the-effects-oflight-pollution-on-the-animal-kingdom/; The Garden of Eaden blog, “Light Pollution and the Decline of Native Insects,” http://gardenofeaden.blogspot. com/2009/08/light-pollution-and-decline-ofnative.html. 4. Pauley, S.M., “Lighting for the human circadian clock: recent research indicated that lighting has become a public health issue,” Medical Hypotheses 63 (2004): 588-596.
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Orderign
colors
by Rolf G. Kuehni
C
A Multifaceted Problem
olor order systems are expressions of the human desire to find order and rules in the natural and perceptual phenomena we encounter. Their development has been complicated by the following facts: 1. There are a
large number of perceptually different colors when comparing samples side by side; 2. The appearance of a
sample can vary distinctly depending on observation conditions. In addition, there is the mystery of the perceptual nature of color itself.
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1613 Colors, like tastes or smells, are perceptual experiences. Most commonly, they are the result of the interpretation mechanism for certain physical stimuli in our brain/ mind. These stimuli are always kinds of lights–either lights we see directly from a source or, more commonly, lights reflected by objects in front of us. Estimates of the number of different color experiences we can
have when observing objects vary widely, ranging from some 1 million to 5 million. This diversity of potential experiences indicates the difficulties in defining the issue. How to order these colors in a useful manner has been of interest for centuries.
Figure 1: Aguilonius’s depiction of color order, with the chromatic primaries yellow (flavvs), red (rubeus) and blue (caeruleus) enclosed between white (albus) and black (niger). The circular segments represent scales between pairs of the five colors, on top tint/shade scales, on the bottom hue scales (Aguilon 1613)
The relationship between color stimuli and experiences is very complex. People with normal color vision can have variations in the sensitivity of their sensor types (cones) in the eye resulting in somewhat different color
experiences. Further, tests have shown that individuals vary considerably in their choice of stimuli that, for them, result in the perception of Hering’s unique hues (see below), for example the yellow experienced as neither reddish nor greenish.
autumn 2009 Color
These and other phenomena show the impossibility of objectively defining a given color experience. Further, we cannot define color in terms of experience because we are unable to unambiguously and objectively express what it is we experience, nor can we identify with certainty from memory a given previously experienced color. All of these issues make establishing quantitative color scales difficult and problematical. The history of color order systems embodies the growth of understanding of these difficulties. Today, the problem cannot be considered solved in a fundamental manner.
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There are phenomena like metamerism, in which stimuli widely differing in spectral composition of the light can produce identical experiences, such as when two paint companies offer the same fashion color but matched with different sets of pigments, resulting in different reflectance curves but identical appearance. Varying effects also result from the spectral composition of the light in which objects are viewed. Lights that appear similar can produce widely differing experiences from the same objects. The appearance of artificial daylight produced from filtered tungsten light and from a three-band fluorescent lamp can be indistinguishable, but certain objects have widely different appearances when viewed in the two lights. In contrast effects, different surround conditions can noticeably affect the experience from a given color stimulus. This is the subject of many colored visual illusions.
Figure 2: Newton’s spectral color circle and mixture diagram, with white O in the center. Orange color Y is diluted with white light 21 to form a saturation scale passing through color Z to the colorless center (Newton 1704).
From One-Dimensional Scales to a Riemannian solid: A few Highlights
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olor order began in antiquity with one-dimensional scales. The most famous is Aristotle’s, stemming from his belief that colors are derived from different ratios of white and black. He recognized five major chromatic colors between them, usually translated as yellow, crimson, violet, green, and blue. This scale, often slightly modified, remained influential well into the 16th century. In 1613, Flemish mathematician/philosopher Franciscus Aguilonius (1566-1617) reduced the primary colors to three–yellow, red, and blue–and added an implicit hue circle passing through orange, purple, and green. Tint/shade scales connected the chromatic colors to white and black. There is also an implicit gray scale (Figure 1). As a result, his system is two-dimensional. In the mid-17th century, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) brought a new, scientific basis to color order, which he fully described in his book, Opticks of 1704. He recognized seven hues in the spectrum (a number selected to agree with musical scales) and arranged these in a circle, with “white” light in
Figure 3 (Right): Mayer’s depiction of the central plane of his double triangular pyramid color solid, with his perceptual primary colors yellow (G), red (R), and blue (B) in the corners, binary mixtures along the periphery, and ternary mixtures in the interior (Mayer 1758)
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Figure 4 (Below): Hand-illuminated image of Lambert’s color pyramid (Lambert 1772)
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Figure 5 (Opposite left): Sketch of Runge’s color sphere with the primary colors yellow (G), red (R), and blue (B) forming an equilateral triangle on the central plane, with the intermediate hues orange (O), violet (V), and green (Gr), and with white and black on the poles (Runge 1810).
1756
Figure 6 (Opposite right): Hand-illuminated image of the hue circle and the gray scale of Grégoire’s color order system with three independent attributes (Grégoire ca. 1820).
