Proceedings

of the International
Colour Association (AIC)
Conference 2018

associação portuguesa da cor

This publication includes keynote, oral and poster papers presented in the International
Colour Association (AIC) Conference 2018. The theme of the conference was Colour and
Human Comfort. The conference, organised by the Associação Portuguesa da Cor (APC), was
held in Lisbon, Portugal on 25-29 September 2018. More information in: www.aic2018.org.

© 2018 International Colour Association (AIC)

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of the International Colour Association (AIC) 2018 and Book of Abstracts are the responsibility
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Reproduction of this document or parts thereof by any means whatsoever is prohibited without
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All copies of the individual articles remain the intellectual property of the individual authors and/or
their affiliated institutions.

ISSN: 2617-2410
eISSN: 2617-2429
 Book of Proceedings

AIC LISBOA 2018 Committees

AIC Lisbon 2018 Honour Committee

President: His Excellency the President of the Republic, Professor Dr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Members: His Excellency the Minister of Culture, Dr. Luís Filipe Castro Mendes | His Excellency
the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Professor Dr. Manuel Heitor | His
Excellency the Mayor of Lisbon, Dr. Fernando Medina Maciel Almeida Correia | H. E. the
President of the Foundation for Science and Technology, Dr. Paulo Ferrão | H. E. the President of
the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Board of Trustees, Dr. Isabel Mota | H. E. the Rector of the
University of Lisbon, Professor Dr. António Manuel da Cruz Serra | S. E. the President of Lisbon
School of Architecture, Professor Dr. João Cottinelli Telmo Pardal Monteiro | S. E. the President
of the Board of Administration of CIN, Eng. João Serrenho.

AIC Lisbon 2018 Organizing Committee

Chairs: Margarida Gamito and Maria João Durão.

AIC Lisbon 2018 Scientific Committee

Presidency:
Chair: Maria João Durão │Co-chairs: João Pernão, Zélia Simões │ Communication Associates:
Filipa Santos and Helena Soares │ Workshops organization: João Pernão.
Reviewers:
Alessandra Cirafici (ITA), UNINA │ Ana Guerreiro (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Andrew
Stockman (GBR), UCL - INSTITUTE OF OPHTHALMOLOGY | Annamaria di Cara (AUS), DESIGN
CENTRE ENMORE - SYDNEY TAFE | Berit Bergstrom (SWE), SWEDISH COLOUR CENTRE
FOUNDATION - NCS COLOUR AB | Carl Jennings (USA), UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII – KAPIOLANI |
Carlos Alho (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD Cristina Caramelo Gomes (POR), ULL / CITAD |
Cristina Figueiredo (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Cristina Pinheiro (POR), IADE - UE / UNIDCOM
| Dimitris Mylonas (GBR), UCL / AIC - STUDY GROUP ON THE LANGUAGE OF COLOUR (LC) |
Doreen Balabanoff (CAN), OCAD UNIVERSITY | Dulce Loução (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD |
Fernando Moreira da Silva (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Francesca Valan (ITA), IED / SPD |
Gabriela Nirino (ARG), FADU - UBA / UTN – FRBA | Georgina Ortiz Hernández (MEX), FACULTY OF
PSYCHOLOGY - UNAM / AMEXINC | Gianni Montagna (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Harald
Arnkil (FIN), AALTO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ART, ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN | Ingrid Calvo
Ivanovic (CHI), UCHILE | Javier Romero Mora (ESP), UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA | João Carlos
César (BRA), FAU – USP | João Pernão (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Joaquim Santos (POR), ULL
/ CITAD | John Hutchings (GBR), UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS | Jorge Souto (POR), ESCS / ICML | José
Aguiar (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Jose Luis Caivano (ARG), FADU - UBA / CONICET |
Katsunori Okajima (JPN), YNU / AIC - STUDY GROUP ON COLOUR VISION AND PSYCHOPHYSICS
(CVP) | Leonor Ferrão (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Lindsay MacDonald (GBR), UCL | Luisa

AIC Interim Meeting | 25-29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org

