A museum can be many things and can be in many forms. A person collecting items from the past can turn their bedrooms into a museum if people attend and come to view his/her collection of items. Usually a museum has a ongoing them throughout the collected items. Knell describes a museum as an institute “charged with the long-term duty of preserving and presenting the patrimony of the nation, culture or community.”1 The first museums we called cabinets of curiosities also known as wonder-rooms. These cabinets were a lot more private and not always true. These rooms were owned by individuals in the renaissance era. The owners could almost control the world and its history through what they called theatre rooms. Since then we have moved on more public and accurate displays or collections. Museums today are less random on focus on specific events and disciplines. European museums we said to be more accurate and superior to other museums that started to develop, especially during the 19th century. America started their own collections of science and natural history but it couldn’t compare to that of Europe. Marjorie Schwarzer has noted that “midway through the 19th century, collections in American museums were embarrassingly inferior to the priceless originals found in European museums.”3 …Museums preserve a wide variety of objects either natural or human made, that have been created throughout time.4
Bradley that “Objects that have been made by “great artists” are more likely to survive because they are being protected by patrons. However, many objects (such as pottery, textiles, glassworks, etc.) do not survive because they were never meant to survive. These objects were made to be used and in turn abused.”5 All that the museum personnel can do is put forth the effort to slow down the deterioration.6 The assembly, preservation, and display of collections are fundamental to the idea of the museum.7 The objects then justify the museum. The objects are “there for research, reference, prestige and entertainment.”8 They also create cohesiveness in a community. They can define a region and tell stories of the region, and are therefore identifiers of place.
One aspect of a museum’s mission is preservation of the collections. The museum’s collection staff is charged with the preservation and long-term survival of the objects within the collection. While preserving collections is obviously essential, for many museums conservation is sadly not the primary concern. Experts generally perform conservation in this field who have a significant amount of training in how to restore, prevent damage and preserve. “Conservation is the primary care an object receives which protects it from damage or loss. It includes providing proper environmental conditions, treatments to ensure the preservation of the object, security, and handling.” 9
Light is essential in order to see the objects in both the exhibit and storage areas, but light also damages these objects. Light is made up of three aspects: ultraviolet radiation or UV light, infrared light, and visible light. Excessive light and heat cause damage. Reducing bright UV light will limit fading and reducing infrared light will limit heat damage.84 Museum environments are lit by a combination of natural light and artificial light. It can be too bright in areas directly under windows and also can become very bright and hot in sunny weather causing problems to items. Historical houses typically have different lighting issues than galleries and museums, which are often built without windows in display areas. In historical houses, light brightness and temperature can be controlled by using window coverings such as curtains and/or indoor or outdoor blinds, covering windows completely with an opaque panel, or limiting, UV light levels with transparent or translucent film.85
Artificial lighting can be controlled and adjusted more quickly than natural light. Types of artificial lighting to choose include: low UV or UV-filtered globes that are low voltage so they will not produce too much heat; fluorescent lighting (the most common ones used for general illumination, but not desired at all); UV-filtered fluorescents, and low UV track lighting can be used to highlight certain features.86 Now LED (Light- emitting diode) is available. There are also filters that are transparent and colorless and do not affect the quality of light. The intensity of light is measured in “lux” or foot candles, taking the duration of the exposure into account, the total and the light dose
84 History Trust of South Australia. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. PDF Filehttp://www.history.sa.gov.au/chu/downloads/CMP_help_sheets/Museum%20Environment%20final%2 0150609.pdf
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
are measured in “lux hours”. 87 The recommended maximum levels for light is up to 50 lux for more sensitive materials, textiles and works of art on paper, and 200 lux for oil- paintings.88 The following table shows the recommended levels for different types of objects in the collection.
The simplest and most common definition of psychology is that it is the scientific study of behaviour, in other words psychology is “the science that makes use of behavioural and other evidence to understand the internal processes leading people and members of other species to behave in the ways that they do." (Eysenck 2000: 3). Physiology and in particular human physiology: “studies the functions and activities of living human bodies and their components" (Torshin 2007: 11). In this essay I shall use physiology to study human responses such as heart rate, blood pressure and the effects of tension. As mentioned at the beginning of this essay most of my data has been gathered from previous studies.
