Unlearning is becoming a factor in our contemporary educational landscape. Inclusion of the idea of functional deconstruction is beginning to play a part in how we approach multicultural and cross-disciplinary ideas. Where there are biases and outdated modes of learning there begins to be a real need for going back upon what we have held to be true. Ethical considerations become a factor whenever a method to unlearning is introduced. Should certain things be unlearned and what is the benefit of unlearning for it's own sake?Does it open us up to never before thought of opportunities and foundations for building new modes of thinking or does it eat away at the linear momentum of modernist cumulative progress with no discernible benefit?
I introduced a method for going back on our understanding, psychological, spiritual and emotion connection with color some years back. The effects of this method had lasting consequences on my psychological health and caused me to regret the creation of this technique. I did however discover that one interesting consequence of this investigation was an openness and appreciation of sight I never thought possible.
I began this adventure by combining the spiritual and psychological implications of color introduced by Wassily Kandinsky and Goethe with the deconstructive methodologies of Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan. I thought that color was based on a system, much like language, that had a progressive vocabulary of experience and association that could potentially be reprogrammed with new connections. I paid no head to warnings of friends and mentors and dove into this process head first. My brain overloaded with new insights into many areas of my life that were psychological, spiritual and emotionally charged. I collapsed. It took about ten years to understand even what had happened.
So what relevance does the destruction of a system like this have? Were there benefits to this kind of exploration I have not considered? Is my experience simply a cautionary tale of what not to do or is there a useful side to exercises such as these? When, where and to whom, if anyone, would this process I had created be useful?
Instances of unlearning become useful when there is something that no longer serves a useful function or when there is a better way forward that is at odds with what we have known to be true. Examples are when a method of running is causing injury, we seek out a healthier technique, or when we learn a computer programming language that becomes obsolete, we unlearn the language and assimilate a new one. We select from that outdated method, those things that will transfer and ditch the rest.
Is it so different, the comparison of running and color theory? Do we not have racial issues with skin color, or the red threat of communism to address? Perhaps a method such as this can begin to address those concerns.
One interesting factor of art is that there is a record of how and when things had been tried. This is our historical record. Why should we maintain a working knowledge of everything that has come before if we can simply access it as it falls in the historical record at will through research. Doesn't our working knowledge take up space in our brains that can be occupied by more immediate and healthier concerns? Color, I argue, does not have a perfect history. Perhaps a method of this sort can help us unlearn that history and begin to repair the damage done.
Thanks Neil for putting a vital issues on humans' inner psyche and necessities related to color. Though I feel gathering of knowledge is always under-layered. As a painter and print maker, Knowledge whatever,it is not the enemy of people at all.
Thank you for this insightful post.
As an artist I do share with you a common interest in Kandinski, Itten, Albers and all effort to investigate the nature of color and perception. No doubt color is a language we all need to understand to practice better communication.
How does it apply to other endeavor is not for me to discuss as you seem to look at a much broader perspective on this issue.
In art, common practices and experience make me use black & white to create shapes and position them on a flat surface. I use color to initiate an interactive conversation with the viewer. Is there a lesson to learn from this? Can it be expanded to other fields of activities? Maybe you’ll tell us more about it.
Perhaps there is more to infer from this kind of thinking in terms of cross-disciplinary effects. I personally don't start my pictures that way but I believe that if there were a correct way, something along those lines would be close. Using duality to set the stage and harmony to start the conversation... I like it. Cutting a line through an argument and charm to get the sides talking. Divide and communicate. I don't really have a method for approaching a blank canvas that is very systematic really. I look for harmony and discord in healthy doses by starting a fight on the canvas and then try to get both sides to agree. Eventually I do resolve it and have to either start a new one or if I feel the history of the battle says something important I keep it. This is one example of a study for a larger work.
See Kandinsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky
(apologies for Wiki), but...
Music is the color of the brain...
In my paintings, I used the context of my troubled state of my native land along with ideals of Mahatma Gandhi where subconscious takes an important role in the perspective of HISTORY......
Very haunting image. I see some parallels in the way I work. I am focussed on internal conflicts and it sounds like you a aptly addressing external but I like the joining of such distant opposites. In the piece you posted I would worry about denigrating the image of Ghandi though when I don't think that is your intention. He looks somewhat ghoulish. I have run into this problem when creating a hybrid of war and peace. Often war is the more compelling. You may come across hurting the thing you wish to promote. Same with history. If you create a conflict that you might resolve it, maybe that conflict within history gets away from you. There is a huge ethical dilemma attached to deconstruction. Interesting piece.
Neil I find your study interesting. I am teaching in Oman, a country that have interesting ways of dealing with color. In graphic design, for example, I am always amazed that the most popular frozen chicken company has their logo and packaging design with the colors green and blue on a white background. These colors I always associate with fertilizer, but here is chicken... This is a country that nature offers a limited palette of colors and the culture is very strong in verbal communication, but the clothes of the woman are very colorful with strong Indo-Persian influences which tells you that they know color even if it is imported.
I think it would be a great complement to your research to study the color learned from another perspective. Also for me it could be useful to unlearn to be able to teach them better since I believe that I am bias to my cultural background when I am teaching and this could be a disservice to what the local designers could offer to the world if they are left with their current understanding of color and environmental representation..... Or maybe not necessarily unlearn, just be aware of what I have learned culturally and refrain from transmitting that part.
