bounded

rancor

BLACK-1 emotions

abandoned

depressed

serious

sick

Related

• DEPTH: unpleasant (mouth down)
• HEIGHT: control (brows down)
• BREADTH: aroused (eyes open)

Parameters

• DEPTH: inward (mouth narrow)
• HEIGHT: strong (brows inner down)
• BREADTH: stable (mouth closed)

Quotes

• Book of Changes, first semantic lexicon

  Semanticus F. Alpaerts suggests in De Denkbeeldige Ruimte (1980) that the I Ching or Book of Changes, originating from mythical antiquity, is the first semantic lexicon of mankind. In this Chinese classic, unquestionably one of the most influential books in the world’s literature, 64 chapters are coded with a double triplet line code called hexagrams.

  Alpaerts used the Wilhelm (1971) translation to show a possible connection between the code lines from the I Ching and the codon encoding in the Semantic Colour Space. The open (- -) and closed (—) lines from the I Ching correspond with respectively the 0’s and 1’s from his semantic coding system. This way he could associate the concepts described in the 64 chapters of the I Ching, with the eight primary colours and their combinations (8×8) from his classification. Later, his hypothesis was confirmed by a comparative research he conducted on the similarities between his keyword-colour classifications, in which the concepts from the I Ching form an important part, and the empirical data from sociologist Eva Heller’s word-to-colour association study (Alpaerts, 1993).

  The following list includes I Ching chapter titles with links to pages in the DSD (between brackets: if the title is not in the DSD, a synonym), chapter numbers, digital coding (hexagram), and colour combinations.

  chapter title	chapters	hexagram	colour combination
  creative heaven	1	111:111	YL:YL
  the receptive	2	000:000	BL:BL
  difficulty at the beginning	3	010:001	GR:BK
  youthful folly (inexperienced, foolish)	4	100:010	BR:GR
  waiting	5	010:111	GR:YL
  the fight	6	111:010	YL:GR
  the army	7	000:010	BL:GR
  the all-encompassing	8	010:000	GR:BL
  the taming power of the small (newborn)	9	110:111	WH:YL
  performing	10	111:011	YL:PL
  peace	11	000:111	BL:YL
  standstill (stagnation, blocking)	12	111:000	YL:BL
  fellowship with men (together, community)	13	111:101	YL:RD
  great possessing (imperium)	14	101:111	RD:YL
  humbling	15	000:100	BL:BR
  rage (rancor, attack)	16	001:000	BK:BL
  pursue	17	011:001	PS:BK
  correcting (addressing)	18	100:110	BR:WH
  nearing, rapprochement	19	000:011	BL:PL
  viewing (perception)	20	110:000	WH:BL
  biting through (stick-it-out)	21	101:001	RD:BK
  adorning (embellish)	22	100:101	BR:RD
  splitting apart (slivering)	23	100:000	BR:BL
  the turning point	24	000:001	BL:BK
  innocence	25	111:001	YL:BK
  the taming power of the great (steering)	26	100:111	BR:YL
  the corners of the mouth, providing nourishment (feeding, grooming, open mouth)	27	100:001	BR:BK
  great exceeding (overloaded)	28	011:110	PL:WH
  the abyss	29	010:010	GR:GR
  the clinging, fire (flame, attach)	30	101:101	RD:RD
  influence, wooing (courtship)	31	011:100	PL:BR
  duration, constancy	32	001:110	BK:WH
  retreat	33	111:100	YL:BR
  the power of the great (powerful)	34	001:111	BK:YL
  progress	35	101:000	RD:BL
  darkening of the Light (hiding)	36	000:101	BL:RD
  family	37	110:101	WH:RD
  polarising (contrasts)	38	101:011	RD:PL
  obstruction	39	010:100	GR:BR
  liberation	40	001:010	BK:GR
  reduction	41	100:011	BR:PL
  increase, beneficial, useful (growth, functional)	42	110:001	WH:BK
  resoluteness, determination	43	011:111	PL:YL
  meeting	44	111:110	YL:WH
  gathering together, massing (assemble)	45	011:000	PL:BL
  pushing upward	46	000:110	BL:WH
  oppression, exhaustion (depletion, sucked out)	47	011:010	PL:GR
  the well	48	010:110	GR:WH
  revolution, moulting	49	011:101	PL:RD
  the cauldron (terrine)	50	101:110	RD:WH
  the arousing, shock, thunder	51	001:001	BK:BK
  keeping still, mountain (still, not moving)	52	100:100	BR:BR
  development, gradual progress	53	110:100	WH:BR
  the marrying maiden (concubine)	54	001:011	BK:PL
  abundance, fullness	55	001:101	BK:RD
  the wanderer, travelling (wanderlust)	56	101:100	RD:BR
  the penetrating, wind	57	110:110	WH:WH
  the joyous, lake (gay)	58	011:011	PL:PL
  dispersion, dissolution, (scattering)	59	110:010	WH:GR
  limitation, moderation (delimitation, restriction)	60	010:011	GR:PL
  inner truth	61	110:011	WH:PL
  preponderance of the small (unremarkable, incompetent)	62	001:100	BK:BR
  after completion	63	010:101	GR:RD
  before completion	64	101:010	RD:GR

• Black-on-blue and the meaning of words with A-A-O vowels

  The meaning of 600 Dutch words that contain the vowels A, A and O, such as in ‘vagabond’ or ‘catacombs’, were compared in several languages. AAO-translations of Dutch AAO-words were examined in Hungarian (HG), Italian (IT) and Spanish (SP). In a lesser degree were used: English (EN), French (FR), Old and Modern Greek (OG and MG), Latin (LT), Romanian (RH), Polish (PL), Serbo-Croatian (SK) and Turkish (TS). This research of F. Alpaerts (1984) shows a connection between the triplet vowels AAO, and the colour combination black-on-blue. Because some keywords are related, Alpaerts classified them into themed clusters.

