Culture. Only the difference of living area diverse it’s identity. From fashion, foods, language and even impression of colour.
This story will be analyzing about “does AI understands the difference of impression of colors in culture”.
The topic popped into my head as I have begun generating various images for the exhibition via Midjourney.
1.There are difference in impression of colour?
For whom who may not know, there is a difference in impression of colour varied by the culture.
For example, how many colours are there in a rainbow? Mainly in America, would think there are 6 colours. But some area in Taiwan thinks there are only 3 colours and some tribes in Africa thinks there are 8 colours.
Here’s another example, , the chart below shows the difference of colours in culture like impression of “love” is red in Western/ American, Japan, and Arab but for Hindu is green, Native American is yellow, and Africa is blue!
As you can see, colours often have similar images in the same culture, but in different countries and cultures, the same colour may have a different image.
2.Why there are difference?
Thus, impressions of colour vary from country to country and ethnic group to ethnic group. The main reasons for this are, as we have already mentioned, due to culture, history and religion, as well as differences in eye colour and sunlight. The former is due to the existence of a common sense that “this is how this colour is”, while the latter is due to differences in the sense that “this is how this colour looks when I see it myself”. Let’s look at these in more detail below.
Differences due to culture, history and religion
Impressions of colour vary according to the culture, history and religion of the country or region to which a person belongs. As cultures change, so do the expressions and perceptions of colour. For example, when painting a picture of the sun, most Japanese use red, whereas in the West, yellow is used.
In other cases, an image for a colour may be historically attached to it. For example, purple used to be the colour of luxury goods because naturally occurring dyes were difficult to obtain in the past. Wearing purple was therefore a sign of power, and even today purple is associated with the image of ‘nobility’.
In other cases, the impression is determined by religion. In Christianity, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is said to have worn a yellow marker. Therefore, even today, some Christians may have an impression of yellow as ‘treacherous’ or ‘disloyal’.
Differences due to eye colour and sunlight
In addition to culture and religion, eye colour according to race and the wavelength of sunlight according to region also influence the colour image.
Regarding eye colour, some people in Northern Europe have blue or green eyes, while most Asian people have brown eyes. Eye colour is determined by the amount of melanin pigment, which influences the perception of lightness. In general, people with lighter-coloured eyes tend to feel more dazzled, and even when looking at the same object, the impression will differ depending on the colour of the eyes.
The colour is also affected by the wavelength of sunlight. Basically, red is emphasised at low latitudes and blue at high latitudes in sunlight. This means that even if the same person sees the same object, the colouring will vary slightly from place to place on the planet.
3.How much does AI understands the difference?
So, here comes the important part. To see whether AI comprehends impression of colour varies with culture.
the images below, I have generated 4 different images with topic of “love” in a variation of culture / country with simple prompts. (without typing in colour)
Does not seem culture difference in colour is reflected. Maybe need some specific prompt.
This was another trial. Does not seem how I have desired.
The below is other trial I have done. Realized that there is need to focus to the colour rather than the words of culture or nationality with more detailed prompts.
from the left, here is the prompts,
“impression of colour affected by culture of china, expressing the word respect”
”impression of colour affected by culture of china, expressing respect”
“respect, influenced by colour impression by country, china”
“respect, colours influenced by impression of colour by country, china”
Although I have arranged prompts and tried several times to see if it works, found out that when typing colour is more likely to generate with bright colours or colours with it’s country colour (e.g. china is red and yellow = influenced by national flag)
So, the conclusion is that AI cannot generate images with impression of colour varied by culture / country. Although there is a possibility that AI does understand, yup, asking to everyone’s favourite ChatGPT.
So I have tried answer no.2.
colours in culture is based on the below chart.
for no.2 I have chosen south american to express emotions represents red that are death and success.
I can see that there is confidence in these image. Usually, red represents passion, anger and love. But success also represents in native American, china, and eastern european.
4.the conclusion
Here is my conclusion, AI does understand the difference of impression of colour in culture / country (proved at chatGPT) but it is difficult to generate images on Midjourney with the reason generated images are affected by the prompts of country or culture.
Meo
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