Popular in Professional

Business

The Allegory of the Favela: The Multifaceted Effects of Socioeconomic Mobility

University of Pennsylvania Leandro S. Pongeluppe

Architecture

Connecting Cities and Nature

University of Virginia Timothy Beatley

Human Rights Law

Human Rights and Corruption: Problems and Potential of Individualising a Systemic Problem

Max Planck Institute Anne Peters

Finance

Chinese Exchange Rate Policy: Lessons for Global Investors

University of California San Diego Michael Melvin

Law

A statistical approach to law school citation rankings

University of Virginia Joshua Fischman

Education

Firm Performance Pay as Insurance against Promotion Risk

Stockholm School of Economics Alvin Chen

Relations in Aesthetic Space: How Color Enables Market Positioning

View more insights in Professional - Business - Entrepreneurship and Innovation

View more figures from New Bulgarian University

View the page of Stoyan V. Sgourev

Read the Study

Next in Business

The Making of the “Good Bad” Job: How Algorithmic Management Manufactures Consent Through Constant and Confined Choices

Lindsay Cameron | University of Pennsylvania

Achieving Mutual Understanding Without Saying a Word

Xiao-Ping Chen | University of Washington

Stoyan V. Sgourev developed a relational approach to color, conceptualizing it as a means of positioning relative to a reference group or style and validating it through a computational method for processing digital images.

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 17, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

This video video discusses a study that merges sociological perspectives with art history, particularly focusing on the analysis of color in artistic expressions such as album covers. The author, a sociologist, is motivated to explore how color can serve as a bridge between different fields and how it can impact social identity and cultural dynamics. This video video interest stems from a historical context, particularly referencing the importance of color in Venetian art during the 16th century, where color was integral in establishing both collective and individual identities.

The research specifically examines Norwegian black metal music, which emerged in a stigmatized context characterized by extreme imagery and lyrics. The study involved analyzing over 5,000 album covers from 1989 to 2019 to understand how these colors reflect changing social identities and aesthetic preferences over time. The findings suggest that black metal bands initially adopted more colorful representations to normalize their image in response to societal pressures. However, as the genre gained global recognition, they reverted to darker aesthetics, reaffirming their resistance to mainstream culture while reclaiming authenticity.

Furthermore, the author highlights a relational framework for analyzing the meaning of color based on its social connections and how it influences identity construction in various fields, such as fashion or consumer goods. The study proposes a parsimonious model where creative producers engage in positioning—adapting their aesthetic choices relative to others—and expression—reflecting their internal states through these choices. The author notes that this analysis of color in the context of aesthetic networks not only provides insights into sociological dynamics but also addresses psychological and emotional states relevant to the creators and their audiences. Overall, the research highlights the significance of color as a relational force in creative industries and suggests promising directions for future research in multimodality and aesthetic analysis.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.305 --> 00:03.205
The motivation for this study originates in my

00:03.205 --> 00:04.285
professional background.

00:04.385 --> 00:06.285
Uh, I'm a sociologist by training,

00:06.905 --> 00:09.285
but I have a longstanding interest in art

00:09.285 --> 00:10.525
history and aesthetics.

00:10.905 --> 00:14.325
Uh, and I guess it's natural when situated between fields,

00:14.585 --> 00:18.685
to try to find common ground, to bridge the gap

00:18.685 --> 00:21.845
between them, such as by using ideas

00:22.065 --> 00:25.205
or methods from one field to apply to the other.

00:25.825 --> 00:28.245
Um, to some extent this is necessary

00:28.305 --> 00:30.165
to avoid cognitive dissonance.

00:30.625 --> 00:32.365
Uh, so my intention was

00:32.365 --> 00:36.445
to approach art history from a sociological perspective,

00:36.445 --> 00:39.605
such as by thinking of paintings as configurations

00:39.665 --> 00:43.205
of elements and tracing their evolution over time.

00:43.745 --> 00:45.885
Um, analyzing how they change

00:46.385 --> 00:49.125
and how this change is contingent on social

00:49.265 --> 00:50.565
and cultural processes.

00:51.145 --> 00:52.405
Um, and for many years,

00:52.795 --> 00:55.205
this framework remain conceptual in nature,

00:55.865 --> 00:59.325
but the arrival of computational methods of analysis

00:59.325 --> 01:03.445
of images that made it possible to quantify the framework,

01:03.905 --> 01:07.125
and to test arguments about the structure

01:07.145 --> 01:09.765
of the configuration or its rate of change.

01:10.465 --> 01:13.165
The methods started diffusing from computer science

01:13.385 --> 01:14.725
to the social sciences,

01:15.185 --> 01:18.005
and I realized that what was previously conceptual

01:18.545 --> 01:20.165
is now in critically testable.

