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NORDIC LIGHT & COLOUR
43
Direct experience
By direct experience we gradually learn through living to un-
derstand the relations of colour and light to the world around.
The direct experience is dynamic and simultaneous; percep-
tions, feelings and emotions form a coherent whole. Making
use of natural perceptual abilities (the categorical perception)
and interplaying with the physical world we develop perceptual
“skills”; we acquire abilities to catch the spatial significance
of colour and light in space. We also learn to recognize the
perceptual qualities of materials, how they feel and how colour
and light relate to them, etc. Patterns of sense-qualities always
belong to functional situations in life, each one having a char-
acteristic perceptual and emotional content; the light always il-
luminates something, it is always something that has a colour,
and a spatial situation always has a special atmosphere. Direct
experience provides spatial understanding, meanings, and
emotional content to the physical world around.
The German philosopher Gottlieb Baumgarten, originator of
Aesthetics as a specific academic discipline, describes knowl-
edge that implies a coherent intuitive understanding and is
given to us directly by sense experiences. Baumgarten claims
that aesthetic knowledge
constitutes
logically based knowl-
edge, “that sensible cognition is the ground of distinct cogni-
tion; if the whole understanding is to be improved, aesthetics
must come to the aid of logic” (Baumgarten 1983: 80). The tacit
meaning of the direct visual experience of colour and light,
materials, textures and objects is an aspect of our aesthetic
approach to the world.
Indirect experience
In the outer circle we find
indirect
experience - principles,
concepts or models that help to understand or give perspec-
tive to experienced phenomena in the two inner circles. Being
embedded in cultural expressions (history, traditions, customs,
trends, scientific theories, art, poetry, etc.), indirect experience
forms a cultural context to which all experiences of necessity
are related. History, scientific theories and theoretical models
provide a basis of explanation and analyses. Traditions and
customs serve as guiding rules. Art and design, literature and
poetry summarize common experiences: art and design with
expressive or significant form, literature and poetry with verbal
language. Thus indirect experience can convey meanings and
feelings to phenomena based on direct experiences and cat-
egorical perception.
The indirect experiences can change and be reinterpreted, but
can never totally be taken in or controlled by the individual.
Indirect experiences are implicitly present in all perceptions.
Abstract figures or words can be associated with symbolic
meanings and scientific theories may refer to perceptual ap-
pearances. A colour combination, a specific light situation,
a designed object or a spatial design may – as content of an
associative symbol – be connected with special concepts or
feelings. Associative symbols are basically social/cultural
understandings. They are arbitrary and can be changed or
replaced. The associative symbols may not be mistaken for the
emotional content that has its origin in direct experience and
the individual’s perceptual interaction and interplay with the
world around.
Being dependent on their origin the principles, models or
concepts of the outer circle have indirect or direct relations
to phenomena in the two inner circles: visual symbols and
concepts used in perceptual colour or light theory refer directly
to phenomena in the two inner circles, whereas concepts and
symbols describing the outer world in abstract terms have
indirect relations to them; thus words, figures and concepts
based on physical analyses with quantitative measurements
and instrumental methods have an indirect relation to percep-
tual phenomena.
The three experience levels are interdependent and implicitly
present in all perceptions. A perceived distinction between a
red colour and other colours is a basic – categorical – percep-
tion. The experience of the colour of a wall – whether in light
or shadow – is a direct experience of the world around. The
knowledge that red has a special position in a colour system,
or that red surfaces absorb electromagnetic radiation in a spe-
cial way, or that red houses may be of high social importance,
is based on indirect experience.
Art and design have a special and complex relation to direct
and indirect experience. On the one hand artistic works can
serve as ”models” or “examples” for how we may attend to
light and colour in our direct approach to the world. On the
other hand they are also, as appearances, direct experiences.
Experiencing colour and light in a living context always
includes emotional and intuitive understanding; we experi-
ence spontaneously spatial relations and moods in a cultural
context. This is how our overall perception normally works. In
adopting an aesthetic attitude we consciously attend to this
spontaneous process of understanding; perceiving aesthetic
qualities in art and design – or in the world around – means
that we open up for reflection on experiences us such.
The American philosopher Susanne Langer’s aesthetic philos-
ophy is a part of the epistemological tradition from Baumgar-
ten. Connecting to Wittgenstein she asks, how do we give
symbolic form to the tacit dimension of our direct experience?
She claims that the emotional content we can experience in a
piece of art or a designed object is symbolic in a special way
(Langer 1957: 60); perceptual patterns of colour, light and
form, abstracted from their normal context in life, can be used
as symbols for felt life in pieces of art and in designed objects.