I intend to investigate how mood and emotion can be measured, and ultimately influenced. Mood states were not always welcomed by the scientific community; the behavioural and cognitive paradigms so prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s often tended to devalue the significance of moods. Frequently, mood and effect went without mention in prominent analyses of behaviour (Zajonc 1980). However, this devaluation has changed in recent times and most behavioural analyses today include significant affective components (Tomkins 1981). Mood is clearly a bio-psychological process that involves the whole individual. In other words, mood would not occur without biochemical, psycho physiological and cognitive components, as well as subjective reactions: “Implicit assumption that mood is nothing more than a response caused by cognitive, physiological and biochemical events. Thus, subjective feelings are regarded as the last process.” (Thayer 1989: 5). It is my opinion that subjective feelings interact together to affect the mood of the individual. Mood is related to emotion, but when the term ‘mood’ is used, it usually implies a longer course of time, which is probably the central distinction between the two. In 1965 the Nowlis Mood Adjective Check List (MACL), a statistical method to define and analyse mood, was introduced that consisted of 33 adjectives selected from a large pool of emotion and mood terms. The subjects are asked to check each item that applies to their mood state of the day (Frijda 1986: 181). I have prepared and sent out questionnaires to subjects that ask them to disclose if they believe they have an emotional response from specific colours. It is the psychological and physiological response to colours that I believe is most beneficial to my research.
In 1978 Professor Alexander Schauss of the American Institute for Biosocial Research in Tacoma, Washington set up a scientific experiment to study the effects that colour had on human behaviour. Working from initial ideas he had read in published work by Swiss psychiatrist Max Luscher, Schauss found that concentrating on a certain shade of pink (originally labelled P-618) after physical exercise lowered his heart rate, pulse and respiration as compared to other colours (Schauss 1981: 1). With the assistance of the United States Naval Correctional Centre in Seattle, Schauss was able to begin his study. Schauss renamed the colour to ‘Baker-Miller pink’ in dedication to the two officers at the centre, Commander Miller and CWO Baker. The walls and ceiling of one of the admission cells was painted in Baker-Miller pink (figure 1), while the remaining cells were left untouched. Newly confined prisoners were systematically admitted to the cell and observed for fifteen minutes during which no incidents of erratic behaviour were recorded (Eiseman 2000: 40). This research continued for 156 consecutive days, beginning on 1 March 1979. The results during this period were reported to the United States Navy’s Bureau of Naval Personnel, Law Enforcement and Corrections Division, Washington, D.C., stating: "Since initiation of this procedure on March 1, 1979, there have been no incidents of erratic or hostile behavior daring the initial phase of confinement." (Schauss 1981: 1). The data from this study showed that after only a period of fifteen minutes exposed to the Baker-Miller pink, detainees were not demonstrating any violent or aggressive behaviour. This calming effect could actually continue for up to thirty minutes after the subject had been removed from the cell. So successful was Schauss’ experiment that he took it to a county sheriff’s office in California where he noted that its effectiveness was increased within a smaller space; the smaller the cell the less chance of violent behaviour. (Schauss 1981: 1). The Baker-Miller pink has been used widely in detention facilities: “The use of this colour in juvenile correctional centres, psychiatric hospitals and its testing under laboratory conditions with students confirms its effect in suppressing violent and aggressive behaviour." (Cassidy 1997: 84)
In 1988 an experiment was set up to determine the effects of colour in the office workplace in relation to the mood of its workers. Professors Nancy Kwallek, Carol Lewis and A.S. Robbins of the University of Texas assessed the effects of a red, green and white office environment on worker production and mood. It was predicted that "those who worked in the red office would find it a more tense environment and would make more errors.” (Miller 1997: 104). It was also expected that the subjects working in the green office would perform better than those in the red office. The white office was included as a comparison as it is the most common colour for an office working environment. The white office was expected to provide results that were better than red, but worse than green. In actuality the results told a different story. The workers in the red office actually made fewer errors than those in the white or green offices, even though they found the colour “distracting." (Miller 1997: 104). The research team found that subjects working in the white office made more errors than those working in the red or the green office. On a personal level the subjects stated their preference to working in the white environment, considering it a “more appropriate colour for an office than either red or green.”(Miller 1997: 104). However, in response to this test, Ainsworth, Simpson and Cassell in their study, Effects of Three Colours in an Office Interior on Mood and Performance in 1993 found "no effect of colour on performance or emotion."(Cassidy 1997: 85). Their hypothesis led them to believe that the warm colour, red, would induce high arousal and activity, whereas blue will induce feelings of low arousal. However, their results did not support their hypothesis. They concluded that the reason for error was in their methods, not in their actual hypothesis. If the data gathering was flawed then we must omit their findings and focus on the original test. The red office environment produced the least amount of mistakes, whereas the white office was the preferred colour of the subjects.