01:20.585 --> 01:23.845
Uh, this is what motivated my interest in the analysis

01:23.845 --> 01:27.325
of digital images, such as the covers of music albums

01:27.745 --> 01:29.925
and with my co-authors, Eric Den

01:29.925 --> 01:33.965
and Giovanni for Millon we're excited by the possibility

01:34.265 --> 01:36.565
to understand the social structure of color

01:36.745 --> 01:38.565
by analyzing album covers.

01:39.305 --> 01:41.525
Uh, but why color is the central element,

01:41.785 --> 01:45.005
and the simple answer is that I'm fascinated by color.

01:45.265 --> 01:48.685
Um, I was intrigued by the color revolution,

01:48.715 --> 01:52.365
that took place in Venice, Italy in the early 16th century.

01:52.945 --> 01:55.685
Uh, in contrast to artists in in Rome

01:55.865 --> 01:59.805
or Florence, Venetian artists attributed primary importance

01:59.825 --> 02:01.685
to color in the pictorial space.

02:02.455 --> 02:06.005
Color allowed this artist to create a collective identity

02:06.315 --> 02:09.685
that differentiated them from artists in Rome or Florence.

02:10.625 --> 02:14.045
Venice became synonymous with bright vivid colors,

02:14.865 --> 02:16.885
but color did something else too.

02:17.305 --> 02:20.165
It provided opportunities for the construction

02:20.345 --> 02:23.125
of recognizable individual identities

02:23.665 --> 02:26.085
as Venetian painters became known for the use

02:26.085 --> 02:28.245
of particular colors allowing

02:28.245 --> 02:31.685
to differentiate themselves in a crowded competitive market.

02:32.305 --> 02:35.525
So I had this in as a background in my head

02:35.865 --> 02:39.885
and was wondering whether I might be able to capture some

02:39.885 --> 02:43.205
of this dynamics in a project that I was involved in

02:43.745 --> 02:45.365
on Norwegian black metal.

02:46.205 --> 02:48.845
I thought that it may be more empirically tractable

02:49.065 --> 02:52.405
to analyze album covers rather than paintings.

02:52.575 --> 02:55.245
Color is somewhat paradoxical in nature

02:55.515 --> 02:58.165
because it is simultaneously highly visible

02:58.545 --> 02:59.965
and analytically invisible.

03:00.825 --> 03:04.325
It is fair to say that organizational research generally

03:04.455 --> 03:07.565
lacks color, but it is not only this field

03:07.755 --> 03:09.885
that lacks systematic attention to color,

03:10.715 --> 03:14.005
even in fields in which we might expect studies of color,

03:14.355 --> 03:15.805
such as the history of art

03:16.495 --> 03:19.405
color has long remained conspicuously absent.

03:20.105 --> 03:22.485
Uh, this absence may be largely due

03:22.485 --> 03:23.845
to the ambivalence of color.

03:24.385 --> 03:27.725
It is simultaneously an objective physical property

03:28.065 --> 03:30.885
and a subjective experience as a perception

03:31.485 --> 03:33.485
dependent on our eyes as receivers.

03:34.385 --> 03:38.485
So color is characterized by objective physical traits such

03:38.485 --> 03:42.325
as brightness and saturation, which shape its perception,

03:42.985 --> 03:44.605
but its meaning is always

03:44.655 --> 03:47.125
subjective relative to other colors.

03:47.545 --> 03:50.245
Our perception of color results from the

03:50.245 --> 03:51.765
interaction with other colors.

03:52.625 --> 03:55.645
Uh, the dominant approaches to the analysis

03:55.645 --> 03:58.685
of color in the social sciences are of two kinds.

03:59.185 --> 04:01.325
The first one is psychologically in nature.

04:01.745 --> 04:04.045
Um, color has effective force

04:04.465 --> 04:06.605
and is associated with emotional states.

04:07.325 --> 04:10.045
Scholars have recognized that the use of color

04:10.765 --> 04:13.245
manifests individual or collective emotions

04:13.385 --> 04:15.685
and psychological components of the self.

04:16.425 --> 04:19.245
Um, color organizes our feelings according

04:19.345 --> 04:21.685
to specific connotations, such

04:21.685 --> 04:25.685
as when product designers manipulate color to create a sense

04:25.705 --> 04:27.125
of personality for brands.

04:27.945 --> 04:30.445
The second approach is sociological in nature.

04:30.945 --> 04:34.885
Uh, aesthetic perception depends on constructs such

04:34.885 --> 04:39.565
as status, identity, or career stage that vary all the time.

04:40.345 --> 04:43.325
And what sociologists are particularly interested in is

04:43.345 --> 04:46.605
how perception of color changes all the time as the use

04:46.605 --> 04:49.685
of color adapts to evolving public tastes

04:49.985 --> 04:53.365
or to new trends by pursuing proximity to

04:53.465 --> 04:54.565
or distance from them.

