Color Perception in Sociology

Abstract

Color is a central feature of social life, yet its value in sociological theory is ambiguous. This paper establishes an approach to a social theory of color by focusing on color perception. Using theories from materiality studies and cultural sociology, I argue that color perception is an unstable and contestable phenomenon shaped by social and material factors. My argument is empirically grounded in a case study of a blockbuster museum show called Gods in Color. The show toured 21 cities in Europe and North America from 2003 to 2015. Its centerpiece—brightly painted reconstructions of ancient Greek and Roman marble sculptures—triggered a vigorous debate about the limits of science in correcting historical optics. The case has broader implications for sociological theories of authenticity, materiality, and aesthetic knowledge.

Cultural Objects, Material Culture, and Materiality

“…Conversely, studies of materiality (Domínguez Rubio 2014Greenland 2016;Griswold et al 2013;Mangione 2016;McDonnell 2010;Miller 2005;Mukerji 1994a;Zubrzycki 2013) focus on the material qualities of objects and the contingent ways those qualities shape the meaning and use of those objects. In this sense, meanings are not overdetermined by the social constructions of group culture.…”

“…This move broadens the semiotic possibilities analysts can now observe. We can see how, treated as material instantiations in the world, the physical qualities of ink or paint cause symbols to change, altering their capacity to represent and signify: whether a vanishing self-portrait of da Vinci (Domínguez Rubio 2016), the degraded paint on classical marble sculptures leaving only the now-iconic white representations (Greenland 2016), or the fading red ink of a red AIDS awareness ribbon into a pink breast cancer ribbon over time (McDonnell 2010). When we analyze objects through the lens of qualities, more than just symbols, the capacities for objects are inherently more open.…”

“…The affordances of objects depend upon the human capacities (cognitive, physical, linguistic, skills) of the people interacting with the object. Work on the sociology of the senses makes clear how people's perceptual capacities and embodied cognition shape meaning-making (Cerulo 2018, Friedman 2011, Greenland 2016, Klett 2014, Lembo 2020, Mangione 2016, Simmel 1997, Winchester 2016). Research has productively synthesized the literature on materiality and cognition to explore how affordances vary by sense perception, ability, experience, and setting.…”

Consecration and Materiality

“…But while protecting historic objects from the vagaries of modernity, conservation simultaneously recreates the objects as products of modernity. “Authenticity,” therefore, emerges as a byproduct of contemporary tastes, aesthetic biases, scientific capability, best practices, and historical imagination, all of which are socially circumscribed (Greenland, 2016). One of the best known examples of this phenomenon is the set of sculpted marble figures from the Parthenon in Athens, now in the British Museum.…”

Materiality and Change in Social Fields

“…It is here, we argue, that scholars advancing the importance of materiality of objects and settings (Griswold et al, 2013;McDonnell, 2016;Rose-Greenland, 2016;Rubio, 2014;Taylor et al, 2019;Wood et al, 2018;Zubrzycki, 2013) have much to offer field theory. While regularities are constituted by conversation, interaction, and systems of beliefs (Dromi, 2016), it is also through exposure to non-human objects and settings that novices develop field-specific capacities, even in the absence of co-presence, and it is through materials that veterans continue to feel the effects of the field.…”