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the center (Figure 2). This diagram implicitly describes two color attributes, hue and saturation, the latter varying along radial lines from the center to the periphery, as indicated by the example of orange Y and its desaturated version Z. Newton fully understood a third attribute, brightness, but he did not connect all three in a geometric model. He also did not leave room for the purple colors that, although not found in the visible spectrum, form an important perceptual hue range. German astronomer Tobias Mayer (1723-1762) took a definite step towards developing a three-dimensional system. In 1756 he described a double triangular pyramid ordering
system based on the primary colors yellow, red, and blue, plus white and black. Figure 3 shows the central plane of the solid with the chromatic primary colors in the corners of the equilateral triangle and 11 mixed grades between them. The interior of the figure contains mixtures of all three primaries in consistently changing ratios. Mayer’s premature death prevented him from attempting to color his theoretical system. This task was left to Swiss-German mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777) together with the painter Benjamin Calau. They quickly encountered problems with Mayer’s system, one being that blackish colors already resulted from mixtures of the pigments used as primaries, yellow,
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red, and blue. Lambert decided to drop the lower pyramid and reduced the number of grades between the chromatic primaries to seven, resulting in a hand-illuminated pyramid with 164 samples. Fig. 4 shows 88 colors of the system. In 1810, German Romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810) proposed a theoretical system based on the geometric solid of a sphere. He also placed the classical painter’s primaries–yellow, red, and blue–in the corners of an equilateral triangle. However, the intermediate mixtures were all taken to have the same saturation as the primaries. He therefore placed the colors on a circle, which along with the tint/shade mixtures,
thereby form a sphere with white and black at the poles (Figure 5). The central vertical axis represents a gray scale. The hue plane was considered complementary, that is, consisting of opposing hues that, in a mixture, neutralize each other gradually to form, when balanced, a neutral gray in the center. Again, Runge’s premature death prevented him from attempting to produce a detailed colored version of the system.
At about the same time, Gaspard Grégoire (1751-1846), a French inventor of a textile art process, introduced the largest color atlas of its time. The French Royal manufacturing companies used the reported 1,351 samples of the atlas for reference pur-
poses. (Unfortunately, copies no longer exist.) The organization of colors within that atlas is unknown, but ca. 1820, Grégoire published a book on color that includes a hand-illuminated description of a small color order system (144 samples) with a cylindrical, color attribute-based organization. Grégoire’s attributes were essentially Newtonian, with a 24-grade hue (teinte) circle with 12 grades shown, an eight-grade lightness (nuance) scale, and a nine-grade relative saturation (ton) scale (Figure 6). Grégoire attempted to make the steps between grades perceptually equidistant by halving distances between established color samples. Hering’s perceptual color
fundamentals
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n the mid-19th century, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) in England and Hermann von Helmholtz in Germany (1821-1894) began to lay the foundation for the modern psychophysical system, known as the Young-Helmholtz system. It allowed the specification of color stimuli of objects in terms of three values (tristimulus values) that related to the light-reflecting properties of the material, the spectral power distribution of the light in which it was viewed, and data that directly or indirectly described the spectral sensitivities of the three cone types of an average human observer. The color stimuli calculated for object colors in this manner fit into an irregular geometric solid, first calculated in the 1920s by German photochemist Robert Luther (1867-1945) (Figure 7). But it was soon found that the relationship between tristimulus values and perceptual attributes is a very complex one.
1905
Among painters and early thinkers about color–such as Mayer, Lambert, Runge, and Grégoire–the idea had solidified that the primary color percepts, a kind of color fundamentals, were yellow, red, and blue. But exper-
iments in the late 18th and 19th century indicated that all hues can be matched with many different primary triads, but all more or less limited in the saturation of the achievable color percepts. It later became evident that the best (light) primaries to mix in order to produce all hues at the highest level of saturation are violet, green, and red. But there are many possible primary triads. In color monitors, for example, the primary colors in each pixel are red, green, and blue (RGB); in color printing, the optimal primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow, with black added for darker colors (CMYK). But what, if any, are the perceptual primary colors, or color fundamentals? In the second half of the 19th century German physiologist Ewald Hering (1834-1918) proposed that there were four chromatic and two achromatic perceptually fundamental colors: yellow, red, blue, green, and white and black. The chromatic primaries have unique hues, that is, unique red is simply red, neither yellowish nor bluish (and likewise with the other three unique hues). Fundamental yellow and blue, as well as red and green, oppose each other, forming an ‘opponent-color system.’ Hering argued that one could easily
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Figure 7(Opposite bottom): Two views of Luther’s psychophysical object color solid (Luther 1927).
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Figure 8 (Far left): Hering’s conceptual representation of the generation of the perceptual hue circle from the four hue fundamentals. Top: hue circle with amounts, diminishing on both sides of the maximum, of the four fundamental hues; bottom: hue percepts generated at regular intervals from the mixtures on top (Hering 19051911).
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Figure 9 (Right): Depiction of a constant hue page of the Swedish Natural Colour System (Scandinavian Colour Institute 1978, reprinted with permission).
Color
1960 detect yellow and red in orange, but not orange and purple in red (and comparable for the other hues). Figure 8 shows Hering’s construction of the hue circle from different ratios of the four fundamental colors. (Most people today agree with this point of view. Beginning in the 1960s, neurons were identified in the retina and various locations of the brain that represent opponent color processes of sorts. But there is wide agreement that no valid neurological model of the perception of unique hues yet exists.)
unique hue with corresponding decrements in the second one, say at 10% intervals. He termed the most highly saturated color of a given hue “full color” and all others “veiled colors.” The full color was placed in one corner of an equilateral triangle, with white and black in the other two corners; the interior filled with veiled colors. Such scaling results in a perceptually evenly spaced system, but the scales are substantially different from those based on judgments of uniform, equally noticeable differences.
