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What does the colour black mean to you? When you wear it, what's the occasion?

Depending on your disciplines, black could be the appearance of a substance that absorbs all spectrums of light and reflects none, as in the pigments of a painter's pallet, lamp, bone, char or ink. Or it could be what you see when deep within a cave, the total absence of light. Either way, black is full of poetic resonances, it's meaning shifting like a chameleon, to signal according to its context.

So what is black to you?

 

Posted - April 30, 2020
Tags : None

Responses


  • 5808
    i wear black every day.
    sometimes a white T shirt
    but mostly black.
    What's the occasion?...
    just living life. ;) 
      April 30, 2020 5:45 PM MDT
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  • 4624
    Does that mean you live in New York and camouflage amid everyone else? ;-)
      May 2, 2020 8:16 AM MDT
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  • 34253
    I personally just like the color. It matches everything. And provides a good contrast with other more vibrant colors. 

    I normally wear it for funerals just because it seems traditional and appropiate. But certainly not only for funerals. 
      April 30, 2020 6:58 PM MDT
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  • 44605
    It has no meaning to me unless one is discussing black people...who really aren't black.
      April 30, 2020 7:56 PM MDT
    1

  • 53506
    The question is about black clothing specifically, not merely the color black. 
      April 30, 2020 8:45 PM MDT
    1

  • 4624
    Are they any colours that carry any kind of poetic significance for you, Ele?

    For instance, cadmium yellow deep is used for many road signs because it's bright enough against most backgrounds to work well as a warning.
      May 2, 2020 8:19 AM MDT
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  • 44605
    Poetic significance? My tiny brain can't even grasp the concept.
      May 2, 2020 4:39 PM MDT
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  • 53506

      My brain’s not tiny but it sure can’t wrap around that concept either. 

    :|
      May 2, 2020 9:43 PM MDT
    1

  • 4624
    Black comes in infinite forms.

    For instance, it glints in these excerpts from Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

    Among twenty snowy mountains,   
    The only moving thing   
    Was the eye of the blackbird.   
     
     
    The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.   
    It was a small part of the pantomime.   
       
    I do not know which to prefer,   
    The beauty of inflections   
    Or the beauty of innuendoes,   
    The blackbird whistling   
    Or just after.   
     
    Icicles filled the long window   
    With barbaric glass.   
    The shadow of the blackbird   
    Crossed it, to and fro.   
    The mood   
    Traced in the shadow   
    An indecipherable cause.   
     
    I know noble accents   
    And lucid, inescapable rhythms;   
    But I know, too,   
    That the blackbird is involved   
    In what I know.   
     
    When the blackbird flew out of sight,   
    It marked the edge   
    Of one of many circles.   
     
    At the sight of blackbirds   
    Flying in a green light,   
    Even the bawds of euphony   
    Would cry out sharply.   
     
    The river is moving.   
    The blackbird must be flying.   
     
    It was evening all afternoon.   
    It was snowing   
    And it was going to snow.   
    The blackbird sat   
    In the cedar-limbs.

    He never says, "the blackbird is mysterious, has many moods and a deliriously beautiful voice,"
    but somehow one feels it through the scenes he shows us.
      May 2, 2020 11:38 PM MDT
    1

  • 4624
    A. E. Houseman:

    Now hollow fires burn out to black,
    and lights are guttering low.
    Square your shoulders, lift your pack,
    And leaves your friends and go.

    Never fear man, nought's to dread.
    Look not left nor right.
    In all the endless road you tread,
    There's nothing but the night.

    Or let's try poetic significance another way.

    I once had lunch with an Israeli astronomer, Ofer Lapid
    We fell into discussion about fractal geometry.

    I was using it as the starting point for the design of mandalas intended to symbolise the feel of the infinite in nature - especially in places where material states collide - at the boundaries between land and water, water and earth, air and land, and air and water. Think of where the richest densities of life evolve. It is always where gases, liquids and solids meet or roil across each other.

    Ofer was studying the fractal distribution of particles at the outer edges of the universe. For him, the relevance of fractal equations was their capacity to accurately predict where particles could be found. The thrill for him was in the practical application of theoretical physics in the macro cosmos. He could see no symbolism, metaphor or poetry in physics.

    Astounded, I pointed out that lateral thinking was the common element which make discoveries in science and originality in the arts possible.

    I asked him, "What do you find is one of the most difficult things in teaching astronomy to your students?"
    He replied, "Getting them to understand that when they see the circular outline of a spiralling galaxy, it's view from 90º to the side does not look like a sphere but  rather a shallow ellipse."
    "Like the lense in a camera, yes?"
    "Yes! How did you know?"
    "Visual-spatial awareness, a little Newtonian physics, and lateral thinking. Take a ball of pizza dough, spin it around an axis and the centrifugal force causes it to flare out sideways. But with a galaxy, there's still the gravity holding the mass together in the centre. The two forces oppose each other and the result is a lens shape."
    "I don't get it. How is it so easy for you with no science training and so hard for my maths genius students?"
    "Because they haven't been taught to think laterally about the things they observe - how to see alternative possibilities from different points of view."