04:55.265 --> 04:58.445
Um, and I would like here to reference the work

04:58.465 --> 05:01.325
of the sociologist, Gary Allen, fine

05:01.665 --> 05:04.085
or cla on the social structure

05:04.225 --> 05:06.325
and relational configuration of colors,

05:06.905 --> 05:10.365
all the excellent work of the historian Michelle, pastor.

05:11.385 --> 05:15.165
Uh, so what we do in our paper is we build on this

05:15.165 --> 05:16.565
sociological framework

05:16.745 --> 05:21.125
to propose a testable relational framework where the meaning

05:21.345 --> 05:25.605
of color emerges from relations with objects, persons,

05:25.745 --> 05:28.525
or events highlighting its ability

05:28.945 --> 05:30.805
to make visible identities

05:31.225 --> 05:34.045
and to connect relevant others into a network.

05:34.705 --> 05:37.205
And we articulate two types of relations,

05:38.005 --> 05:40.405
external relations when color serves

05:40.405 --> 05:41.965
to connect cultural producers

05:42.385 --> 05:45.045
and internal relations, which are the relations

05:45.045 --> 05:48.725
between the elements themselves, such as

05:49.595 --> 05:52.765
connections within the style of a particular producer.

05:54.005 --> 05:55.805
Existing sociological research on,

05:55.905 --> 06:00.685
on color is qualitative in nature, while our intention was

06:00.705 --> 06:04.565
to propose an empirically testable model of the applica

06:04.585 --> 06:07.805
of the application of color based on principles

06:07.985 --> 06:09.365
of association with

06:09.545 --> 06:12.765
or distancing from reference groups inspired

06:12.785 --> 06:16.245
by the foundational work of the sociologist ziel.

06:16.745 --> 06:20.165
So this framework is parsimonious in nature and quant

06:20.305 --> 06:22.485
and quantitative and can be tested

06:22.825 --> 06:24.045
in very different settings.

06:24.415 --> 06:28.325
Black metal emerged in Norway's underground heavy metal seen

06:28.325 --> 06:29.485
around 1990.

06:30.145 --> 06:33.805
It followed in the footsteps of early heavy metal bands such

06:33.925 --> 06:36.885
as Black Sabbath that explored the occult in their

06:36.895 --> 06:38.165
music and lyrics.

06:38.985 --> 06:41.045
The first wave of black metal took place

06:41.315 --> 06:44.845
outside Norway in the early 1980s, represented

06:45.105 --> 06:48.365
by the band's venom, bathy, and merciful fate.

06:48.985 --> 06:52.845
The second wave was pioneered by a few Norwegian bands such

06:52.925 --> 06:55.685
as Mayhem, bur Emperor, dark Throne,

06:55.745 --> 06:59.405
or Immortal, that pushed metal towards harsher sound

06:59.425 --> 07:03.645
and imagery as an expression of their opposition to

07:03.645 --> 07:05.925
what they viewed as the commercialization

07:05.925 --> 07:07.245
of heavy metal at the time.

07:07.905 --> 07:11.525
Uh, these bands adopted extreme images in lyrics

07:11.525 --> 07:14.685
that articulated pagan anti-Christian messages.

07:15.325 --> 07:18.005
A taste for the macabre manifested itself

07:18.025 --> 07:19.405
in blasphemous lyrics.

07:19.795 --> 07:21.245
Demonic stage persona

07:21.465 --> 07:25.285
or the application of corpse paint on faces, members

07:25.345 --> 07:28.285
of the Norwegian black metal scene went a step further

07:28.825 --> 07:32.885
in celebrating the forces of evil by committing a series

07:32.905 --> 07:35.765
of criminal acts from 1991 to 96,

07:36.355 --> 07:39.925
including church burnings, grave desecration, burglary,

07:39.925 --> 07:41.125
assault, and even murder.

07:41.905 --> 07:43.605
Uh, they committed arson attacks in

07:43.605 --> 07:46.645
around 30 historic wooden churches, leading

07:46.665 --> 07:48.925
to prison sentences for the perpetrators

07:48.945 --> 07:50.925
and lasting notoriety for the genre,

07:51.375 --> 07:54.885
which was heavily stigmatized in Norwegian society in the

07:54.885 --> 07:55.965
mid 1990s.

07:56.825 --> 08:00.485
But surprisingly, black metal continued to attract fans

08:00.705 --> 08:03.805
and to grow worldwide with tens of thousands

08:03.865 --> 08:05.565
of bands playing this music.

08:06.305 --> 08:09.645
The genre entered the music mainstream with the success of,

08:09.705 --> 08:11.805
of bands such as Satcon and de.

08:12.465 --> 08:16.485
In the early two thousands, band started sending hundreds

08:16.485 --> 08:18.525
of thousands, even millions of albums,

08:19.105 --> 08:20.245
and in less than a decade,

08:20.705 --> 08:24.605
the genre grew from an obscure subculture to the largest

08:25.125 --> 08:26.645
cultural export of Norway.

