PRIME: TOWARDS
A COLOUR THEORY
In
1993, I was working as an Information Technology Coordinator
in a Gloucestershire secondary school, also teaching art
and science. I taught an art module, where children
were required to make a " colour wheel ". Imagine
my astonishment to receive complaints from the Head of
the Art Faculty, when I provided "process" magenta,
cyan and
yellow for the children to use.
Process magenta, cyan and yellow paint
I
was taken aside and instructed to follow the same method
that " the rest of the department " employed,
and issued pigments of, vermilion
red, cobalt blue and
purple to replace the magenta
and cyan. However, I was
unable to come to terms with this view, as I was teaching
the very same children, colour refraction, reconstruction
and frequencies in science, and supporting pupil's use
of colour printers and computer equipment, across the
curriculum. It was also obvious to the children, that
yellow, a pillar box red, and a warm blue, could not be
the primary colours of pigment, given their experience
in the other areas of the curriculum. I therefore taught
what I believed to be true and narrowly survived formal
disciplinary procedures before the Head Teacher, armed
with my portfolio of colour work, a written rebuttal provided
by the Head of Science and the support of the County Information
Technology Inspector.