Book of Proceedings

Costa (POR), ISMT / CIAUD | Mahshid Baniani (JPN), UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA | Manuel Melgosa
Latorre (ESP), UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA | Manuel Pais Clemente (POR), APCOR / EUROPEAN
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION | Margarida Gamito (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Maria João Durâo
(POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Mário Kong (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Maurizio Rossi (ITA),
POLYTECHNIC - UNIVERSITY OF MILAN | Miguel Sanches (POR), IPT / CIAUD | Ming Ronnier Luo
(GBR), UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS | Natacha Antão Moutinho (POR), EA – UMINHO | Nick Harkness
(AUS), NICK HARKNESS PTY LTD | Nuno Alão (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Patrick Callet (FRA),
MICS - UNIVERSITY OF PARISSACLAY / CAOR - PSL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY | Paula Csillag (BRA),
ESPM - SP / PROCOR | Paul Green-Armytage (AUS), CURTIN UNIVERSITY | Pedro George (POR),
FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Ralf Weber (GER), TU DRESDEN | Robert Hirschler (HUN), AIC - STUDY
GROUP ON COLOUR EDUCATION (CE) | Rodrigo Ramírez (MEX), UAM AZCAPOTZALCO | Rui
Barreiros Duarte (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Saadet Akbay (TUR), ÇANKAYA UNIVERSITY - FA /
CIAUD | Sarah Frances Dias (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Sérgio Nascimento (POR), DF –
UMINHO | Simone Maffei Simacek (BRA), UNISO | Stephen Westland (GBR), UNIVERSITY OF
LEEDS | Takahiko Horiuchi (JPN), CHIBA – U | Tien-Rein Lee (TPE), CCU | Valérie Bonnardel
(GBR), UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER | Valter Cardim (POR), IADE - UE / UNIDCOM | Verena M.
Schindler (SWZ), AIC - STUDY GROUP ON ENVIRONMENTAL COLOUR DESIGN (ECD) | Verónica
Conte (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD | Victor Lopes dos Santos (POR), FA - ULISBOA / CIAUD |
Vien Cheung (GBR), UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS.

AIC Lisbon 2018 Executive Committee

Presidency:
Chair: Margarida Gamito │ Co-chair: Fernando Moreira da Silva

Sub-committees:
Financial Control and Management: Joana Sousa, Aldina Martins, Miguel Aboim Borges │
Communication and Graphics: Cristina Pinheiro, Filipa Nogueira Pires, Luisa Costa, Miguel
Saches, Miguel Rafael │ Sponsorship, Patronage and Media Partners: João Pernão, Luísa
Martinez | Equipment, Services and External Partners (Travel Agencies): Cristina Caramelo
Gomes, Helena Pereira | Organization of exhibition space (posters): Manuela Soares | Website
/ Facebook: Filipa Nogueira Pires, Irina Costa, Simone Maffei Simacek

AIC Interim Meeting | 25-29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org

 Book of Proceedings

José Luis Caivano

Architect, PhD in Arts, Professor at School of Architecture, University
of Buenos Aires, Research Fellow at National Council for Research,
Argentina

Jose Luis Caivano graduated from Buenos Aires University (Architect and PhD). Research fellow
at the National Council for Research, Argentina, and professor at the School of Architecture of
Buenos Aires University, where he leads the Research Program on Color and Visual Semiotics. He
holds the highest category (level 1) in the national research system of Argentina. He has been
research associate at the Center for Language and Semiotic Studies of Indiana University, USA.
He was president of the International Association for Visual Semiotics, the Argentine Color Group,
and the International Color Association, where he also chaired the Study Group on
Environmental Color Design. Honorary member of the French association Ad Chroma, the
Portuguese Color Association, and the Mexican Association of Color Researchers.

Caivano has participated in more than 100 congresses in 28 countries, delivering invited lecturer
and courses in Argentina, Taiwan, Turkey, Finland, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay. Author and editor of books, he has published more than
130 articles in books and journals such as Color Research and Application (USA), Die Farbe
(Germany), Colour: Design & Creativity (UK), Optica Pura y Aplicada (Spain), Colore (Italy),
Languages of Design (Netherlands), Leonardo (USA), Semiotica (Germany), Visio (Canada),
Cruzeiro Semiotico (Portugal), DeSignis (Spain), Symmetry: Art and Science (Hungary), and
others. He was editor of the journal AREA, agenda of reflection on architecture, design and
urbanism, and the monograph series Difusión, published by the School of Architecture of Buenos
Aires University, and editor of the Proceedings of the Argentine Color Congresses. Currently he is
associate editor of Color Research and Application, and member of the editorial committee of
the Journal of the International Color Association, JAIC. He has been member of the editorial
committee and the advisory board of the journals Visio, Web Architecture Magazine, and
Languages of Design.

Fields of speciality: color theory, visual semiotics, morphology applied to architecture and
design.

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 31
Book of Proceedings

Colour from a gradualist perspective

José Luis Caivano

Universidad de Buenos Aires, and Conicet, Buenos Aires, Argentina

caivano@fadu.uba.ar

ABSTRACT
A gradualist perspective allows to explain many aspects of colour and visual appearance in a more
appropriate way than the usual conceptions based on taxonomic divisions and categorial
oppositions. We will deal with various problems associated with colour and appearance taking into
account —rather than the usual oppositions, divisions, categories or taxonomies— the moments
of transition, gradations and transformations that allow moving from one category to another, with
a better understanding of how the relationships are produced and the ways in which those
differences occur.

Keywords: colour & appearance, gradualism, colour mixtures, scale factor, cesia & texture

INTRODUCTION
The issues of colour and visual appearance 1 have been approached from multiple perspectives,
but generally thinking them in terms of classifications, oppositions or categorial divisions. I
propose to study various problems related to colour and appearance under the hypothesis that
these aspects are better conceived in terms of gradations, intermediate situations, progressive
changes, accumulations and continuous transformations between cases or situations.
This gradualist hypothesis is not a new idea; it appears flying over several areas of knowledge.
Gradualism is found in certain perspectives within biology, geology and the natural sciences,
where it has been part of evolutionary theory, as well as in humanistic disciplines such as social
and political sciences, statistics, semiotics and other fields of knowledge, where it has proven to
be more effective than oppositional or categorial classification systems. For example, the
classification of the biological kingdoms has been constantly changing throughout history. From
the classic division into two kingdoms (plants and animals) to the present, multiple categories and
new divisions have been generated. Recently, two super-kingdoms have been proposed

1
The concept of visual appearance includes categories such as colour, texture and cesia (see Caivano 1991, 1994, 1996), among others.

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 Book of Proceedings
32

(eukaryotes and prokaryotes) within which seven kingdoms are recognized: archaea, bacteria,
protozoa, chromista, fungi, plants and animals. Surely, these taxonomies will continue to be
modified, until a point where there will be so many divisions that the zones of differentiation
between one and the other become diffuse. Then, it seems that a hypothesis where the world is
interpreted through gradations or continuous transformations, instead of tight divisions, may be
less simplifying.
We will try to verify the generalization of this hypothesis, recognizing it in previous cases and
extending it to other aspects of colour and appearance studies. Three antecedents that take into
account this perspective in colour studies can be outlined.
1) Colour order systems and notations, which have overcome the limitations of colour names.
2) Two steps in the studies of linguistic and cognitive categorization in the domain of colour:
Berlin & Kay, plus MacLaury, which are unavoidable to understand how cultures and
languages incorporate basic colour terms.
3) The semantic differential scales, a method that has brought greater depth and rigor in the
treatment of colour semantics.
These are just a few but paradigmatic examples where we can see gradualism applied with
success in colour studies.

ANTECEDENTS OF GRADUALISM IN COLOUR STUDIES

1. The case of colour order systems and colour notations
Colour names are a very limited option when it is necessary to identify different tones with certain
precision. This limitation is overcome by colour order systems, with their notations that combine
signs of verbal language with numbers, allowing to refer to the millions of distinguishable colours
with accuracy. Verbal language alone cannot do that. Colour names refer only very generically to
certain colour sensations. These names can be modified by adjectives that refer to lightness and
saturation (light red, medium red, dark red, pure or saturated red, grayish or desaturated red,
etc.). But this is not enough, and is further proof that verbal language usually operates in terms of
oppositional categories, hiding the intermediate gradations and concealing how something is
transformed step by step into something else.
However, the combination of these categories with numerical scales does allow to
differentiate millions of colours and to account for their gradation and transformation. For
example, according to the Munsell notation system (1905), we can differentiate R5/4/8 (red 5,
value 4, chroma 8) from R4.5/3.5/8.25 (red 4.5, value 3.5, chroma 8.25), which is slightly different
from the former. There are many precedents about notations that register graduality in the
variation of colour. One of the first is Tobias Mayer notation for its chromatic triangle of 1758.
Among modern cases, we find Munsell notation in 1905, the colour systems and notations by
Ostwald in 1917, Villalobos-Domínguez (1947), Hesselgren (1953), Küppers (1978), the Natural
Colour System (SIS 1979), Colouroid (Nemcsics 1988), and many others.
Colour order systems may serve as models to think other systems of signs that operate from
the graduality and allow the description of different aspects of the world. There are always
intermediate states between one thing that becomes another. It is the verbal language, with its
categories, that conceals those gradations.
2. The case of basic colour names: cognitive categorization in the domain of colour
The proposals by Berlin & Kay (1969) and MacLaury (1997) are unavoidable to understand how
cultures and languages incorporate basic colour terms. Colours are a perceptual continuum.

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Book of Proceedings
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According to the conditions of observation, humans are able to discriminate about three to eight
million colours. But when someone is asked to designate colours by name, he will only use a small
handful of terms. Names impose divisions on the continuum of chromatic perception, and they
constitute the limits of colour categories. As Berlin and Kay have found (1969), there are 11 basic
colour names in most modern languages: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple,
pink, orange and grey. These names represent chromatic categories, and all languages have terms
for them. They are basic in the sense that they are monolexemic, have no relation to each other,
apply to a wide variety of objects, and are used in a stable way by all speakers. The evolutionary
stages in which these 11 colour categories appear are seven: 1) black and white appear in the first
stage; 2) the third term that appears is red; 3) the fourth term that appears is either green or
yellow; 4) if yellow appeared in the third stage, green appears now, or vice versa; 5) then appears
blue; 6) after that, brown; 7) finally, the four remaining terms appear without a predictable order.
Robert MacLaury (1997) presents a theory on colour categorization that introduces important
advances, since it pays attention to the moments in which a language is making a transition from
one stage to the next. The data comes from a survey carried out in Mesoamerica, covering 116
languages. MacLaury develops a model of colour categorization called vantage theory, which is
able to explain how human beings name colours by selecting points of view related to their spatial-
temporal coordinates. This theory can account for cases in which the same colour stimulus
receives two different names depending on the point of view taken by the speaker. MacLaury
(1997: 111-114) found a speaker of the Uspantec language in Guatemala, who named several
samples near red and yellow as q'en (yellow) or as kyaq (red). He designated the same samples
with one or another name according to the category from which he started. When asked to mark
what colours were q'en, he started from yellow and extended towards red; when asked to mark what
colours were kyaq, he started from red and extended over the same previous samples, going
towards yellow. MacLaury noted that this semantic relationship did not fit in the concepts of
synonymy or near synonymy, inclusion and complementation, and called it coextension. Let's see
these concepts (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Diagrams that represent

the semantic relations of inclusion,
near synonymy, complementation
and coextension. It is easy to note
that between one situation and
another there may be gradations
(stretching from one area to
another, increasing separations
between foci, etc.) that explain the
transformation of one relationship
into another (Caivano 2010).

When different words designate the same objects, the relationship is synonymy or near
synonymy. For example, "magenta" and "purple" designate a group of colours halfway between
red and blue. Both terms have more or less the same semantic extension, and their foci are very
close to each other. When a word designates a group of objects included in a larger group
designated by another word, the relationship is inclusion. For example, "red" names a group of
colours and "scarlet" refers to a smaller group that is a special class of red colours, i.e., "scarlet" is
included within "red". A term has a semantic extension that is part of the semantic extension of
another term. When a word designates a group of objects and another word designates a different

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 Book of Proceedings
34

group that is the complement of the previous, the relation is called complementation. For
example, the category "colours" can be divided into the categories "chromatic" and "achromatic",
both being complementary in this sense. The extensions of both terms do not coincide at all, they
are independent, and only touch at their edges.
But MacLaury found speakers who named certain colours with a term when they considered
them from a certain point of view, and the same colours with another term when they adopted a
different point of view. Both terms were focused on different places of the chromatic spectrum
(therefore near synonymy was not applicable), but their extensions covered practically the same
colours (therefore inclusion or complementation were not apt to describe the situation either).
The concept of coextension was adequate to characterize this semantic relationship. For example,
a group of colours that are midway between blue and green can be designated "turquoise", when
considered from the blue category, or "emerald", when considered from the category of green.
The extension of both terms has a great overlap, but their focuses move towards different
directions.
These relationships do not remain fixed in a language; there is an evolution. And in the
evolution from one semantic relation to another, coextension and inclusion act as intermediate
stages between synonymy and complementation. The different relationships are due to unequal
emphasis given by speakers to similarity or difference. When close attention is given to similarity,
near synonymy occurs; when attention is paid to difference, complementation appears; in the
middle, a balance between similarity and difference produces coextension (similar in extension
but with different focuses), while a moderate attention to difference produces inclusion (different
but of the same class). This finding led MacLaury to propose vantage theory as a model that,
without contradicting Berlin and Kay series, is more comprehensive and explanatory of the
processes involved in the development of categories. It can explain the process by which a
category is divided during the evolution of a language, due to a growing emphasis on difference.
MacLaury research focuses on the gradual process that ultimately generates a categorial division.
3. The case of the method of semantic differentials applied to colour
While I will not extend on the explanation of this topic, I want to point out how the methodology
proposed by Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum (1957), often applied to studies of colour semantics,
allows to understand these problems with greater variety, depth and rigor. It has thus overcome
the trivial psychological or semantic associations of colour based on common sense
correspondences, which usually only refer to stereotyped cases, without taking into account
contextual variations. By using graduated scales, to which numerical values are ascribed, the
method of semantic differentials has also made it possible to apply statistical tools to studies on
colour from psychology, semantics and any field concerned with colour and emotions.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON COLOUR AND APPEARANCE UNDER A GRADUALIST HYPOTHESIS

The three cases reviewed, where we find that the gradualist conception works effectively to
understand the phenomena involved, constitute antecedents to think that it is possible to extend
this interpretation to other fields of study and application of colour and visual appearance. In the
next sections, this perspective will be applied to some colour topics that will be presented under
a new light:
a) Chromatic mixtures understood as a gradation with intermediate steps, instead of the
classical separate categories of additive, subtractive and partitive.

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Book of Proceedings
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b) Gradations in cesia and texture: how the scale affects the transitions between visual
categories.
c) Chromatic vs. achromatic sensations: reductio ad absurdum of the misconception that
greys, black and white are not colours.
a) Chromatic mixtures understood as a gradation
It is usually admitted that there are three types of colour mixtures: additive synthesis
(superposition of lights), subtractive mixture (pigmentary), and partitive mixture (optical).
Characteristics of each type are described in this way: additive mixtures produce lighter colours,
subtractive ones, darker colours, and partitive ones, colours of average lightness among the mixed
colours.
But in many cases, it is difficult to classify a certain type of mixture. For example, in the case
of pigmentary mixture, if we work with transparent dyes or inks, a subtractive mixture is certainly
produced (each layer of pigment applied on a white background subtracts some radiation, and the
result is always a darker colour); but if the pigments are opaque, the result of the mixture, in terms
of lightness, will depend on the degree of diffuse reflection produced by the pigments. Now, the
scale between transparency and opacity is a continuum (and it can be difficult to speak of perfect
transparency and perfect opacity for a given thickness of pigment layer), as well as the variation
between diffuse reflection and specular reflection (and in practice there is no perfect diffuse or
specular reflection). Then, it would be better to develop a model of colour mixtures that, instead
of proposing sharp divisions, offers the possibility of understanding how gradual variations occur
between one case and another.
Harald Küppers (1978) addressed this issue when developing his "laws of colour synthesis":
additive synthesis (e.g. colour television), subtractive synthesis (e.g. colour photography), layers
of translucent and opaque colour (paints applied in overlapping layers), integrated mixture
(opaque paints mixed with each other and then applied in a single layer), optical mixture (small
colour dots that cannot be perceived individually and are integrated), rapid mixture (colour stimuli
at very short time intervals). Küppers asserts that "there are at least eleven laws of colour mixture.
Although every mixture strictly follows its own laws, each case it is a possibility of interpretation
of the way in which the organ of sight works" (1978 [1980: 177], my translation).
With this in mind, there are various types of mixtures that can be investigated under a
gradualist conception:
• superimposed or overlapping
Lights: • adjacent, in small size (without superposition or overlap)
• intermittent, in fast sequence
• mixed in powder form
Opaque pigments: • mixed with water in paste form (graduating the amount of water)
• totally diluted in water
Translucent pigments: • with decreasing turbidity (from near opaque to near transparent)
• previously mixed and applied in one coat
Transparent inks:
• applied in successive coats, waiting until the previous is dry
• overlapping
Small colour dots: • adjacent
• separate (a white background seen in between)
• with matte finish
Spinning colour surfaces: • with glossy finish

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 Book of Proceedings
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b) Gradations in cesia and texture: the problem of scale

The scale from which an object is observed affects the transitions between the categories of
texture and cesia. Dardo Bardier (2003, 2007, 2010, 2013) points out the ranges and limits of
perception in terms of perceptual scales. What on a certain scale is perceived in a way and
stimulates certain types of receptors, on another scale is processed by other sensory receptors
and produces completely different appearances, or is not perceived at all. For example, the
variation of size and density of a texture has a certain range within which it is visually perceived
as such, but on a smaller scale it begins to visually affect the perception of cesia.
The differences between glossy and matte, as well as between translucent and transparent,
are related to this. In a scale of gloss, for example in the one produced by the Scandinavian Colour
Institute (SCI 1996), the micro textural variation on the surface can be observed with a magnifying
glass or a microscope: the loss of gloss is associated with the increase in surface micro-roughness.
This effect has been studied by Béland and Bennett (2000), and was already recognized in the
visual method to evaluate brightness proposed by the ASTM (1990), with antecedents in the
pioneering studies of Hunter (1975). Now, if this roughness is perceived by the naked eye, it is
appreciated as a textural effect and not as a cesia. The same could be said about the variation
between transparent and translucent.
In his general scheme of visual appearance, Lozano (2006) places the variable of diffusivity in
cesia next to the category of spatiality (which includes roughness, waviness, and the effect known
as orange peel), which in turn connects with the category of texture. This supports the idea that
the visual categories of texture and cesia are close to each other, are strongly related, and can be
studied in several aspects in terms of gradations based on scalar variations.
By means of experimental designs, observations and measurements, these limits can be
investigated, particularly the moments in which one category is transformed into another, and
also how micro texture influences the variations of cesia.
c) Chromatic vs. achromatic sensations
Many people consider that greys, black and white are not colours. Sometimes it is said that white
is not a colour but "the sum of all colours". This confusion may come from misinterpreting the
experiments and conclusions of Newton, considering colours only those resulting from the
dispersion of light, i.e. the spectrum of different wavelengths. If only they were colours, then
magenta or purple would not be colours, since they do not appear in the spectrum, nor does
brown and other tones that do not have a specific wavelength but result from stimuli composed
by a mixture of different wavelengths (such as white!). Contradictorily, white often appears as
"the absence of colour". When pigments are used on a canvas or paper, white is the surface that
remains unpigmented, unpainted, without "colouring" (although obviously a white pigment can
also be applied). Sometimes white is also referred to as absence in metaphorical terms. This
reinforces the prejudice that white is not a colour: a "blank mind" or a "blank sheet" is something
empty of contents, ideas, strokes ... colours.
The same confusion usually occurs with black. It is said to be the "sum of all colours" when a
blackish tone is obtained from the mixture of various pigments, and the "absence of colour" when
all luminous radiation is eliminated. In this last case, colour is considered a synonym of light;
consequently, if there is no light there is no colour.
All this is wrong. White, black and greys are also colours. Because colour is a visual sensation
(product of the interaction of luminous radiation with pigmented objects and observers, but finally

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a visual sensation). In other words, pigment and colour are not synonyms; luminous radiation and
colour are not synonyms either. And just as we have visual sensations of red, green, blue, yellow,
brown, magenta, etc., we also have visual sensations of white, black and grey.
A research was initiated on this topic through an online questionnaire and a survey of
bibliographic sources. These studies can be complemented by asking a representative group of
observers (particularly among those who answered that black and white are not colours) to
indicate in a series of light and dark nuances close to the grey scale, where they see that "colours
end". The difficulty in establishing this point, or the contradictions and differences among
observers, would offer a demonstration by the absurd. If we understand colour as a sensory
continuum with gradations in all directions (hue, saturation, lightness), we should admit that any
of the extreme points in the saturation and lightness scales are part of the same category, i.e.
colours. Since it will be impossible to determine by means of small perceptual differences a net
point of separation between "colours" and "non-colours" we must conclude that all them are
colours.

CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper has been to exemplify the generalization of the gradualist hypothesis,
recognizing where it was applied in previous cases and extending it to other aspects of colour
theory. I am convinced that methods that employ a gradualist conception are more suitable for
studying visual phenomena — because of a greater affinity with them— than those approaches
based on typical binary oppositions or categorial classifications, strongly anchored in verbal
language.
In the field of semiotics, which can be taken as a methodological frame for many disciplines,
binary or oppositional models of the processes of signification offer relatively poor possibilities.
Instead, the model of semiosis proposed by Charles S. Peirce (1860-1908), although uses
categories defined in a triadic way, can explain through extensive combinatorial possibilities the
great variety of semiotic processes. Thus, an icon can be gradually transformed into an index or
symbol, there can be mixed forms (indexical icons, symbolic icons, and other kinds of hybrid signs);
signs can function in one way in a certain context and in a different way in another context. That
is to say, nothing is static or pigeonholed; there are always gradual transformations, and thus
intermediate states.

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AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org