Probably your research could be of great help for people like me, teaching abroad, so we could become aware of what is it that we are carrying as cultural crutches in order to refrain from transmitting them to our students.
Thanks Neil for your insightful thought. My intention is to use that ethical dilemma to show the context in my work of art.
Musician & "relearning"? Yehudi Menuhin comes to mind - a child prodigy who apparently had to stop everything to “delearn” playing and retrain himself in eastern traditional music. Robert Fripp too & his extended stay with the Gurdjieff community near Paris. I am sure there are many more….
Hugo - You could check the resource center of the University of Leeds, School of Design. They have done extensive studies on color, color perception from a geo-physical & sociological perspective.
Hugo, the one thing I have learned from my investigation into color is the idea of natural color and manipulated. Nature offers us the cleanest relationship to color there is. It is only when we try to analyze where color has been put by humans that we fall into the trap of repeating a corrupt association. Nature doesn't lie.
From a friend,
so…thanks for sharing your thoughts with me in regards to unlearning. Yes… interesting! You should check out some writing by picasso. I haven’t read the stuff personally, but i hear that he did have some thoughts on this…namely “it took me my whole life to learn to paint like a child again”. or something to this effect. Ie…to forget how to paint ‘photo’ or ‘close-to-photo’ realism, and find his own ‘essence’ to paint. I think this has some similarity to your thoughts. To be honest i’m a bit lost in your essay. I get the main gist, but, hm….a do have a question…did you mean the following in irony or not? “the red threat of communism to address?” just cureous. I think as you put it ‘unlearning’ is something very important, but it is something which can be done with relevance only after ‘learning’. In art i think one can let free and write music, or paint, or write or whatever, only after you have ‘learned’ a hell of a lot. At least if you want to do it well. There aren’t a lot of, hell, there are no artists i know of who can/have ever created quality art just by unlearning. Of course learning doesn’t have to be done in a formal institution of learning, it can be done alone with a book or just an inquisitive mind.
I wasn’t aware that Goethe was interested in the things you mentioned. Facinating! There is still so much learning that i need to do before i can get to MY unlearning ^^.
From my brother,
Interesting concept. I think there is some real value in “unlearning”, but there are times when simply changing and building upon what you already know is good too.
You made two references, on to running and one to computer programming. I believe the analogy to running is spot on. To change an initiate behavior you do have to “unlearn” or deconstruct the behavior to really understand what is wrong before you change for the better. However, computer programming is more like a building block. If one language becomes obsolete you don’t want to “forget” the information you have learned, but rather use that information to build an understanding of new language. If you were to really unlearn the language it would be much harder for you to learn the new language. “Unlearning” and “Deconstruction” are two very different terms in view. Unlearning, I equate to forgetting. Deconstructing (at least in terms of human behavior and thought), I equate to analysis and understanding at a component level.
Deconstruct a behavior to analyze what the influencers are, the basic components. Then, choose those specific behaviors or components you wish to change. Focus on the smallest component to effect the change and you will retain much more of the good, keeping the essence of the idea. Global changes can be good, but as you know they can be very powerful. This is as true for individuals as it is for businesses, nations, and societies. Sometimes a global change is worth the pain it will cause, but many times just focusing on one tiny little issue can have just as powerful an effect without the pain.
"Do we not have racial issues with skin color, or the red threat of communism to address? "
Please note that skin color alone is just about meaningless. There are many physical and cultural features and prejudices that go into racism and our history of oppression. Just because we call it "color" does not mean that skin color is the main determinant. As for "red", by now in American parlance, talking about a "red" state eans talking about a state that votes Republican. I think we need to think a lot more before we theorize too much about "color".
I wonder if the shift to red-republican was a conscious decision to invert the left as red paradigm... Not sure. I agree with you that these sorts of things are complex but I feel they are worth talking about and trying to get to the root of. Which is why I appreciate your response. I feel there is something to skin color as a reactionary stimulus. There are other factors surely but skin tone is nevertheless a visible factor. It is dicey territory and not uni-dimensional and necessary to address the complications. I would disagree that there is nothing there though. When we speak of racism it is generally grounded in color. Black, white etc. To say it is more complex is one thing but to say that color is separate from racial bias is off the mark. I understand your trepidation about coming up with theories that explain this without a lot more thought though. I still feel it is a start. Why tiptoe around this sort of thing if there is something to it? I said red threat of communism as a polemic. That is a sore spot for some Russians but that is exactly my point. Many have not shifted it to a point of pride like many have done with racial or cultural epithets such as these. There is no red threat of communism but for some over the age of sixty or seventy, this is still in their memory. I find it an interesting example because the feelings involved are not as sensitive. I am simply addressing the color side of this interaction. When you say that these issues may be too complex to simply define by their relations to color, you are right but it is a part. I am not offering a complete analysis of racism here. I am only addressing that it is a factor that is interesting and frankly the linguistic face of a lot of racism and conversely the pride and love that battle it. Perhaps strengthening the pride and love side of things, and recognizing it, does soften the pain.