Comment by mwkaufma
2 days ago
Wait, his "graph" measures a greater gamut of colors in photos from the nineteenth century when they were all B/W? Who's still buying this retvrn hucksterism?
2 days ago
Wait, his "graph" measures a greater gamut of colors in photos from the nineteenth century when they were all B/W? Who's still buying this retvrn hucksterism?
Current photos of old objects. I admit I had the same question based on the caption included in the graph itself, which just says "photos."
> a study of over 7,000 objects in the UK’s Science Museum found that the colors of consumer goods have been steadily neutralized since 1800. Bright, saturated tones have been giving way to gray, beige, and taupe for centuries.
The graph is from a study of objects held in the collection of a museum, not photographs by year they were taken. It says so in this article.
https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/colour-shape-using-computer...
Yeah you're right, I jumped the gun there. On the other hand, color trends of science museum exhibits are a cherry-picked example. "Culture Critic"'s whole shtick is to put a photo of a modernist building next to an ornamental one, and this just seems to be that, but with a superficial layer of scientism.
Personally I think the collection used is pretty good, not perfect but not cherry picking. I find CC's explanation unsatisfactory and loose, mostly placing the blame on philosphers that predate the recent trend of less color by decades or millennia, and skipping over well known major events in the history of color fashion. But I do agree that ornamentation and color are less common today in architecture and product design than they were in prior decades, and than they were for much of history. Except perhaps for a narrow band of blue.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Male_Renunciation