08:27.265 --> 08:29.525
And this is a key reason why we decided

08:29.545 --> 08:32.485
to study black metal, is we were interested in

08:32.505 --> 08:35.045
how their aesthetic representation evolved

08:35.555 --> 08:37.765
with the changing fortunes of the genre.

08:38.545 --> 08:41.245
The genre is defined it by its predilection

08:41.245 --> 08:44.565
for the black color associated with dark forces

08:45.145 --> 08:47.725
and opposition to institutionalized religion.

08:48.385 --> 08:51.965
It is disassociation with the black color that we use

08:52.025 --> 08:53.085
to test our model.

08:53.625 --> 08:55.565
We compiled a, a database

08:55.625 --> 08:59.005
of 5,125 album covers

08:59.115 --> 09:00.925
between 1989

09:01.185 --> 09:04.605
and 2019, analyzing the relations

09:04.605 --> 09:06.565
between bands playing black metal

09:07.025 --> 09:09.965
and bands playing other types of heavy metal in Norway,

09:09.965 --> 09:12.005
which constituted our reference group.

09:12.985 --> 09:14.885
The results of our models attest

09:14.885 --> 09:19.125
to a curvy linear dependence black metal bands associated

09:19.195 --> 09:22.885
with past color choices of non-black metal bands up

09:22.885 --> 09:25.165
to a point after which they started

09:25.185 --> 09:26.605
to disassociate from them.

09:27.185 --> 09:30.245
Uh, so we observe, complex positional gain.

09:30.975 --> 09:34.165
Black metal bands reproduced aesthetic conventions

09:34.455 --> 09:37.285
associated with the dominant heavy metal genre,

09:37.945 --> 09:40.485
but also sought to maintain distance from

09:40.595 --> 09:41.805
from these conventions.

09:42.555 --> 09:44.005
This game of compliance

09:44.345 --> 09:46.245
and distancing is in agreement

09:46.275 --> 09:49.845
with the basic sociological principles that were formulated

09:49.865 --> 09:52.645
by kemal in the early 20th century.

09:53.625 --> 09:55.565
Uh, it is important to underline

09:55.565 --> 09:59.765
that dispositioning is dynamic, allowing the bans to respond

09:59.825 --> 10:00.965
to external events.

10:01.945 --> 10:04.525
We found that black metal bans reacted

10:04.525 --> 10:08.125
to their stigmatization in Norwegian society in the mid

10:08.445 --> 10:12.125
1990s by bolstering the appeal of their albums

10:12.345 --> 10:14.725
and making their covers more colorful.

10:15.425 --> 10:19.045
The intense social pressure on black metal in the mid 1990s

10:19.805 --> 10:22.445
encouraged bands to try to normalize their image

10:22.785 --> 10:24.885
by adding color to the album covers.

10:25.665 --> 10:28.925
Our analysis reinforces prea evidence showing

10:28.995 --> 10:31.885
that organizations project a positive image

10:32.025 --> 10:33.845
to challenge negative evaluations.

10:34.435 --> 10:37.285
However, as stigmatization, abated

10:37.745 --> 10:41.765
and black metal started selling on a global scale, the use

10:41.765 --> 10:44.565
of color increasingly reverted to the black

10:44.585 --> 10:47.165
and white mode signifying resistance.

10:47.785 --> 10:49.765
The black color allowed this bands

10:49.785 --> 10:53.045
to affirm their resistance to the ness of popular culture,

10:54.045 --> 10:56.125
reclaiming connection to the authenticity

10:56.225 --> 10:57.525
of the underground period.

10:58.155 --> 11:00.885
They returned to a darker aesthetic dominated

11:00.905 --> 11:04.405
by the black color in defiance of the commercialization

11:04.465 --> 11:06.325
of a formerly underground genre.

11:07.145 --> 11:10.045
The duality of the black color is fundamental

11:11.145 --> 11:13.565
by asserting it in a negative way is an

11:13.565 --> 11:14.885
expression of resistance.

11:15.305 --> 11:17.405
The bands used it in a positive way

11:17.585 --> 11:19.365
to construct a relational identity.

11:20.925 --> 11:22.485
Probably the key contribution

11:22.485 --> 11:26.005
of our analysis is the explanation of the role

11:26.235 --> 11:29.165
that color can play in such positional games

11:29.865 --> 11:33.445
by organizing information exchanges between producers

11:33.985 --> 11:35.725
and helping identities emerge.

11:36.265 --> 11:39.485
In addition to more familiar product features such as price,

11:39.665 --> 11:43.765
design or craftsmanship, through our analysis of color,

11:44.385 --> 11:47.725
we managed to expose practices of mutual observation,

11:48.305 --> 11:51.405
how producers position themselves relative

11:51.405 --> 11:54.845
to those they view as relevant in decisions on the content,

11:55.545 --> 11:59.325
the pricing, or the design of products.