Hering stated that any perceived color of an object could be expressed in terms of the content of one or two unique hues plus whiteness and/or blackness, with the sum always adding up to 100%. The hue circle grades represent constant increments of a
Connecting the gray scales of each hue diagram formed a double cone solid that were believed to represent all object colors. The vertical dimension of the solid represents relative lightness, because the full colors form a natural hue circle where dif-
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ferent hues have different levels of lightness. It is evident that the only geometrically clearly defined attribute in Hering’s system is hue. Hering named his system the “natural color system.” His concept became important in perceptual psychology around the turn of the 20th century. One hundred years after Hering’s initial description of his perceptual color model, the Scandinavian Colour Institute began to market a modern atlas version under the name Natural Colour System. The present system consists of 1750 samples, arranged on 40 constant-hue planes (Figure 9). The claim to “naturalness” –and smart marketing–has resulted in wide popularity of the system. Munsell’s System and the Optical
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1907 Society of America’s Uniform Color Scales
T
he Munsell color system represents an approach in which perceptual attributes are clearly in line with geometrical dimensions. American artist and educator Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918) was interested in a scientifically justified color order system that could be used as an educational tool and to develop laws of color harmony. He based it on the perceptual attributes hue, value (lightness), and chroma, modeled in a cylindrical system. A significant shortcoming is its failure to consider the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect describing the fact that perceptual lightness does not just consist of colorimetrically defined lightness, but has an added component that depends on hue. The Munsell hue circle has five primary hues, with a total of 40 hues illustrated in the atlas. The vertical value scale has ten grades, and the chroma scale is open-ended. Each scale has perceptually equidistant steps, but they differ in size in the three scales. Figs. 10 a and b show a schematic view of the system and a view of the abbreviated “Munsell Color Tree.” The first atlas, published in 1907, was updated in 1915 and 1929. In the 1940s, a committee of the Optical Society of America (OSA) generated a large number of new perceptual judgments and proposed revisions to the system, known as “Renotations.” Soon after, these revisions were implemented in the Munsell Book of Color. The Munsell system, consisting in the glossy version of 1550 samples, is today perhaps the most widely used color order system.
The Munsell system has three logically well founded, independent attributes in a Euclidean space, but it is not consistently perceptually uniform. In the late 1940s the OSA formed a special subcommittee responsible for the development of a consistently uniform color space (i.e., one perceptually uniform in all directions, an ‘isotropic’ space). Theoretical considerations indicated that to develop a truly isotropic color space would be impossible. The reason is that a solid cannot be filled without gaps with spheres of equal size, each sphere having on its surface colors that are perceptually equally distant in all directions from its central color. The OSA determined that the geometric solid that can fill a space uniformly with a maximum number of axes along which the differences are uniform is the cubo-octahedron (Figure 11a), with 12 directions of uniformity around the central reference point. The committee obtained difference judgments of 77 observers for 43 color samples, all of equal lightness and presented in triangular arrays of neighboring samples. A psychophysical best-fit model showed substantial discrepancies between the Euclidean geometric model and the average judgments. A key cause is the so-called huesuperimportance effect, already discovered in an earlier mathematical analysis of the Munsell system, In essence, this effect indicates that
Technical and commercial color order and color difference formulas
T
oday, there are several systems of color order in technical use like in software such as Adobe Photoshop®: RGB (red, green, blue primaries), HSB (based on approximate perceptual attributes hue, saturation, brightness), CMYK (expressed in terms of the fourcolor printing primaries), and Lab (related to the psychophysical, perceptually approximately uniform, color difference formula CIE 1976 L*a*b*). In addition, several other modern psychophysical color appearance systems, such as CIECAM02, make it possible to adjust for various factors, for example, light source, adaptation, and surround conditions.
Color
Manufacturers of paints or dyes also issue many color order systems. Although these may have a basis in a perceptual system, they are usually biased for commercial reasons and include additional samples of near-grays and special emphases influenced by color trends in fashion.
autumn 2009
1940
samples and the relative difficulty of orientation in it have limited its commercial success.
volume 2.3
the human color vision system is particularly sensitive to stimulus differences interpreted as hue differences. Because of this perceptual characteristic, an isotropic color solid cannot be modeled as a Euclidean solid, but rather needs to be formed as a positively curved Riemann solid. The hue-superimportance effect is present in all perceptual color difference data, from just noticeable differences to large differences, such as in the OSA data. The subcommittee decided to smooth out the differences so that the results could be shown in a Euclidean space. They also added the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect as well as a second effect involving lightness to the model. They defined 424 color samples, issued in 1977 as the OSA Uniform Color Scales (Figure 11 b). The scales constitute a Euclidean system that, of all systems discussed, comes closest to representing an isotropic solid. However, in the system there are no constant hue planes or constant chroma contours. It’s small number of
A form of isotropic color order is represented by psychophysical color difference formulas, technically important for predicting the average perceived color difference between two material samples.
Figure 10 a (Far left): Schematic depiction of the construction of the Munsell color order system, with the central value scale, hue circles of various completeness at different values, and radial chroma scales varying by hue (X-Rite Inc., reprinted by permission). Figure 10 b (Opposite right): Depiction of an abbreviated three-dimensional “Color Tree” formed from constant-hue pages of the Munsell Book of Colors (X-Rite Inc., reprinted with permission). Figure 11 a (Left): Geometric depiction of 12 samples (small open circles) equidistant from the central sample (black circle), forming the cubo-octahedron solid. Each sample is surrounded by a sphere (heavy solid lines) on the surface of which are all samples with constant difference from the center samples (Gerstner 1986, reprinted with permission)
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Figure 11 b: View of a threedimensional model of the Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales showing some details of its internal organization (Slide courtesy D. L. MacAdam).
www.glimpsejournal.com
Technical-commercial atlases are often based on commercial, fashionoriented perceived needs.
Glimpse
Mathematical equation systems modeling the relationship between physical stimuli and average perceived distances are technologically important but have limitations due to a number of factors. Developing a universal color order system remains an ideal that cannot be achieved for these various reasons Chief among them is the complexity and variability of human color perception. w
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[References]: Aguilonius, F. 1613. Opticorum libri sex, Antwerp: Plantin. Gerstner, K. 1986. The forms of color,
1977
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Grégoire, G. ca 1820. Table des couleurs sur trois feuilles, Paris: Brunot-Labbe. Hering, E. 1905-1911. Grundzüge der Lehre vom Lichtsinn, Berlin: Springer (English translation: Outlines of a theory
The International Commission on Illumination (known as CIE for its French name) has made several recommendations for such formulas since the mid-20th century, the most recent being the formula known as CIEDE2000. These formulas are based on judgments of just noticeable, small differences, but continue to lack a solid experimental basis.
ors have been ordered in many different ways, a perfect system has not been attained.
