Color circle.
“The arrangement of spectral colors to form a closed circle, with the opposite ends of the spectrum being linked by purple.”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Color scale.
“The range of colors possessed by an organism such as a butterfly, or created by a designer, for example.”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Color space.
“The three-dimensional portrayal of colors which arises from the fact that each color can be determined by three factors (hue, saturation, and brightness).”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Color tint or shade.
“A fine difference in color hue, lighter in the case of a tint, and darker in the case of a shade.”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Complementary colors.
“Colors which when combined result in white in additive mixtures and black in subtractive mixtures. In color circles the complementary colors are usually located opposite one another.”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Hue.
“The chromatic colors differ from the achromatic colors in that a color hue (brilliance, quality, saturaton) can be perceived in them.”
—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.
Every color is prayer
“On the top of the world
the birds have wings of silver
The sun shines
closer to your eyes
Every color is prayer
blowing in the sky”
—Jonathan Cott, quoting from On the Top of the World, a poem he wrote during a period of years which he has completely forgotten. From On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.
the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe
“The brain, a walnut-surfaced, gelatinous, three-pound mass of protoplasm with the consistency of an overripe avocado, is the world of our being. More accurately and truly, the universe of our being. Containing approximately 100 billion neurons or nerve cellsmore than there are stars in our galaxyit has been called by James Watson (codiscoverer of DNAs double helix) the last and greatest biological frontier and the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.”
—Jonathan Cott, from On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.
reflections in the gruel plate
“I am sitting on someones knee being fed with gruel. The plate is on a grey oilcloth with a red border, the enamel white, with blue flowers on it, and reflecting the sparse light from the window. By bending by head sideways and forwards, I try out various view points. As I move my head, the reflections in the gruel plate change and form new patterns. Suddenly, I vomit over everything. That is probably my very first memory.”
—Ingmar Bergman, from his autobiography, The Magic Lantern. As quoted by Jonathan Cott in On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.
air crackling with blue light
“Then something beat down and took hold of me, and shook me like the end of the world. Whee-ee-ee it shrilled, through an air crackling with blue light, and with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant. I wondered what terrible thing it was that I had done.”
—Sylvia Plath, describing ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy, in The Bell Jar, 1963. As quoted by Jonathan Cott in On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.