11:59.795 --> 12:01.725
This is a relational vision of markets

12:02.235 --> 12:06.005
that is very much inspired by the sociology of Heisen White.

12:06.465 --> 12:08.725
Our analysis confirms something that,

12:09.365 --> 12:12.605
Venetian artists in the 16th century must have felt

12:12.605 --> 12:16.565
intuitively that color is a powerful means of positioning,

12:17.125 --> 12:20.405
allowing the projection of an identity based on forces

12:20.585 --> 12:23.525
of association with and disassociation from others.

12:24.105 --> 12:27.045
Uh, basic principles of positioning complies similarly

12:27.045 --> 12:31.125
to 16th century art as to music in the 1990s,

12:31.675 --> 12:34.645
aesthetic networks are present not only in music

12:34.785 --> 12:37.885
and art, they can be found in fashion design,

12:37.945 --> 12:39.045
or consumer goods.

12:39.745 --> 12:43.165
Cal connects people with workplaces where a complex web

12:43.165 --> 12:46.405
of affinities and entities is manifested in

12:47.065 --> 12:49.685
ary choices apart from less visible ways.

12:50.625 --> 12:52.845
Our analysis reinforces the assumption

12:52.955 --> 12:54.965
that color is relational in nature,

12:55.255 --> 12:57.925
connecting people in aesthetic networks.

12:58.265 --> 13:00.085
For example, the poet gthe

13:00.725 --> 13:03.805
observed in his famous treatise on the topic in 1810,

13:04.395 --> 13:07.885
that KA is a relational force that is every movement

13:07.885 --> 13:09.445
between subject and object.

13:09.995 --> 13:12.765
This relational of force is on display when people

13:12.905 --> 13:16.405
or companies make everyday decisions on the palette

13:16.425 --> 13:17.725
or intensity of colors

13:17.905 --> 13:20.325
to feature in their clothes or products.

13:21.005 --> 13:22.285
A choice between bright

13:22.305 --> 13:24.885
and muted colors signals our identities.

13:25.545 --> 13:28.725
Now this choice is really independent of the choices

13:28.905 --> 13:31.045
of those surrounding us, our friends,

13:31.355 --> 13:32.845
competitors or enemies.

13:33.745 --> 13:35.405
The choices are also influenced

13:35.465 --> 13:37.445
by trends in culture and fashion.

13:38.145 --> 13:40.765
Um, what we managed to do in our analysis is

13:40.765 --> 13:42.925
to visualize these aesthetic networks,

13:43.385 --> 13:46.605
but we are also mindful that we're only at the outset

13:46.605 --> 13:48.605
of the process, and there's quite a lot

13:48.605 --> 13:51.245
of work remaining in order to understand

13:51.705 --> 13:53.365
how aesthetic networks emerge

13:53.745 --> 13:55.885
and the principles by which they evolve.

13:56.505 --> 13:59.565
Uh, and we believe that a particularly promising direction

13:59.585 --> 14:03.605
for future research is the degree of alignment between image

14:03.605 --> 14:06.325
and text, examining the extent

14:06.325 --> 14:09.165
to which words in narratives complement

14:09.305 --> 14:11.245
or contradict associated images.

14:12.075 --> 14:13.805
This is known as multimodality

14:14.185 --> 14:16.405
and is a fundamental question in the history

14:16.405 --> 14:18.485
of culture going as far back

14:18.865 --> 14:21.205
as the illuminated medieval manuscripts.

14:22.025 --> 14:24.525
In a follow-up paper with my colleagues Don

14:25.265 --> 14:28.805
and Giovanni Formill, we developed a relational approach

14:28.865 --> 14:32.325
to multimodality, combining a computational method

14:32.385 --> 14:33.925
for exploring visual data

14:34.355 --> 14:36.245
with natural language-based methods

14:36.385 --> 14:37.965
for processing verbal data.

14:38.905 --> 14:40.685
And this type of analysis takes,

14:40.895 --> 14:43.125
takes place in a distinctive research context,

14:43.675 --> 14:45.725
drawing on the digitized letters

14:45.865 --> 14:48.325
and paintings of the artist Vincent Van Ho.

14:49.555 --> 14:51.365
This is one of the most famous cases

14:51.465 --> 14:53.525
of multi-modality in the history of culture.

14:54.225 --> 14:57.165
Um, his letters and paintings are complimentary sources

14:57.265 --> 14:59.285
of insight into his working methods.

15:00.185 --> 15:03.045
Our analytical objective is to connect the structure

15:03.065 --> 15:04.605
of the letters and paintings

15:04.635 --> 15:06.445
through the principle of opposition.

15:07.585 --> 15:10.445
The visual analysis testifies to the growing role

15:10.445 --> 15:13.725
of contrast of complementary colors in his paintings.