    We mused on this for quite some time.
    It was one of the best lunches I've ever enjoyed.



      May 2, 2020 11:26 PM MDT
    1

  • 13277
    It's a color. So are blue, brown, green, red, yellow, and white.
      April 30, 2020 8:11 PM MDT
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  • 4624
    Hmm. I note your answer relates to language. Apparently all languages include a word for the colour black - which must mean it has deep relevance to human lives.
      May 2, 2020 8:21 AM MDT
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  • 53506

      But then again, don’t you think that all languages have words for all colours, thereby rendering no one colour with any deeper relevance than any other merely based on having a name for it?
    ~
      May 2, 2020 8:53 AM MDT
    2

  • 53506

      it’s its meaning

     My, my, my, what a question for me to tackle; I don’t even know from which of my several angles I should begin.  Ok, let’s get to it.

      Ethnically, socially, historically, psychologically, and even militarily, the color black in clothing/accessories plays a significant role in my life.

    Ethnically — due to the etymological way that my ethnicity is referred to, even if the actual pigmentation is nowhere near it, black clothing can be used to either accentuate, enhance, decorate, neutralize, obscure, or hide things.

    Historically — in many cultures, not all, black clothing has been associated with death and/or mourning, not only for the deceased and the mourners but also for the survivors, clergy, undertaker/staff, etc. 

    Socially and psychologically — black clothing can strategically help elude the appearance of a heavyset physique, or call attention on an evening out (tuxedo, little black dress).  Black is also a color of power, or the color of power, so it can denote hierarchy.

    Militarily — being a veteran, I learned long ago a little-known fact even among my fellow veterans: colors have seniority, especially when it comes to the wearing of uniforms. In my particular service, the United States Marine Corps, the senior color for uniforms is blue, as in the Dress Blue Uniform, which is considered the pinnacle of all various uniform choices of the Corps. For footwear, however, black is the senior color, as in the leather combat boots, formal dress shoes, and the appropriate socks for both, respectively.






      [FOOTNOTE: Although to the untrained eye this dark-colored coat may appear black, it is actually a deep dark Navy blue color.]

    ~




      
      April 30, 2020 8:43 PM MDT
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  • 4624
    I've also noticed that artists in all fields of the arts frequently wear black or mostly black.

    It reminds me of the banraku puppeteers. Their black clothes put them in the background the better to display the actions, drama and beauty of their puppets.

    But for me, black is like the softness of the night, a time for eyes to relax, for rest and recovery. There is something comfortable and nestling about it.
      May 2, 2020 8:30 AM MDT
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  • 44605
    Those shoes are lame...

      May 2, 2020 4:48 PM MDT
    2

  • 4624
    Hardly!
    Look at those thick, comfortable soles.
    One could march in them for hours without even a blister.
      May 2, 2020 6:37 PM MDT
    3

  • 4624
    Love learning new things about you.
    In some ways we're opposites:
    You               me
    Republican     liberal & Green
    conservative  libertarian
    Christian       atheist, Buddhist
    navy man      not quite totally pacifist

    In other ways, there's a sympathy. Both value ethics, truth, responsibility and kindness.

    I like it that we can listen to each other's views with respect,
    and feel the warmth of friendship unaffected by differing perspectives.
      May 2, 2020 8:32 PM MDT
    2

  • 53506

    Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER ever ever refer to a US Marine as a Navy man. The US Marine Corps and the US Navy are separate services, completely separate entities. They are known collectively, along with the US Coast Guard, as the Sea Services. Marines come from the Marine Corps, while sailors come from the Navy.




    —-
      May 2, 2020 9:54 PM MDT
    1

  • 17593
      May 1, 2020 10:17 AM MDT
    5

  • 53506

      Good point. The term “black coffee” or the phrase “I like my coffee black” fail to denote that much like people, the color depicted is often actually a deep dark brown.


    ~
      May 2, 2020 9:04 AM MDT
    4

  • 23576
    (You know what I'm thinking.)


      May 2, 2020 2:49 PM MDT
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  • 53506
      May 2, 2020 9:55 PM MDT
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  • 17593
    This was supposed to be about my answer and now I don't know what anyone is thinking.  I like my coffee black and I refuse to try to talk about what shade of black that is. 

    Love always,
    Thrifty This post was edited by Thriftymaid at May 3, 2020 3:02 PM MDT
      May 3, 2020 2:15 PM MDT
    1