The New Anatomy of Colour

ISCC Webinar presented by Dr. David Briggs:

Building on Albert Munsell's crystallization of the framework of hue, value (or lightness) and chroma, the science of colour appearance has developed a lucid systematics of perceived colour that includes in addition the attributes of brightness, colourfulness, saturation and brilliance (along with its inverse, blackness). Unfortunately, these later developments remain poorly understood by nonspecialists, and are hardly known among painters, who could benefit greatly from applying them as a framework for solving colour problems. This webinar will use slides and animations from David’s teaching materials to show how these seven attributes can be explained in ways that are intelligible to students, and how each attribute can be presented as a way of perceiving a particular property of lights or objects, instead of resorting to explanations invoking coloured wavelengths and receptors that “detect colours”, which only serve to undermine understanding of the fundamental nature of colour.