15:14.295 --> 15:17.325
While the textual analysis provides consistent evidence

15:17.585 --> 15:19.525
for increasing effective cognitive

15:19.525 --> 15:23.125
and behavioral ambivalence, we demonstrate how the use

15:23.125 --> 15:26.125
of contrast expresses effective cognitive

15:26.265 --> 15:28.325
and behavioral types of ambivalence.

15:29.185 --> 15:31.805
The artist developed an innovative visual language

15:31.905 --> 15:33.445
to express contradictions

15:33.785 --> 15:35.125
and relational tensions

15:35.345 --> 15:37.685
to which he was exposed in his personal life.

15:38.475 --> 15:40.565
This is one example of how the use

15:40.585 --> 15:42.285
of advanced computational methods

15:42.825 --> 15:46.125
can provide insights not only into social mechanisms,

15:46.825 --> 15:49.205
but psychological and emotional states as well.

15:50.065 --> 15:51.965
An important theoretical implication

15:51.985 --> 15:54.285
of our analysis is the crystallization

15:54.385 --> 15:57.725
of a parsimonious relational model of aesthetic space

15:58.255 --> 16:01.925
where the actions of creative producers can be summarized

16:01.955 --> 16:03.605
into two complimentary functions,

16:04.285 --> 16:05.965
positioning and expression.

16:07.085 --> 16:10.605
Positioning is external in nature as producers make use

16:10.605 --> 16:13.885
of a set of aesthetic elements to draw closer to

16:14.065 --> 16:16.125
or further apart from other producers.

16:16.535 --> 16:18.765
While expression is internal in nature,

16:19.015 --> 16:21.605
assembling a configuration of aesthetic elements,

16:21.765 --> 16:25.485
particularly to a creative producer based on a mixture

16:25.485 --> 16:27.285
of emotions, reflections,

16:27.465 --> 16:29.365
and relations to the surrounding world.

16:30.225 --> 16:33.925
And in this logic, any creative enterprise such as painting,

16:34.035 --> 16:38.165
writing, or designing address constitutes a configuration

16:38.165 --> 16:41.245
of elements that reflect emotional states ideas

16:41.505 --> 16:45.685
and social relations, whose meaning is socially constructed

16:46.385 --> 16:49.965
by positioning it externally vis-a-vis other producers.

16:50.745 --> 16:52.605
As the Vangogh case demonstrates,

16:53.245 --> 16:56.925
creative producers simultaneously strive to give expression

16:56.925 --> 17:00.445
to internal states through the use of particular elements,

17:01.105 --> 17:04.525
and position these elements in aesthetic space in a manner

17:04.755 --> 17:08.285
that attracts public attention and facilitates recognition.

17:09.625 --> 17:11.165
The ambivalent nature of color,

17:11.455 --> 17:13.365
which spends subjective properties

17:13.545 --> 17:15.045
and subjective experiences.

17:15.315 --> 17:17.205
Natural and social sciences,

17:18.045 --> 17:21.605
everyday life in corporate boardrooms is a challenge

17:21.605 --> 17:23.005
to our theories and methods,

17:23.665 --> 17:25.965
but it's also a source of exciting opportunities,

17:27.045 --> 17:28.165
calories indispensable

17:28.165 --> 17:30.965
to the functioning ka our image obsessed capitalism.

17:31.585 --> 17:33.765
And it's also a fundamental cultural element

17:33.995 --> 17:38.205
that fortress curious historical connections such as those

17:38.205 --> 17:40.885
between Venetian artists in the 16th century,

17:41.545 --> 17:44.365
the bright colors of Van Gogh in the late 19th century,

17:44.905 --> 17:46.045
and the chilling darkness

17:46.045 --> 17:48.405
of Norwegian black metal in the 1990s.

17:49.175 --> 17:51.685
These aesthetic networks are most intriguing,

17:52.345 --> 17:54.165
and I believe there are many fascinating

17:54.625 --> 17:57.085
and colorful discoveries lying ahead of us.

Bridging Sociology and Art through Color Analysis

00:00:00 - The motivation for this study originates in my professional background. I'm a sociologist by training, but I have a longstanding interest in art history and aesthetics. and I guess it's natural when situated between fields, to try to find common ground, to bridge the gap between them, such as by using ideas or methods from one field to apply to the other. to some extent this is necessary to avoid cognitive dissonance.
00:00:32 - to approach art history from a sociological perspective, such as by thinking of paintings as configurations of elements and tracing their evolution over time. analyzing how they change and how this change is contingent on social and cultural processes. and for many years, this framework remain conceptual in nature, but the arrival of computational methods of analysis of images that made it possible to quantify the framework,
00:01:07 - of the configuration or its rate of change. The methods started diffusing from computer science to the social sciences, and I realized that what was previously conceptual is now in critically testable. this is what motivated my interest in the analysis of digital images, such as the covers of music albums and with my co-authors, Eric Den and Giovanni for Millon we're excited by the possibility
00:01:36 - by analyzing album covers. but why color is the central element, and the simple answer is that I'm fascinated by color. I was intrigued by the color revolution, that took place in Venice, Italy in the early 16th century. in contrast to artists in in Rome or Florence, Venetian artists attributed primary importance to color in the pictorial space. Color allowed this artist to create a collective identity
00:02:10 - Venice became synonymous with bright vivid colors, but color did something else too. It provided opportunities for the construction of recognizable individual identities as Venetian painters became known for the use of particular colors allowing to differentiate themselves in a crowded competitive market. So I had this in as a background in my head and was wondering whether I might be able to capture some
00:02:43 - on Norwegian black metal. I thought that it may be more empirically tractable to analyze album covers rather than paintings. Color is somewhat paradoxical in nature because it is simultaneously highly visible and analytically invisible. It is fair to say that organizational research generally lacks color, but it is not only this field that lacks systematic attention to color,