Concluding remarks
A truly isotropic system would offer the largest amount of coherent information but is impossible because of the hue-superimportance effect and the limited number of directions in which uniformity can be expressed.
of the light sense, L. M. Hurvich and D. Jameson, ed. and transl., 1964, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Two major ordering principles developed in the 19th century remain popular, although both have shortcomings.
Lambert, J. H. 1772. Beschreibung einer m it dem Calauischen Wachse ausgemahlten Farbpyramide, Berlin: Haude und Spener.
Color atlases can be regarded at best as roughly systematic object color stimulus collections, given the variation in color perception by color-normal humans.
Luther, R. 1927. Aus dem Gebiet der Farbreiz-Metrik, Zeitschrift für technische Physik 8:540-558. Mayer, T. 1758. De affinitate colorum
T
he historical record and contemplation of the problem of color organization show that although col-
commentatio, in Opera inedita Tobiae Mayeri, G. C. Lichtenberg, ed., Göttingen, 1775. Newton, I. 1704. Opticks, London: Smith and Walford.
CHINESE LABEL ART 1900-1976 By Andrew S. Cahan EARLY LABELS Printing blocks for Chinese labels have been
found that date back to the 1200s. Woodblock
printing was the primary method used for manufacturing labels well into the 20th
century. These were often printed on red
paper and strongly resembled the joss paper that is still used for burning, as a way of sending offerings to ancestors as well as
prayers to deities.
Fig.1: CHESHING CO FIRECRACKER LABEL
Woodblock printed firecracker label c.1900.
“Gold Chop” was a brand name used by many firecracker companies at least as far back as
the late nineteenth century, and into the first
few decades of the twentieth. It gave connotations of a product that was genuine
(chop=seal) and of the highest quality. Fig.2,: DEITY JOSS STICK LABEL; BIRD BRAND MATCH BOX LABEL- wood
block-printed labels from the early 1900s.
I
Entire contents copyright 2009 Andrew S. Cahan
first discovered Chinese advertising art during childhood visits to New York City’s Chinatown. The colorfully labeled items on the shop shelves were unlike anything I had ever seen, and though I had no idea what the packages contained, I was, and continue to be fascinated by the artistry and imagination that went into the designs of these small, ephemeral pieces of paper.
Glimpse Spring 2009 24
Chinese advertising art has always been shaped by current events and past traditions, and they were often eccentrically juxtaposed. A comprehensive understanding of Chinese label art’s histories and mysteries is daunting, due to the immensity of its scope, the lack of business records from the past, and language challenges. In contrast to the posters and calendars produced in the art houses of Shanghai from the early 1900s until World War II, label art was done primarily by artists and designers whose names are lost to history. And yet many pieces of the puzzles can be put together. Presented here is a small selection of old Chinese labels that for one reason or another survived the ravages of time. My collection spans a period ending around 1976, the year that the Cultural Revolution ended. These labels offer a glimpse into little worlds in which subjects as diverse as mythology, zoology, religion, fashion, leisure, labor, politics, war, food, sex, technology, and architecture, were used to mark and sell merchandise, with no expectation of being saved once they served their purpose. In exploring this subject, an important consideration is that we are not simply discussing “Chinese labels”, but rather labels designed and used for products made in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and other areas of significant Chinese population. An old label’s point of origin contained its own realm of political, historical, and artistic ramifications, all of which shaped the nature of the graphics used in a particular area. Naturally, the level of printing technology naturally came into play as well. By the time of the 1949 Chinese Communist revolution, commerce with the West had already been influencing Chinese commercial design for
RELIGION, MYTHOLOGY, and FOLKLORE Myths, legends, and supernatural animals were popular
subject matter. These labels were often framed by borders
influenced by the prevailing Western styles, while
revealing strong influence from traditional new years
posters (Nianua).
Fig.5: YICK LOONG FIRECRACKER CO- Macau c.1930s.
The age-old Lion Dance has always been a popular
celebration theme. This label adds an unusual depiction of
a surprised looking God of Longevity in conversation with a child.
Fig.6: THREE DIETIES FABRIC LABEL- C.1930s-‘40s-“The
Three Pure Ones” are a triumvirate of the gods of longevity, wealth, and happiness. Their image represents all things positive, and has been used for centuries in New Year posters and was a ubiquitous decorative motif.
Vol 1.2 China VIsion Part 1 25
Fig.9: OLD YUEN KEE CO. TREASURE
TRIPOD FIRECRACKERS-Stylized
English commercial lettering and gaudy, eye-catching border work surrounds an
ancient Chinese ceremonial tripod on
this c.1930 firecracker label.
Fig.10: DOUBLE DEER FABRIC LABELc. 1930s. Depictions of deer were very
popular in Chinese labeling, as they
symbolized longevity. Unschooled local
artists sometimes executed endearing
labels such as this.
Fig.13: LEUNG LAN HING CO. JOSS
STICK LABEL-Printed in Hong Kong in
the 1990s, this label epitomizes the
feature of odd juxtapositions and cultural mixtures that make so many of these
labels fascinating. Here we have a
traditional scene with Shou Hsing, the god of longevity burning joss sticks.
Above him, a box framed by a mixture of art deco and Victorian border influences surrounds none other than Santa Claus.
Glimpse Spring 2009
well over a century. In the 20th century alone, trends and movements such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco found their way into China as a result of the presence of foreigners living there for business purposes.
