Colour

Humans have three primary colours- other animals on the other hand, can see colours beyond our imaginings. A bee can see more of the ultraviolet end of the colour spectrum, and flowers are more ultraviolet in colour, attracting bees for their survival. Meanwhile, snakes, sharks and other predatory animals of that nature, can see more of the red end of the spectrum. The eye is a unique and fascinating machine in a living body... we are optically driven. Light is the first media performed and it's through the fragmentation of light that we experience these colours and are personally effected (how the light let's us see things) and affected (how light and colours make us feel things).

Despite the mechanics of the eye and the frequency with light and the electromagnetic spectrum, with different wave lengths and frequencies, let's focus more on the affects of colour, of how we perceive things individually and culturally. To elaborate with this idea of colours changing in meaning through different cultural backgrounds, let's use the example of the colour white:

• In Western culture, white is seen as a colour of purity, which differs from Mexican culture, who see white as the colour of death. 
• "The experience of colour is closely related to the experience of light and is also a matter of cultivation. As much as perception is linked with memory and recognition, our relation to colour is closely derived from our cultural habitat. The Inuit, for instance, have one word for red but various for white." (Elaisson 2006, pp 75)

Because of this concept of colour stimulating the body and mind (colour psychology) due to experience, this means that association of colours would also vary between the cultures/ cultural upbringing. One of the most stereotypical colour associations in the western world would be the idea of blue being a "boys colour" and pink being a "girls colour." Interestingly enough, the reverse was what it traditionally was perceived up until the early twentieth century; blue, being a delicate colour and representative of the Virgin Mary, was a colour worn by girls, while pink was a strong and more outgoing colour, so it was worn by boys. This is a classic example of how colour association is not fixed and is forever changing and adapting. (For further information about the history of the pink and blue in terms of gender, click here.)

"Colour has in its abstraction an enormous psychological and associative potential, and even though it has been cultivated to the extreme, [like the blue and pink] the amount of individuality in experiencing colours is equally extreme." (Eliasson 2006, pp 75-6) This means, in terms of media and multimedia, colour plays a crucial role in one's interpretation of a particular thing. For example, a propaganda poster may use extravagant contrasting colours, for example: red (which can be associated with passion, anger, love, strength) against a colour such as yellow (making the red stand out even more). This would be to invoke a certain thought, feeling and emotion...

References:

Eliasson, Olafur, “Some Ideas about Colour,” Olafur Eliasson: Your Colour Memory, Ismail Soyugenc and Richard Torchia, Exhibition catalogue, Glenside: Arcadia University Art Gallery, 2006: 75-83.

Hartmann, Margaret 2011, The History of pink for girls, blue for boys, Jezebel, viewed 12th August 2014, http://jezebel.com/5790638/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys