Colour
Authors: Ferrier Liz , Dauber Christine 
Published: October 2020

I'm better than Red.

My son came home from his first day of school disgusted. 'Red! All they taught us was Red'. He'd expected to learn something new. Colour identification was for babies. The worst thing was that the teacher kept going on about it: they had to talk about red, eat red fruit, sing red songs, inflate red balloons, colour-in little red riding hood. And then Mrs B wrote the word Red on the blackboard with WHITE chalk. I thought it was an incredibly interesting semiotic exercise and was annoyingly positive about the experience he'd found so disappointing. Going on about the obvious is the business of cultural studies; thinking again about those qualities that seem most neutral or obvious. Colour - and RED especially - is not neutral. (L. F.)

Cultural Studies has been informed by a strong tradition of emancipatory politics. Decolonisation and liberation movements have created a heightened awareness of the way that apparently obvious categories such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, are never neutral, and have been historically linked with unequal power relations.

Colours have become synonymous with certain styles and genres of photography, writing, film, video and art. Colour is at once literal, a property or quality of a thing, and figurative, standing in for more abstract qualities.
What these various figurative uses of colour have in common is the way that they present colour as linked with perception, and as perception that is not neutral or objective, but value added that is, overlaid with cultural value. Sometimes 'to colour' is to add something that enhances. Film Noir has 'artistic' mise en scene to create a particular mood. In cinema, colour constitutes 'special effects'.
is overdone. To 'show your colours', is to identify your bias. In this context 'colour' is used to imply a distortion of the objective truth: judgement can be "coloured", or we see things 'through rose coloured glasses'.

Colourful is a doubtful adjective. It can suggest the popular of the people. Never have your art or architecture described such, unless you're a Warhol or Venturi. For sophistication and intellectual credibility, avoid wearing colour. A colourful region or district has a strong presence of simple folk, or is promoted as 'multicultural' - has street markets or a Mardi Gras.
This figurative use of "colour" is closely related to the critical analysis of culture and media. Cultural and Media Studies have been concerned with the popular, with perception, with the 'value added'; with the way that perceptions are coloured, and cultural meanings are inscribed within everyday things.
The question of colour is crucial, even obvious, within the visual arts and media. And yet perhaps because of this colour is rarely considered contentious in that context. This is an ideal place to begin then. The feature article, Christine Dauber's interview with artist John Catapan, addresses the uses of colour within visual media forms, and in particular, explores Catapan's preoccupation with the colour of the city at night. The interview draws our attention to the way that Catapan uses colour, not just as an aesthetic element, but as a medium through which he creates a different semiotic field, a 'submerged' world that is presented as something Other than that conveyed by conventional language and narrative.
Naomi Stead writes about the significance of colour, or more accurately, the absence of colour, chromophobia, in modern architecture. Stead takes up the interesting relationship between architecture and the cultural significance of colour in the representation of indigenous cultures. Her analysis of the architecture of the National Museum of Australia encourages us to think of the intersections between colour in form and design, and colour of skin. Mark Mussari explores the cultural significance of colour through a discussion of Umberto Eco's work on chromatic perception and visuality.
Christopher Kelen addresses colour in the context of Nationalism and cultural imperialism. His essay, which examines the very recent adoption of a National Anthem in Australia, highlights the difficulties faced by postcolonial countries trying to develop a sense of national pride that is not linked with the imperialist culture. In The colour of copyright Margaret McDonell comments on the another dilemma for post colonial countries, the appropriation of indigenous cultural material. Mabo offered a promise through its recognition of traditional law, but the expected flow-on has been impeded by the statutory nature of copyright law. Indigenous Intellectual Property Law has become an issue dealt with at the level of the United Nations, although this does not always serve to protect indigenous copyright from imported copied material.
Andy Miller also explores questions of race and colour in 'Multiculturalism and Shades of Meaning in the New South Africa', reflecting in a most interesting and personal way on the spectrum of racial and social categories associated with colour. Karl Beckwith's essay explores the sub-cultural resonances of black and white in the Extreme Metal scene. His work highlights the significance of colour codes in sub-cultures. Finally, Felix Cheong gives us his take in a poem entitled "RED"

"NELLIE NELLIE NELLIE NELLIE NELLIE NELLIE NELLIE I want you to come back, to shampoo my hair and make a pink cake and we can sit in the back and roll mealie pap in our hands see, I told you not to go in those marches and I told you, I told you what you guys don't understand, what you didn't see, is apartheid's for YOU. IT'S FOR YOUR GUYS FEELINGS, see, like we got separate washrooms cause you like to spit, and if we said, "Eww yucch, don't spit', it would hurt your feelings and we got separate movies, cause you like to talk back to movie stars and say 'amen' and 'that's the way' and stuff that drives us crazy so we might tell you to shut up and then you might cry…."
From "Pink", Judith Thompson (1986): a monologue commissioned for the Arts Against Apartheid Benefit in Toronto.

Citation reference for this article
MLA Style

Ferrier, Liz and Dauber, Christine. "Editorial" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.3 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0207/editorial.php>.

Chicago Style

Ferrier, Liz and Dauber, Christine, "Editorial" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 3 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0207/editorial.php> ([your date of access]).

APA Style

Ferrier, Liz and Dauber, Christine. (2002) Editorial. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(3). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0207/editorial.php> ([your date of access]).