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Shanghai was the epicenter of foreign business and Western cultural influx, and became the home of the most prominent commercial design houses, where from the early 1900s through the late 1930s, countless advertising posters and calendars were produced. Lavish, colorful, and artistically rendered, they were disseminated through the country and exported to regions around the world, wherever Chinese products were sold. The early examples relied heavily upon traditional influences such as New Year posters (nianhua) and mythological images, but soon became characterized by the portrayal of beautiful, fashionable women in idyllic scenes, often surrounded by gaudy and intricate border work. The scenes in these posters idealized the modern Western influences that were changing life in the urban centers of China, as well as the roles of women in society. While age-old traditional motifs continued to be used in labeling of a huge range of everyday products, the fresh and vibrant artwork on these posters became a strong influence on product labeling throughout the Chinese world. While comparing product labeling in post 1949 Hong Kong with that of post 1949 Mainland China we see a distinct split in styles and subjects. Mao Zedong first publicly launched guidelines for government-regulated art seven years earlier, at the 1942 Yanan Forum for Literature and Art. The theme of these guidelines was that art must “serve the people”. With the 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution, the new regime imposed a wave of regulations that revamped the fundamental nature of acceptable
PROPRIATOR PORTRAITS Often, a portrait of a company’s proprietor was included
on a label to serve as a kind of trademark, and as a way of
proving authenticity. Outside Mainland China, this practice is occasionally used to this day.
Fig.15: YICK LOONG CO. CHILDREN BRAND ILLUMINATIVE FIREWORKS LABEL-This hand-lettered label
from the 1930s incorporates a riot of art deco and Victorian influenced decorative motifs and styles from the West,
surrounding a crudely drawn scene of children playing
with fireworks.
WOMEN IN ADVERTISING Fig.18: LADY’S CLOTHES
BOX LID b.- Sometimes bizarre renderings of art deco style
patterns decorated boxes and labels from many products from the 1920s through well into the 1950s.
Fig.20: GIRL ON BIKE FIRECRACKER LABEL-c.1930s
This striking label shows a bold statement of a changing China.
In an effort perhaps to show the best of all worlds, a
TRANSPORTATION A popular device used throughout the 20th century was the creation of positive associations through modern
technological advancement. Among the most prominent
was the advancement of transportation.
Fig.24: AIRPLANE TEA PACK-Hong Kong, c.1950s Republic of China c.1950s.
Vol 1.2 China VIsion Part 1
Fig.25: TRANSPORTATION FABRIC LABEL – People’s
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Chinese girl dressed in the popular western fashion of the day is riding a bicycle for pleasure, in an opulent garden
paradise complete with an ornamental fountain, an ancient pagoda, and a modern building. An art deco style border and flowers frame the idealized scene.
Fig.23: PRC WOMAN HOLDING BOLT OF FABRIC-This fabric label from the 1950s shows a deliberate attempt to
display the changing ideals of womanhood in the People’s
Republic of China.
Glimpse Spring 2009 28
creativity. All realms of art were now required to showcase “post-liberation” China as a nation achieving miraculous advances in the overall well being of its people, most prominently in the arenas of technology and agriculture. Previously working within a capitalist system, the commercial artist was now enlisted in the new government’s propaganda machine. This condition peaked with the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), during which regulations were at their strictest.
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 1950s The 1950s were a transition period from private ownership to state owned business. Despite campaigns encouraging artists to adhere to the principles of the Yanan Forum, some pre-revolutionary characteristics still prevailed.
Fig.30: EYEGLASSES AD- Personal vanity is used as a selling point.
Fig.33: FEI TIN-LUCKY BRAND FIREWORKS- This
pre-Cultural Revolution label contains traditional elements from Chinese mythology and symbols of good fortune against a background of industrial progress.
Outside of the confines of Mainland China however, even past the 1950s, many components of the older advertising styles continued to be used. In contrast to the self-imposed closeddoor policy that isolated China, foreign interaction continued to inspire the evolution of newer forms. Through their positive and powerful associations, traditional mythological and religious imagery, largely banned in communist China had always attracted consumers. These forms continued to merge with the Western elements that had long since become standard ingredients in Chinese advertising, as well as those inspired by the individual creativity of the artist himself. Note: The reader may notice the prominence of fireworks labels in the selection. This is due to it’s being the primary collecting interest of the author.
PATRIOTISM AND THE MILITARY Patriotic imagery and text served several purposes: to show
the political loyalties of a company, to appeal to the loyalties of the consumer, and to show allegiance to nationalist movements promoting sale of indigenous products.
Fig.26: PO SING FIRECRACKER CO. 3 BOYS LABEL(1930s)-boys sporting modern western-style clothing celebrate the nationalist regime.
Fig.29: ATOMIC BRAND FIRECRACKER LABEL-post-WW2 label manufactured in Hong Kong for the Philippine market.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION PRC (1966-1976) Cultural Revolution era labels exhibit the most extreme interpretation of the government-sanctioned characteristics outlined in the Yanan Forum For Literature and
Art. Commercial artwork became more serious and
stoic than ever before. Paradoxically, the role of label
and advertising art was now seen as a conduit for
Despite the narrow guidelines in which artists were forced to work, the best label design of the era
contained visually exciting imagery-a world of
uncluttered, impersonal beauty, with imaginatively stylized renderings of technological progress and
abundant harvests.
Vol 1.2 China VIsion Part 1
propaganda rather than a vehicle for promoting sales.
Fig.35: AX HEAD AND CHISELS AD –Silhouettes in romanticized labor.
Fig.36: THUNDER BUNGERS FIRECRACKER
LABEL- One of countless variations of a radio tower
scene in Guangdong. This particular label was meant
for the Australian market.