Understanding Color: Objective and Subjective Perspectives

00:03:14 - such as the history of art color has long remained conspicuously absent. this absence may be largely due to the ambivalence of color. It is simultaneously an objective physical property and a subjective experience as a perception dependent on our eyes as receivers. So color is characterized by objective physical traits such as brightness and saturation, which shape its perception,
00:03:44 - subjective relative to other colors. Our perception of color results from the interaction with other colors. the dominant approaches to the analysis of color in the social sciences are of two kinds. The first one is psychologically in nature. color has effective force and is associated with emotional states. Scholars have recognized that the use of color manifests individual or collective emotions
00:04:16 - color organizes our feelings according to specific connotations, such as when product designers manipulate color to create a sense of personality for brands. The second approach is sociological in nature. aesthetic perception depends on constructs such as status, identity, or career stage that vary all the time. And what sociologists are particularly interested in is how perception of color changes all the time as the use
00:04:49 - or to new trends by pursuing proximity to or distance from them. and I would like here to reference the work of the sociologist, Gary Allen, fine or cla on the social structure and relational configuration of colors, all the excellent work of the historian Michelle, pastor. so what we do in our paper is we build on this sociological framework
00:05:21 - of color emerges from relations with objects, persons, or events highlighting its ability to make visible identities and to connect relevant others into a network. And we articulate two types of relations, external relations when color serves to connect cultural producers and internal relations, which are the relations between the elements themselves, such as
00:05:54 - Existing sociological research on, on color is qualitative in nature, while our intention was to propose an empirically testable model of the applica of the application of color based on principles of association with or distancing from reference groups inspired by the foundational work of the sociologist ziel. So this framework is parsimonious in nature and quant

Evolution and Impact of Norwegian Black Metal

00:06:22 - in very different settings. Black metal emerged in Norway's underground heavy metal seen around 1990. It followed in the footsteps of early heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath that explored the occult in their music and lyrics. The first wave of black metal took place outside Norway in the early 1980s, represented by the band's venom, bathy, and merciful fate. The second wave was pioneered by a few Norwegian bands such
00:06:55 - or Immortal, that pushed metal towards harsher sound and imagery as an expression of their opposition to what they viewed as the commercialization of heavy metal at the time. these bands adopted extreme images in lyrics that articulated pagan anti-Christian messages. A taste for the macabre manifested itself in blasphemous lyrics. Demonic stage persona or the application of corpse paint on faces, members
00:07:28 - in celebrating the forces of evil by committing a series of criminal acts from 1991 to 96, including church burnings, grave desecration, burglary, assault, and even murder. they committed arson attacks in around 30 historic wooden churches, leading to prison sentences for the perpetrators and lasting notoriety for the genre, which was heavily stigmatized in Norwegian society in the mid 1990s.
00:08:00 - and to grow worldwide with tens of thousands of bands playing this music. The genre entered the music mainstream with the success of, of bands such as Satcon and de. In the early two thousands, band started sending hundreds of thousands, even millions of albums, and in less than a decade, the genre grew from an obscure subculture to the largest cultural export of Norway.
00:08:29 - to study black metal, is we were interested in how their aesthetic representation evolved with the changing fortunes of the genre. The genre is defined it by its predilection for the black color associated with dark forces and opposition to institutionalized religion. It is disassociation with the black color that we use to test our model. We compiled a, a database of 5,125 album covers
00:09:01 - and 2019, analyzing the relations between bands playing black metal and bands playing other types of heavy metal in Norway, which constituted our reference group. The results of our models attest to a curvy linear dependence black metal bands associated with past color choices of non-black metal bands up to a point after which they started to disassociate from them. so we observe, complex positional gain.

