The Red Room

Last week as a class we were given the opportunity of venturing off to Liverpool for the purpose of visiting several different exhibitions. I took the photo below at one of the showings. One of the things that I find stands out in this photograph is the colour. In the artistic world red has always been my favourite colour and it’s because I find it to be the most powerful colour. Below are some evaluations which I read over the internet on the colour red.

“ A stimulant, red is the hottest of the warm colours. Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure.”

“The expression seeing red indicates anger and may stem not only from the stimulus of the color but from the natural flush (redness) of the cheeks, a physical reaction to anger, increased blood pressure, or physical exertion.”

“Flashing red lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get the drivers' attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection.”

“Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.”

So red seems to be a passionate colour stimulating raw emotion. I appreciate that all colours effect us in different ways, however red I find is the most penetrating and effective of them all.

I produced this simple small chart above on paint. Now,  this may be due to myself being completely biased, however I find this is a perfect example to show how red is the most penetrating colour. In further establishing my argument take a look at advertising campaigns like coca cola. I can assure you it is not down to sheer coincidence that their colour of choice is red. This of course is all defined through the study of semiotics. Red is apparently the first colour babies are able to see when born, it is the colour children tend to favour and the colour adults commonly like.

COCA COLA

Note how even several football kits are the colour red.

Hence why I may find myself drawn to this photograph.  

For some reason there seems to be a problem on my hard drive so I’ve had to copy the image, so I have basically lost the quality of the photograph, however I’ll still use it on the blog.

This is the original photograph. What I like aside from the colour is its sense of ambiguity. This photograph was taken in an art exhibition, now with the viewer unaware they assume it’s an enclosed room and perhaps ideas begin to run through ones head as to where this place may be and what it is for. And I think the colour of the room will greatly influence the different interpretations of the purpose concerning this space. Personally I think the red almost has a sleazy effect to the image, particularly in relation to the neon light and the black leather seating area.

What I have done here (above) is increase the brightness of the image as its very dark and I want more red to be evident. However with the increase in brightness there is a loss in the clarity of the sign reading, The Marx Lounge.  

What I did to solve this problem was use the magic want to isolate the sign and increase the brightness of the rest of the image. I then used the cloning tool to clean up the outlining areas.