Fig.37: NAN HAI DAM FIRECRACKER LABEL- Progress in hydroelectric power is boasted in this Cultural
Revolution era firecracker label. The border surrounding the company name is typical of the period,
implying abundant harvest. Printed in the 1960s, it still shows remnants of the influence of the European
art-nouveau style.
Fig.38: BUS/BRIDGE FIRECRACKER LABEL-The
Nanjing Bridge, a Cultural Revolution showpiece, was commemorated on countless labels and posters.
Fig.39: CHENG QING CIGARETTE LABEL- An imaginatively stylized factory-scape.
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Glimpse Journal Autumn 2008
(RE)VIEW: THE N WORD Todd Williams (film, 2004)
Andy Hughes
T
he N Word, a documentary by Todd Larkin Williams
from a wide range of people. Intercut with the “talking heads” sections
released four years ago, takes a look at the titular
of the film are montages of film and television clips in which the words
slur and the questions that surround it, namely: how did
are used. There are also a few poetic divergences, in which black actors
it get where it is today? How did it progress from some-
read literature that uses the word: we hear the works of such people as
thing derogatory and hateful to a term of endearment
Langston Hughes, Mark Twain, Carl Sandburg, and Saul Williams, who
among black people? To give us answers, Landers in-
gives a passionate reading of his work “Sha Clack Clack”.
terviews a host of professors, rappers, actors, athletes,
54
comedians and activists, black and white.
At a run time of an hour and 25 minutes, The N Word doesn’t exactly strain the viewer. Its style is almost leisurely, perhaps startling given the
At first the film seems slightly disjointed, but soon the
potentially volatile subject matter. All of the interviews, even those with
pacing becomes more regular. We hear from people like
older or more academic personages, have a casual air about them. The
Samuel L. Jackson and Ice Cube, who identify posi-
conversations are also well-edited, giving the film an easy flow as the
tively with the word, and from others, like activist Dick
topics change. The film clips, many of them from the 60’s and 70’s, make
Gregory, who have difficulty viewing it outside of its
up for the static nature of the interviews, as do the literary recitations.
racist context. Topics discussed include the supposed history of the word, the success of Richard Pryor, and
The only thing that really hurts the film is its graphic intensive, VH1 style
the evolution of hip-hop.
delivery. Before the opening credits, for example, we see brief clips from a few of the interviews used later in the film. Immediately afterward, we
You may or may not learn something new about the black
see those same clips used in an opening sequence that transcribes the
experience in America (the origins of the n word, as
quotes on screen. It’s a great-looking opening, but it distracts a little bit,
explained here, are not exactly surprising), but you will at
and the use of things already heard comes across as a bit redundant.
least have the experience of hearing different opinions
Overall, though, The N Word is watchable and thought provoking. ■
Image Courtesy of Flickr Member Cristian Borquez
$25 Million A Ride A real view of space tourism
rently exists, isn’t as visually thrilling as you
Cosmos
know that space tourism, as it cur-
winter 2010
B
efore you read this, you should
volume 2.4
by C. J. Wallington
see it on television. (Sorry about that!) 1 Exciting? Oh my, yes! Visually stimulating? Maybe not—unless you think that living inside a Winnebago crowded with equipment is a visual thrill. I think of visual excitement as something aesthetically pleasing. Something that is stimulating, like a train wreck, can be visually exciting, but I don’t think of it as pleasing or something I would like to see over and over again. Although space tourism can be visually exciting in short bursts, I seldom think of it as “pleasing.” One of the problems with the visual side of space tourism is that we’ve been preconditioned and oversold. The thought of space tourism often brings Star Wars and Star Trek to mind. Remember the first time you saw the stars blur as the Millennium Falcon went into hyperdrive? (Star Trek copied that later—it’s almost a visual cliché now.) And think of the sky-full of stars and planets that NASA has brought us: the rings of Jupiter, swirling and colliding galaxies. Real space tourism isn’t like that. At least not now, and probably not in the next fifty years. Maybe never. But don’t let that turn you off. Space tourism is as exciting an adventure as you could ever have. Rarely boring (imagine floating everywhere—no real up or down), but on the visual side, not up to the
hype. I hope this article brings you a more realistic view of what you might see (as opposed to experience) as a space tourist.
Glimpse
www.glimpsejournal.com
Let’s start with some parameters to “space tourism.”
2
First, space. Space is commonly defined as anything over 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) from the earth’s surface. Next, tourism. For our purposes, that means 1) the passenger pays for the trip, and 2) the trip is not for work—which excludes astronauts and journalists as participants. (True, there was a Japanese journalist who went to the Mir space station and was sick almost the whole time. What fun!) There are currently seven space tourists who have, on their own nickel, ridden up to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz transport vehicle, stayed about a week, and returned on a different Soyuz. (They swap out Soyuz capsules about every six months.) The latest tourist, Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil, took the big ride in October of 2009. Price tag (unofficially): about $25 to $35 million. Interesting note: Space Adventures in Virginia arranges the trips but has contracts with the Russian space agency. The Russians are the capitalists when it comes to space tourism.
You get to see the sun come up and go down 18 times a day—that’s 126 times if you’re there for a week.
Returning to the visual side of things, what do you really get to see for $25 million? Not as much as you would think. But the trip is still wonderful. Not that the visual part isn’t different and exciting; it is—especially to a space fan. Imagine balls of water from your water bottle shimmering and floating around you. You can swallow them whole. But the overall visual doesn’t match the hype of film and television. Let’s start with the International Space Station itself. The inside of the ISS is less than glamorous. Imagine the inside of a trailer (not even a double-wide) crammed with experimental stations and equipment, sometimes extending messily from the walls into the narrow central area. There’s even a new treadmill named after Stephen Colbert, but it’s just a treadmill. No visual thrill—but imagine what it’s like to float off of the treadmill as you try to run. It must definitely be a rush to float all the time if you don’t get space sick (a form of motion sickness), which almost all astronauts do (although they don’t talk a lot about it). But, aesthetically, you might as well be in a small science lab back on earth. You can get excited (I would) about your water bottle—with fail-safe closure to avoid leaks—and your lunch floating around you at meal time. But things don’t look much different than they would inside a camper with rehydrated meals. “Ah, but the vast vistas of space,” you’re thinking. If you’re inside ISS, you’re looking through one of several “portholes” (like a ship’s), and the view is limited but impressive: a really black sky with startlingly bright points of light. It’s like looking through a small window in your house on a really dark night. “Earth! What about Earth?” you’re saying. “Earth from space must be truly magnificent.”
