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What Is Colour?

What is this talk/activity about?

This talk is about colour perception. Colour is not only an important topic by itself; colour is also a prime example for illustrating how we, human beings, interpret the world and shape our subjective reality, even when it comes to a simple perceptual feature, such as colour.

The talk will present the stages of colour processing, starting with the physical light signal reaching the eye, up to the level of subjective colour perception, and the formation of the colour categories that correspond to our basic colour terms, such as red, orange, yellow etc.

Currently, the talk will be given online due to Corona; but it will be live and interactive. Throughout the talk, the audience will have the opportunity to answer questions about the nature of colour (and wide-spread misconceptions thereof) using a polling software, and (anonymous, collective) responses will be displayed and discussed as part of the talk.

In addition and independent of the talk, I have set up a website with quizzes and interactive videos (originally for a science festival, SOTSEF), that everybody is welcome to explore (see link below).

 

Visit the What is Colour? website

Age/Year Group

Key Stages 4-5 (Years 11-13, ages 15-18 years, including last year of GCSE study or equivalent, and A Level study or equivalent)

General Public (Adults)

 

UK National Curriculum Subject Links

Science

Psychology

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