Historical Foundations of Visual Technology Workbook
1 Light, vision, color
In this first unit we consider how "light" is really a small part
of what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum,
which makes up all of the energy that reaches the earth from the
sun. How do our eyes detect the visible portion of this energy
spectrum? Why are human eyes sensitive to this energy spectrum?
And why do objects have color, such as apples that appear red and
bananas that appear yellow? We also begin to consider the earliest
known uses of colors, pigments, and stone carvings by human beings,
and the different organic and mineral substances used in ancient times
to dye cloth or to paint. What was the intent of ancient peoples in
creating two- and three- dimension visual objects?
The audio chapter
commentaries here provide lecture material on the indicated chapters
of Gombrich's Story of Art, 16th edition.
To listen to the audio lecture along
with slide viewing on a computer, click the “Audio lecture” link
first to start the
audio, minimize any screen your sound player produces, and then
click the “Slides” link to view the slides. If you only want to
view the slides, just click that link. The audio file may be used
separately on a portable sound player by viewing the illustrations
in the Gombrich text itself, since the audio calls out page and figure
numbers.
1 Light, vision, color