In 2019 SG Members were again very active. In this year’s report we’ll focus on a new initiative of the SG which may have significant impact on the future course our SG may take.

Following the extremely successful ISCC/AIC Munsell 2018 Symposium in Boston a group of colour researchers started the ISCC/AIC Colour Literacy Project (CLP) with the purpose of identifying and addressing the most basic, current misconceptions and misinformation about colour while building a bridge between the art and science of 21st century colour education. The objective of the CLP is to develop a foundational colour education website to provide state-of-the-art, introductory, interdisciplinary information and materials on the art, science and industry of colour for use in classrooms.

The project was approved by the ISCC board in August of 2019, and the AIC Executive Committee approved the Joint ISCC/AIC Colour Literacy Project in January of 2020.

The first phase of the project, research on existing resources and teaching materials, concluded that the time is ripe to radically rethink basic colour education by introducing an experience-based colour learning model and recast colour as a collaborative arts and science subject at the elementary and secondary school level in STEAM programs and at the professional level across art, science, and industry.

The report on the findings of the first phase, and the launch of the second phase of the project, developing and testing prototype learning modules, will take place at the ISCC Virtual Symposium: A New Vision for Colour Education on June 6, 2020.

More information on the CLP will be available on a dedicated website to be launched in June of 2020.

The opening page of the future CLP web site

At the last SG meeting in Buenos Aires three of the team members presented their first thoughts on colour theory, and their presentations were followed by a lively discussion.

Robert Hirschler discussed the concept colour theory, what it is and whether we need it at all. Traditional colour theory is loaded with misconceptions, even the very definition of colour theory (Figure 2.) carries outdated notions, and in order to introduce 21^st century colour theory we must re-think what we had learned and taught over the past centuries.

A valid and a mistaken definition of “colour theory”

 Maggie Maggio showed several illustrations of traditional colour theory (Figure 3.) and explained the pitfalls of “rehash”:  theories repeated without critical review and presented as “rules” without taking developments in science and art into consideration. However, she emphasized that we must re-evaluate the foundational concepts of the traditional theory, recognize what is still valid and valuable in arts education, and not be too hasty to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Stephen Westland discussed some of the common misconceptions of primary colours according to traditional colour theory. Even the definition of “primary” colours is often wrong. Children learn already in kindergarten that “primary colours are those which cannot be mixed from other colours and from which all other colours may be mixed”. On the example of additive mixing illustrated on the CIE chromaticity diagram (Figure 4.) Stephen explained where this definition fails.