Chromosphere: The Color Theory Podcast

A walk through the grocery store in search of the analogous split-complementary color scheme as well as other palettes. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Part 3 of 3: The final installment, A New Canon, places the work of color theorists, Mary Gartside and Emily Noyes Vanderpoel in historical context so as to examine how their inclusion (and by extension, additional underrepresented color theorists and practitioners) may help us to understand how we may expand our contemporary approaches to color usage in all creative visual fields.  Send us Fan Ma...

Part 2 of 3. In this episode, I read the middle portion of an essay I have written, which could become a chapter in a future publication.  (Read in three parts.) Abstract: This essay charts how the term harmony came to be used by European and North American artists, designers, and educators as a qualitative descriptor of color usage and design. Originating in metaphysics and philosophy in BCE Gree...

Part 1 of 3. In this episode, I read the beginning of an essay I have written, which could become a chapter in a future publication.  (Read in three parts.) Abstract: This essay charts how the term harmony came to be used by European and North American artists, designers, and educators as a qualitative descriptor of color usage and design. Originating in metaphysics and philosophy in BCE Greece as...

Welcome to Season 2!  This episode features a correction on the first episode of Season 1, followed by the continued investigation of how red, yellow, and blue became known widely as  primary colors. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

The final episode of Season 1. I explore whether or not there are more variations of color within the hue of green; more than those of the other hue color families. Thank you for listening to Season 1! Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of the impact of telescopes on the development of color theory.  Also linear & aerial perspective in relation to depth and space, and what any of that has to do with the newly-launched James Webb Space Telescope. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of the work of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and her book, Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color , of 1903. Discussion centers on where I see her concepts in relation to those of Johannes Itten and Josef Albers. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of additive spectral color mixing and how our perception of purple may be the result of our minds experiencing a negative green .  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of how afterimages occur when the cones of the retina tire and weaken due to overstimulation, allowing other cones to briefly play a more dominant role in vision, and how that lead to the establishment of complementary colors. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of Arthur Schopenhauer and Phillip Otto Runge's ideas about color vision and color harmonies, and how they may have impacted the teaching of color theory at the Bauhaus art school, in Germany in the early 20th Century.   Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of the speed of light, polarization, glare, mirages, and what any of that has to do with Michelangelo. (See cangiantismo and shot silk .) Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Discussion of how our perception of blues and greens remain strong in low light, and how that may have impacted the use of lapis lazuli (and other blue pigments) prior to the invention of the electric light bulb. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Why did Homer repeatedly describe the color of the ocean as wine-dark in the Iliad and the Odyssey ? Could the sky have been purple or violet in the days when Helen and Achilles lived in mythological Ancient Greece? Discussion will focus on the possible ways in which the ocean could have been similar in color to that of a nice Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir wine. Send us Fan Mail Support the sho...

In Zur Farbenlehre  ( A Theory of Colours , or , A Doctrine of Colours ) of 1810, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe worked to dismiss Newton’s findings of the nature of spectral light and sought a return to Aristotelian views of color. Why no love for Newton? This episode reviews Goethe's theories and how he introduced psychology to the understanding of human color perception. “A great mathematician...

Also known as vibrating colors or scintillating colors. Discussion of the chromostereopsis effect will explore how colors are perceived in 3-dimensional space, even when located on a 2-dimensional picture plane; how reds advance and blues recede.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Given the properties of color (hue, value & chroma), do value contrasts  work to form the most effective focal points? This question is addressed in relation to color vision's adaptability to view contrasts in hue and chroma over those of value and brightness. Also, could our vision as babies affect how we perceive value contrasts today?   Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Have you ever noticed that the color of sunlight changes throughout the year? It is thought that this is due to our shifting perception of a color known as Unique Yellow. Discussion will center on how this phenomenon occurs. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

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Is black plastic recyclable? Check out the World Economic Forum for more information on how it is recyclable, but rarely recycled. This episode focuses on a  potential color theory explanation as to why it is that black plastic is used frequently as food packaging. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

A prior version of this episode erroneously stated a connection between Mary Gartside and the writing of Johann von Goethe. This new episode was recorded as a correction and published on April 24, 2023. Mary Gartside was a painter, teacher, and color theorist who lived in England from 1755-1819. More information about Gartside can be found at: The Winterthur Museum's Program in American Mater...

Correction: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly stated the Jacob Christopher Le Blon was the first to identify cyan, magenta, and yellow as the three subtractive primary colors in 1723-26. Le Blon invented three and four color printing, but used red, yellow, and blue as his primaries. It wasn't until 1905 when Thomas A. Lenci of the Eagle Printing Ink Company, in New York City, use...

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