Color Dynamics in Black Metal's Identity Formation

00:09:34 - associated with the dominant heavy metal genre, but also sought to maintain distance from from these conventions. This game of compliance and distancing is in agreement with the basic sociological principles that were formulated by kemal in the early 20th century. it is important to underline that dispositioning is dynamic, allowing the bans to respond to external events.
00:10:04 - to their stigmatization in Norwegian society in the mid 1990s by bolstering the appeal of their albums and making their covers more colorful. The intense social pressure on black metal in the mid 1990s encouraged bands to try to normalize their image by adding color to the album covers. Our analysis reinforces prea evidence showing that organizations project a positive image
00:10:34 - However, as stigmatization, abated and black metal started selling on a global scale, the use of color increasingly reverted to the black and white mode signifying resistance. The black color allowed this bands to affirm their resistance to the ness of popular culture, reclaiming connection to the authenticity of the underground period. They returned to a darker aesthetic dominated by the black color in defiance of the commercialization
00:11:07 - The duality of the black color is fundamental by asserting it in a negative way is an expression of resistance. The bands used it in a positive way to construct a relational identity. Probably the key contribution of our analysis is the explanation of the role that color can play in such positional games by organizing information exchanges between producers and helping identities emerge.
00:11:39 - design or craftsmanship, through our analysis of color, we managed to expose practices of mutual observation, how producers position themselves relative to those they view as relevant in decisions on the content, the pricing, or the design of products. This is a relational vision of markets that is very much inspired by the sociology of Heisen White.
00:12:09 - Venetian artists in the 16th century must have felt intuitively that color is a powerful means of positioning, allowing the projection of an identity based on forces of association with and disassociation from others. basic principles of positioning complies similarly to 16th century art as to music in the 1990s, aesthetic networks are present not only in music and art, they can be found in fashion design,

Exploring Color's Role in Aesthetic Networks

00:12:39 - Cal connects people with workplaces where a complex web of affinities and entities is manifested in ary choices apart from less visible ways. Our analysis reinforces the assumption that color is relational in nature, connecting people in aesthetic networks. For example, the poet gthe observed in his famous treatise on the topic in 1810, that KA is a relational force that is every movement between subject and object.
00:13:12 - or companies make everyday decisions on the palette or intensity of colors to feature in their clothes or products. A choice between bright and muted colors signals our identities. Now this choice is really independent of the choices of those surrounding us, our friends, competitors or enemies. The choices are also influenced by trends in culture and fashion. what we managed to do in our analysis is
00:13:43 - but we are also mindful that we're only at the outset of the process, and there's quite a lot of work remaining in order to understand how aesthetic networks emerge and the principles by which they evolve. and we believe that a particularly promising direction for future research is the degree of alignment between image and text, examining the extent to which words in narratives complement or contradict associated images.
00:14:14 - and is a fundamental question in the history of culture going as far back as the illuminated medieval manuscripts. In a follow-up paper with my colleagues Don and Giovanni Formill, we developed a relational approach to multimodality, combining a computational method for exploring visual data with natural language-based methods for processing verbal data. And this type of analysis takes, takes place in a distinctive research context,
00:14:45 - and paintings of the artist Vincent Van Ho. This is one of the most famous cases of multi-modality in the history of culture. his letters and paintings are complimentary sources of insight into his working methods. Our analytical objective is to connect the structure of the letters and paintings through the principle of opposition. The visual analysis testifies to the growing role of contrast of complementary colors in his paintings.
00:15:17 - for increasing effective cognitive and behavioral ambivalence, we demonstrate how the use of contrast expresses effective cognitive and behavioral types of ambivalence. The artist developed an innovative visual language to express contradictions and relational tensions to which he was exposed in his personal life. This is one example of how the use of advanced computational methods can provide insights not only into social mechanisms,

Relational Model of Aesthetic Positioning and Expression

00:15:50 - An important theoretical implication of our analysis is the crystallization of a parsimonious relational model of aesthetic space where the actions of creative producers can be summarized into two complimentary functions, positioning and expression. Positioning is external in nature as producers make use of a set of aesthetic elements to draw closer to or further apart from other producers. While expression is internal in nature,
00:16:21 - particularly to a creative producer based on a mixture of emotions, reflections, and relations to the surrounding world. And in this logic, any creative enterprise such as painting, writing, or designing address constitutes a configuration of elements that reflect emotional states ideas and social relations, whose meaning is socially constructed by positioning it externally vis-a-vis other producers.
00:16:53 - creative producers simultaneously strive to give expression to internal states through the use of particular elements, and position these elements in aesthetic space in a manner that attracts public attention and facilitates recognition. The ambivalent nature of color, which spends subjective properties and subjective experiences. Natural and social sciences, everyday life in corporate boardrooms is a challenge
00:17:23 - but it's also a source of exciting opportunities, calories indispensable to the functioning ka our image obsessed capitalism. And it's also a fundamental cultural element that fortress curious historical connections such as those between Venetian artists in the 16th century, the bright colors of Van Gogh in the late 19th century, and the chilling darkness of Norwegian black metal in the 1990s. These aesthetic networks are most intriguing,
00:17:54 - and colorful discoveries lying ahead of us.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis