Colors help us spot and distinguish foods and notice things out of
the ordinary. Red pops out at us because we have more cone cells
dedicated to picking up this color, and in many cultures, red was the
earliest color given a name after black and white. Since red makes us
vigilant and energized, we walk faster down red corridors than blue
ones. As the English philosopher Nicholas Humphrey has said, “If
you want to make a point, say it in red.” When Olympic boxers and
martial artists wear red, they win more often. But pink, interestingly,
has the opposite effect, weakening athletes, making prisoners less
aggressive (hence the color known as drunk tank pink) and pacifying
psychiatric patients. In a study where agitated hospital patients looked
at a blue light, their tremors subsided.
Based on the literature on sensory perception, Valtchanov’s app
gives blue the highest score of all. Predators tend not to be green or
blue. Biophilia proponents would argue we’ve learned to associate
these colors with life-giving, healthy ecosystems full of plants
(green), clean water (blue) and expansive reflection (sky azures,
ocean teals). Since we all live under that sky and drink its offerings,
these hues may instill feelings of universality and shared humanity.
Similarly, as John Berger writes in The Sense of Sight, “That we find
a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we
are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life
would lead us to believe.”
I’m drawn to the rich intersections of culture and science to be
found in color, but it’s spatial frequency that gets Valtchanov most
excited. He’s convinced it’s this—regardless of the fractal content—
that unlocks the doors to paradise. Spatial frequency captures the
complexity of contours, shadows and shapes in a scene or image. We
prefer images that are easier and faster to understand.
In the app, straight and jagged lines are rated very low on the
restoration scale compared to smooth and rounded ones. “Urban
jagged edges are not so good for you,” said Valtchanov. But like