It would be nice if some actual vision scientists would weigh in on
this issue. Anyone know one? I do, but am reluctant to contact them
for fear of asking naive questions that would display me as a fool!
Roger
On 9 Nov 2009, at 1:38 PM, Laurenz Bobke wrote:
Hmm,
being addicted to photography, we're of course tempted to assume that
the eye was primarily created for us to produce and appreciate art.
But, seen from a scientific point of view,isn't an eye just an organ
developed to grant its possessor an evolutionary advantage?
Even plants can detect the direction from which light falls on them
and adjust accordingly.
For just about any organism, the most important function of any eye
would be to find food and avoid becoming food for others, I assume,
followed by the need to find a mate and to communicate.
Consequently, our eyes are quite sensitive for green as this happens
to be the colour of plants using chlorophyll to convert sunlight into
usable energy.
Maybe, if they used a slightly different molecule, our eyes would be
optimised for a slightly different spectrum?
I assume that any "alien" would be adapted to his/her/its/?
environment, depending on the light spectrum emitted by the local
star(s), the availability of chemical elements and the course of the
evolution on their world.
Perhaps, those aliens would find beauty in a certain balance of
colours and a geometry relevant to their species and find it difficult
to relate to our concepts.
Just a thought,
Laurenz
http://www.travelphoto.net/
2009/11/9, lookaround360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <lookaround360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>:
DDB,
That poses an interesting problem. What kind of pigments would a
non-human use? I'm think something in UV range made from fluorescing
minerals or something like that. There are some artist pigments that
change colors depending on angle of light. Looks way-cool in gallery.
Move your head a bit and what was one color changes to another.
I'll see
if I can find example from a gallery show we had last spring.
AZ
LOOKAROUND - Since 1978
GET FREE COPY
Build a 120/35mm Lookaround!
The Lookaround E-Book 5ed.
http://www.panoramacamera.us
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SPAM] Re: Imaginary colors Speculation
From: David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, November 08, 2009 12:39 pm
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
<photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
PhotoRoy6@xxxxxxx wrote:
In a message dated 11/7/2009 11:46:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
dd-b@xxxxxxxx writes:Your first two sentences may be tautologically
true (if you're asserting
that "color" is a human construct), but it's also useless.
Now I titled my email "Imaginary colors Speculation" What I am
saying
is that there is no colors that we don't see (as a group). That
there
is no new color you can get by other means. When bats view sound
waves
if they see this as color it is of our spectrum but I suspect there
brain senses sound waves as some sort of pattern.
There is no point in searching for other colors.
At least short of brain modification, surgically or through genetic
engineering.
Not that I'm volunteering to be a test subject!!!!
There was an interesting bit in a very fine SF novel not mostly
about
sight (this was just a side detail), where it became relevant
dealing
with an alien species that they used different pigments in their
visual
receptors than we did. Hence blended colors, which is to say
nearly all
reproduced images and even original paintings, looked different to
them
than they did to us. Their artists were talking about trying to
figure
out how to paint for a human audience.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info