Price tag (unofficially):
“Does it get old?” Not if you’re a dedicated space tourist. But think of cruising around an island. How long do you want to watch the shoreline go by in the distance? Or think of a coastto-coast flight across the U.S. Do you ever get tired of watching the scenery go by? When does the visual excitement end? (Is that why they show movies?) “What about the trip going up and coming back down?” Up has to be an adrenaline rush! Violent shaking, deafening, pounding noise, squashed in your seat at up to six gravities— jammed with two other people in a space smaller than your sofa. About twelve minutes of thrill ride followed by—absolutely nothing! No rocket noise, no weight. You might see a little through the small ports of a Soyuz capsule, but not much. Coming down gets more interesting. Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, said he watched the flames from the burning heat shield
A final thought. If you’ll sacrifice the visual and go strictly for the weightlessness, Zero G Corporation [www.gozerog.com] offers weightless flights. The airplane is a specially modified Boeing 727 that flies in a rollercoaster-like, parabolic flight path in which you’d experience anywhere from about twelve to forty seconds of weightlessness. Exterior visual stimulation: none. Watching your fellow passengers float around the padded interior of the plane: priceless. w
Cosmos
But here’s the catch. ISS circles the earth every ninety minutes and moves over different points on the surface; that means there’s a new sunrise and sunset every hour and a half. And the earth is turning, so there’s a slightly different view of it each orbit. But how long would you want to watch that? You get to see the sun come up and go down 18 times a day—that’s 126 times if you’re there for a week.
The time over the top is about four minutes. You get to float around, look out the ports, and see the curvature of the earth and the ground below (not necessarily the United States—there may be departure points in other countries). This is visually fun. You can’t see as much as you can from the ISS, but there’s not a lot of time to be bored. You’re also closer to the earth (about 60+ miles up instead of ISS’s 240 miles up) so you can see more details. My guess (only a guess) is that the visual would be more thrilling because you can see more detail and you’re cramming as much experience as you can into the short flight. Estimated price: $200,000. You can currently put down a deposit with Virgin Galactic—exact year of flight to be determined.
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It is—and it isn’t. By day, it’s more brown than green, and there are often clouds blocking the view. When the clouds form into a hurricane, it’s impressive. Otherwise, they’re just white fluff blocking the brown and blue below. By night, the earth is truly amazing. Developed areas light up, the black continents sparkle in the inhabited regions, and you can even see the dividing line between day and night. Sounds great.
A cheaper space tourism experience is available, if it ever gets started. Virgin Galactic, with the help of Burt Rutan’s engineering genius, will be offering short trips into space. A twin-fuselage mothership (WhiteKnight 2) will carry a small rocket-propelled ship (Spaceship 2) with six passengers up to about 55,000 feet where the atmosphere is much thinner. The rocket is then ignited and Spaceship 2 goes straight up like a bat out of hell. The engine cuts off on the way up, and the ship coasts over the top of a flight arc like a rollercoaster. The peak of the flight is slightly over 100 kilometers, which makes it a space trip and qualifies the passengers for true “astronaut wings.”
volume 2.4
about $25 to $35 million.
around the ports, and then the ports went black from the ash, and then there was nothing but the wild swaying of the capsule under a parachute. It’s visually stimulating if you like a few terrifying moments. That’s International Space Station tourism.
3
Glimpse Autumn 2008
Grandpa Lenin and the Crimson Love Nadej Giroux
I
felt he always was a part of my family, this man I
attendance was a must (or else your boss would have a
never knew. None of us knew him, actually. And yet,
word with you later on, say, the subject of your social
there he hung on a wall of every institution: from office
uninvolvement) and a volunteer would take a roll call to
buildings to grocery stores to hospitals, always beaming
make sure that everybody came with mandatory glee.
on with his strong eyebrows and a far away gaze to the
14
“beautiful future”. For all of us he was just that—the
Communism in the mid-eighties was certainly not what
good old gramps.
it used to be in the days of its dawn. Grown-ups frequently made subtle passing jokes in regards to “Oh,
As we woke up from our afternoon nap, all the kids
you don’t have it as bad as we had it” and my mother
would sit in a circle as the teacher made us memorize
was genuinely happy (though would never admit it in
the poems that made him ever so endearing, but it is
public at the time) that kids in the eighties had a far
precisely then that I started questioning why this
lesser degree of indoctrination. The amount of com-
strange man somehow sneaked into my heart and made
munist art produced in that era pales in comparison to
me so fond of him. The grown-ups considered his
the previous decades and it started to gain more of a
mummy in the Moscow mausoleum to be a sacred place,
kitschy, half-serious character. It was like a secret,
but the idea of a mummified man, exposed for all to
side-ways route by which we phased out the ideology
see struck me as something beyond creepy. But this is
we no longer believed. All the symbols and all the red
precisely why Lenin remained our constant family mem-
turned into the background, much like incessant bill-
ber: he never died, his body continued to live on in
board advertising. People became disillusioned by the
physical space, where hundreds of people would venture
self-perpetuated dream of a perfect future, when all of
daily as if to see a relic of the old Saints. In fact, most
us communists would be “free”. Back in those days
said that dead Lenin was so “hot”, you’d have to bribe
though, we didn’t know that “free” would still mean
people in advance to get the tickets.
having no money, even with access to the goods.
