Wednesday 12 June 2013

The Illusion of Reality

So I'm blogging again so soon... but I swear I'm not procrastinating on studying (maybe!) 
Even though I've been non-stop studying the last few days, do you think I'd just wear comfortable clothes? Nah. This is about as "comfy" as I'll get, haha. I actually spent the morning in my pyjamas, but it's also nice to get dressed up for no reason - I feel like it helps me maintain my sanity! Which, at exam time, is always a good thing.

pants - c/o Sheinside
sweater - Thrifted
necklace - Claire's (Japan)
beanie - stolen from boyfriend

Here's more stuff that I'm trying to cram for my exams! But it's super interesting, don't worry ;)

So much of what we think are solid "facts" about the world we live in are entirely made up by our brains. I didn't realise this until this year, but there is nothing inherently "blue" about an electromagnetic wavelength of 450nm, or inherently "red" about a wavelength of 750nm - yet when these wavelengths of light hit our eyes, we experience blue and red colours.

Here's some amazing facts about colour vision and your brain (read these two posts about colour perception if you don't know much about it!)

Your brain keeps colours constant. A purple wig keeps on looking purple with different kinds of light shining on it (i.e. when you move from inside to outside). Outside light is really blue, but inside light is really yellow - yet the purple wig keeps looking basically the same colour the whole time - even though the actual light being reflected to your eye from the wig has changed vastly in wavelength.
And it's all got to do with context - you use the colour of other things in your world to determine what the colour of things should be. This is called colour constancy.

Don't believe me? Both of this girl's eyes are the exact same shade of grey.
Still don't believe me? This is what happens if you remove everything from the image except for the eyes.

(image from here)

There are also impossible colours that could never be perceived (though you can try here by crossing your eyes). This includes "bluish yellow" and "greenish red". You can't create them (I'm talking about mixing light here, not paints) - whenever you mix these opponent colours you just get grey. Apparently, you could never perceive these mixes of light. What's different about these colours that makes them different from mixing yellow and green, for instance? Again, this isn't anything unique about the physics of light - these colours are only "impossible" because your brain says so!

One more: after images (ignore the seedy music on the video, it's actually really cool.) Your brain makes up colours that don't even exist, just because it was tired of the ones it was looking at.








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24 comments:

  1. You make trousers look good! HOW do you do this?! <3

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  2. That is so sketch! I've read about the colors before, and even used that in some of my pieces, but I'm still baffled by it. I guess that really is the power of the human brain!

    And I totally feel you. It's finals week at my school, and all I've been wearing is a t-shirt and some comfy jeans.

    xx maggie
    saltandleather.blogspot.com

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  3. You re so cute in these pics!

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  4. That color info is really interesting! And it answers my question about whether or not our brains can make up colors that don't exist.

    Good luck with exams!

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  5. You look amazing! :) Really cute! And quite interesting post to read, about the colors! Didn't know that yet!

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  6. I like that necklace! Informative post.

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  7. very interesting post... im serious, i didnt know that!
    btw. i love your hair color, its awesome!

    catwalklove.blogspot.com

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  8. ah that's so cool! really interesting stuff. and I love this outfit, of course!
    Rebecca @ tr[i]b[e]cca

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  9. This whole colour stuff really freaks me out haha!

    Becky
    xx

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  10. coolness! love your colour combo here too:)

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  11. Love that sweater, and this whole outfit is so cute. And the info about colors is SO weird!!! And wonderful!

    xox Sammi
    www.thesoubrettebrunette.blogspot.com

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  12. Such a gorgeous outfit!
    I love the physics of light, i'm currently working with a few telescopes using different wavelength filters to image astronomical objects and it's blowing my mind a little bit!

    Lamb

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  13. So pretty!!!! :D Your photos are great! I love it <3

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  14. Love these beetlejuice pants, and my favorite color is Urplurplunnum...if you see it you burst into flames.

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  15. I'm so sorry you must so much studying. It must be so tiring. Eventhough you still have great style and you pick up amazing clothes <3 I'm so in love with your wig <3
    http://coeursdefoxes.blogspot.com/

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  16. I love how your blog isn't just about your great styling tips but also interesting in facts.
    I'll admit that I didn't believe the picture's eye's colour thing, then I did delete everything but the eyes were really the same colour :o
    It just makes to question what do we really see... I recently also watched vsauce vid on YT about colour perception, questioning do we see colours alike each other of us do.

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  17. really cute outfit! love the trousers :) xx

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  18. You look ubercool :) That wig is amazing, makes me wanna dye my hair purple again!
    First time I noticed that about colors is when I bought an amazing "purple" shirt, which was actually blue, but it standed next to red ones in the store. Shopping science:)

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  19. You look so adorable! I really love that shirt - it looks so comfy! Good luck on your exams! Also, saw that you are going to Italy! So. Fun!

    xoxo,
    Laura
    http://lauraisthriftingthroughlife.blogspot.com/

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  20. Annika, I LOVE this outfit! I seem to love all your outfits actually.

    That sort of thing really confuses my poor little brain. I spent about 10 minutes just staring at that image. I downloaded it and zoomed in a bit, and when you start zooming in the blue eye becomes less and less blue. Creeps me out so much!

    www.annettibus.blogspot.ie

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  21. You look so adorable! I really love that shirt - it looks so comfy! shoulder bags sale

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  22. that drawing is crazy!! i can't understand how her eye isn't blue. when i cover everything but her eyes with my hands, i can tell they are the same. but when it's just the image, my eyes won't believe it! gah!! cray!

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  23. Wow, that color thing is insanely weird!! New follower via Bloglovin' <3 Alex

    tobebeautifulingodseyes.blogspot.com

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