  1. Attack: The direct physical violence. The threat to property (robbery, looting, mugging). The physical and psychological attack on the body (disease, infection by impurity). Psychic attacks (abrasive, rancor). Attacks on the social body: violating social purity rules (inappropriate behavior, swearing, sexual offenses). Attack on the culture (immigration, marginality, and poverty).
  2. Death (religious): The boundary of life (death). The dying (illness, diseased, weary). The abode of the dead (tombs, catacombs, cemeteries). The cult of the dead (Pharaohs, ancestor worship, funeral rites).
  3. Haggler (costly, money, wasteful). Fear of loss of property is agony.
  4. Border (maggoty, wasteland, abandoned, vagabond). Crossing borders, whether national, social, cultural, or regarding the body or property are associated with contamination and death.
  5. Braggart (make an impression)
  6. Rest and unrest (lying down, anchor, stampede, mass movement, large-scale events). Rest in the sense of lying down, doing nothing, either through illness, death, vacation, or unemployment. Doing nothing is caused by external factors that are considered a constraint. Unrest shows itself in major events that bring masses of people together: social commemorations, music events, war.
  7. Conceal (locksmith). That which lies behind the border or which one hides from attackers.
  8. Embrace. Not a loving embrace, but clamping down on property to protect it from robbers (see also Haggler and Conceal). Stuffed bag, or suitcase, money handle, safe.
  9. Contamination (dirt, rag, feet, contact with the ground). Contamination by touching contaminated objects, such as the ground, a sick person or a corpse. Contamination of the earth, of our bodies resulting in disease, of the social and cultural body.

  Keywords classified in the DSD under the black-on-blue code are:

  1. assault, attack, biting, abandoned, curse, rancor, theft, thief
  2. ancestor, forefather, body, coffin, final resting, death, the end, grave, urn, graveyard, underground, undertaker, serious, secret, mystery, depressed, old age, disease, sick
  3. bill, costly
  4. border, boundary, bounded, beggar, wasteland
  5. tightwad
  6. mass movement
  7. concealing, digging, haze
  8. embrace, filled
  9. contamination, dirt, footprint (dirty), rag, waste, shoes

  I. Michiels (red.)

• Isolation and loneliness in colour

  PRIMARY COLOURS

  

  The colours blue, green and black are the most commonly used in visual communication depicting isolation and loneliness. In the Semantic Colour Space these three primary colours are all located at the back. In the depth dimension this suggests a meaning with a strong focus on the inner world of thought.

  The three primaries, in the context of isolation and loneliness, might express the following notions:

  blue: corner, distant; space;
  green: crossing, barricade;
  black: stop, shut-up.

  

  COLOUR COMBINATIONS AND SPECIFIC HUES

  

  In the context of being alone in a closed space the blue-on-green colour combination, and the semantically associated hue turquoise blue (blue-2), expresses a compelled isolation. In the case of Covid-19 for example, that would be a disciplinary measure imposed on citizens by the government, or self-imposed for fear of contamination. This situation for civilians could metaphorically be described as civilians chained to their homes.

  

  

  When the emphasis of isolation is placed on the feeling of utter abandonment as a mode of a depressed mental state, the colour-combination black-on-blue and the semantically associated hue dark grey (black-1), is frequently used in visual communication.

  

  

  

  In case the isolation is characterized as a trap or imprisonment, the colour combination black-on-green and the semantically associated hue olive drab (black-3) are best suited.

  

  

  

  

  The Semantic Colour Space reveals the close relationship of concepts found in the colours of visual communication expressing loneliness and isolation.

  

  The poster for the film Caged combines different aspects of the idea of loneliness and isolation. The use of turquoise in the background conjures up the notions of chains and forced isolation. This ambiguous hue can be seen as blue-green as well as green-blue. With black in the foreground we can evoke the feeling of being imprisoned (black-on-green), and the presence of an ensuing depressed mental state (black-on-blue).

  Inez Michiels

• A cheerful circle and a serious square

  When roundness is connected to symmetry as seen in a circle, it has a meaning in the depth dimension and perceived as cheerful and pleasant. While straight corners are perceived as more serious (Poffenberger en Barrows, 1924). Lakoff and Johnson (1999) saw that there are many proverbs and sayings that have to do with form characteristics and emotions. Round: regulated, completed, ready. (Michiels, I. editorial)

• Serious dark grey in the funeral business

  Dark gray shades in black&white photography reflect the seriousness of the undertaker’s profession.

  

• Effect of horizontality and verticality

  Simonds (1983) connects horizontality in landscapes with a positive feeling that has a calming effect. Horizontality as a sign of the ‘good life’. While verticality of composition, goes mentally deeper and shows more suited for serious subjects.

• Rising composition and emotion

  Simonds (1983) connects a rising composition with optimism, success and happy feelings, falling with pessimism, defeat and depression.

• Square versus rounded

  Square/rounded has an important influence on the function of the size of an angle. Rounded corners are experienced more cheerfully, while straight angles are perceived as more serious (Poffenberger en Barrows, 1924). Round and square are also related to activation. Roundness in parts of utensils or interfaces can indicate a button, where activation is needed. Sharp roundness can therefore trigger alertness and induce action.

• Black and negative feelings

  All negative feelings are still associated with black. Gray, the colour of sadness, in combination with black, characterizes negative feelings that are more directed against themselves than at others.
  Heller (1989)

• ‘Critical situation’ and colour in Germany

  Critical situation: black 35%, grey 18%, brown 14%, …
  Heller (1989)