Many things in my childhood were crimson red. It
But shades of crimson still brought happiness to a
seemed like “red” was the stock color, associated with
young child like myself, mostly because it was bright
everything eternally good, festive and patriotic. Red
and very few things were vibrant in my childhood.
banners flew over many buildings and “krasnyj”
I remember being astonished the first time I saw a set
(being the word for “red” as well as “beautiful”) flew in
of Play-Dough sold in America, particularly because of
woman’s dresses, cars and shiny balloons during the
the colors it contained: “Wow, pink and purple and such
many parades of my childhood. The Soviets loved
rich green. This is certainly unheard of!” In the kinder-
parades in a quaintly harmless, exhibitionistic way we
garten they always asked us to make the Play-Dough
loved to show ourselves how really great we were and
sculptures and the colors were always brown, beige,
people collected massively to celebrate our idealistic
white and black. Sometimes you were lucky to get
dreams. More often than not, however, the parade
a green but they were all dark and depressing colors in
Image Courtesy of Flickr Member Brian Fitzgerald
reds made me happy—the only color that never faded.
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the end. I wonder if that is precisely the reason why
When communism finally fell apart, most people sighed with relief. Suddenly creative expression exploded, as if people held on to their ideas for ages and suddenly had the opportunity to get them out there. Most of it was anger and over sexualized images that became so pervasive and socially unrestricted that they flooded every corner of the country. While, possibly, elsewhere this would cause public discontent, we had already learned to tune visuals out and it just wasn’t much of a shock. I even remember sometime in the late eighties people would come on trains during long stops and sell from under thick jackets cards with naked girls and icons of Christ—both pocket-sized and discreet, both taboo and an altogether strange mix of the sacred and the profane. And then of course, grandpa had to come down. Hundreds of Lenin monuments, with his long stone/ marble/granite/bronze jacket waving in the wind and his arm pointing to an/the ever disappearing bright future, were dismantled. No, it wasn’t like the Saddam Hussein statue show, where people jumped on top of the cast giant in fits of liberated merriment as the West watched it happening, somewhere else as usual, glued to their TV with a sense of pseudo-achievement. It was quite different, much like getting a pink slip: “sorry, we’re gonna hafta let ya go. Good times, though!” Nobody made much fuss because we had no real reason to hate him—none of us really knew him. But you know, I still have a soft spot in my heart for him. Six years of my life I lived on the Lenin street, and when they started to change the street names again to reflect the new, non-communist life, they left my street alone and I was happy about it. After all, he was a part of my family and watched me wherever went.
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Arthur Hiller, Maximillian Schell, Lois Nettleton (film, 1975)
Andy Hughes
H
e lives in a lavish penthouse in New York City. He is the master
the connection: we don’t get the feeling that we are see-
of his domain, spending his days in luxury and regaling his visitors
ing a split personality so much as two extremes of one.
and servants with quirky anecdotes, stopping only to spy on the world
The film’s most memorable image occurs in the long final
below through a telescope. He is Arthur Goldman (Maximillian Schell),
courtroom scene, as Dorff/Goldman, in full Nazi regalia,
a Jewish Holocaust refugee and self-made millionaire. Or is he? To
is placed in a bulletproof booth to protect him from
his faithful assistant Charlie, he is just an eccentric old man with
assassins. Sealed off from the rest of the proceed-
a Christ complex, haunted by demons of the past. At times he
ings, Schell delivers manic and unapologetic
sees the ghost of his father, other times the image of Adolf
speeches, mocks his prosecutor, and vents pure
Dorff, Nazi commandant and torturer. Reeling from these vi-
venom at the Israeli jury. He is terrifying, and
sions, Goldman never ceases his strange banter, sometimes
yet, vulnerable in a strange way, especially
silly, other times unnerving. He is both an ominous prophet and
as the court begins to wonder whom he
Groucho Marx, switching between snide remarks and bizarre
really is. At this point, Schell is able to com-
tangents, not all of which are in English.
municate much without saying anything, letting his red, panicked face and cold eyes
Christian symbolism plays a large part in his life: Goldman
speak for themselves.
refers to a dinner he has with several eligible women as his “last supper” and interrupts the meal to rub the ashes of his dead wife
As a representation of postwar sentiment,
on his forehead. He seems to have placed himself into the role of
The Man in the Glass Booth is a curious
savior and miracle maker, one he delights in. As his connection to the
specimen. It examines the effects of
outside world, Charlie acts as a shy, humble foil, and attempts
politically engineered devastation
to keep his master’s feet on the ground.
through the eyes of a man whose own
personality
is
displaced
But there is a sinister quality to Goldman’s antics, one that comes to
through oppression. Though the
the forefront when he is arrested by foreign agents and taken to Is-
dialogue and staging still feels,
rael to be tried as Nazi war criminal Dorff. Dorff, it seems, has been
well, stagy, the strength of the
masquerading as Goldman in order to escape authorities, something
central conflict anchors the rest
Goldman doesn’t attempt to deny. In fact, the persona of Dorff emerges so easily from Goldman that it raises skepticism: is Goldman putting the authorities on? An adaptation of the play by Robert Shaw, The Man in the Glass Booth garnered Schell an Oscar nomination in 1975, and yet has gone more or less unnoticed by most modern moviegoers. This is unfair, as the film is gripping, intelligently written, and fueled by an intense performance by Schell, both as the strange but lovable Goldman and the psychopathic Dorff. He manages to perform both roles effectively while still leaving
Image Courtesy of Flickr Member grisei
of the production.
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(RE)VIEW: THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH
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