Seeing Colour: A Journey Through Goethe's World of Colour - Softcover

Löbe, Nora; Rang, Matthias; Vine, Troy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782507809 ISBN 13: 9781782507802

Publisher: Floris Books, 2022

Synopsis

Colour is everywhere. From blue skies to red sunsets, from the first flowers in spring to the blazing leaves of autumn. But what is the nature of colour? Scientific books present a variety of mechanical explanations but this approach leaves colour as a whole unexplained. In the nineteenth century, the German poet and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe investigated a wide range of colour phenomena and discovered the underlying principles that govern colour itself.

This lavishly illustrated book brings Goethe's pioneering research up to date. Through descriptions of simple observations and ingenious experiments, the reader will discover a series of colour phenomena that includes afterimages, coloured shadows, colour mixing, and prismatic and polarisation colours.

Seeing Colour is a thought-provoking read for colour enthusiasts and experts alike, and an accessible route to a new way of seeing colour.

About this title

About the Authors

Nora Löbe studied painting in Dortmund, Germany and in Dornach, Switzerland before developing and building touring exhibitions on Goethe's theory of colour. She is currently a freelance artist and also works at the Swiss Science Centre Technorama in Zurich, Switzerland.

Matthias Rang studied physics in Freiburg, Germany and Berlin before becoming a visiting researcher in the field of nano-optics at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He received a PhD from the University of Wuppertal, Germany and carries out research on Goethe's theory of colour in relation to physical optics at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, where he currently co-leads the Natural Science Section.

Troy Vine completed a PhD in particle physics at University College London with research undertaken at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, USA. He is currently doing a PhD in philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin with a thesis focussing on methodology and ontology in the colour investigations of Descartes, Newton, Goethe and Wittgenstein. Vine is currently an Associate Researcher at The Field Centre, near Stroud, UK.

Arthur Zajonc is a renowned physicist, respected author and Emeritus Professor of Physics at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA. Zajonc has written extensively on Goethe's science work and is author of Catching the Light, co-author of The Quantum Challenge, and co-editor of Goethe's Way of Science, among many other books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Floris Books
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782507809
• ISBN 13: 9781782507802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176