What these two studies show is the importance of colour and how human behaviour reacts to it. The science behind this is complex and an understanding of how a human ‘sees’ colour is vital. Colour exists everywhere there is light. Sir Isaac Newton, analysing the rays of the sun, detected that all the different colours, except extreme purple are contained in light. The brain responds to it instinctively and unconsciously. As Schauss demonstrated, the colours within our immediate environment affect our mood and ultimately our behaviour. This behaviour is individually subjective but reactions to colour combinations can be predicted with startling accuracy: “Science has always recognised the link between colour combinations and mood or behaviour." (Conway 2004: 76). The exact science of how we see colour is due to how the various wavelengths of light strike our eyes in different ways, affecting our senses: “Within the eye, the retina converts these waves into electrical impulses, allowing the brain to decode this visual information. This information is passed to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain governing our endocrine system producing hormones, and hormones affect our mood." (Conway 2004: 76). In other words the eye must operate with light for the brain to interpret colour: "Everything we see is coloured. Nothing visible is free of colour. This has profound consequences, for colour affects the autonomic nervous system, muscle tension, cortical activity, enzymatic and hormonal secretions." (Day 2007: 115).
With this in mind it is important to quantify how different colours affect our behaviour, both mentally and physically. Our cultural and historical upbringing will play a part in how we react to certain colour schemes. In simplistic terms it could be argued that warm colours such as reds, oranges and yellows will incite an active response, exciting the subject; whereas cooler colours such as blues and greens will calm and quieten them. In fact it has been argued that the power of colour placement is a science and should not be left to the uneducated: "So powerfully do they influence mood, and such potential do their relationships have for harmony or discord, spirit-uplifting beauty or teeth-gritting ugliness, that colours are too important just to leave to fashion or dramatic whim." (Day 2007: 116). But how does colour affect human behaviour? In the Schauss experiment one colour managed to pacify, it even lowered pulse and heart rates of its subjects. This goes one step further than the subject merely relating to the notion of seeing a soft colour. One theory is that we do not only ‘see’ with our eyes, but we indirectly see with the glands that produce hormones in our brains; the pineal gland, a gland that produces melatonin, a hormone that may weakly modulate wake and sleep patterns: "Although a person may not be able to differentiate colour, transmitters in the eyes pick up information from visible radiant energy sources and transmit that energy to the hypothalamus, and the pineal and pituitary glands. So it may be possible to 'see' with your glands." (Eiseman 2000: 40). This theory is one that Schauss promotes in his Baker-Miller study: “One possibility includes the existence of a hormone (e.g. thyrotropin-releasing hormones, TRH, thyroliberin) acting as a neurotransmitter to the hypo-thalamus or pineal gland. This could in turn effect other cells in the adrenal medulla, supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus, the hypothalamo-hypophyseal portal system, and the turberoinfundibular cells of the hypothalamus.”(Schauss 1981: 1).
What these theories allow is the possibility that in a controlled environment, clever use of colour can and will affect the psychological and physiological behaviour of targeted subjects, albeit in a basic premise of colour application. Moods are influential, but they not always control behaviour, the tendency of subtle moods to influence behaviour may be most apparent when they have been present for a lengthy period of time. Initially, the mood may be disregarded and overridden, but over time it can control a person’s behaviour. For example, someone who is experiencing a very positive mood may react differently to a minor irritation than he or she would if in a negative mood. Here, mood has an effect on behaviour, but one that is secondary to the immediate situational determinants of the behaviour. In this case, mood would be a moderator variable. What I now want to examine is how the wider spectrum of art, and its combination of colours and shapes, can be used to provoke an emotional response from an unprepared public.
1 Knell, Simon J. "Introduction: the Context of Collections Care." Care of Collections. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.
2 Buck, Rebecca A., and Jean Allman Gilmore. Collection Conundrums: Solving Collection Management Mysteries. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2007. 5.Print
3 Schwarzer, M. (2006) Riches, Rivals, & Radicals; 100 Years of Museums in America. Washington DC: American Association of Museums, pp. 70-102
4Ibid. 102.
5 Bradley, Susan M. "Do Objects Have a Finite Lifetime?" Care of Collections. Ed. Simon J. Knell. London: Routledge, 2006. 52. Print.
6 Ibid. 54.
7 Macdonald, Sharon. “Collection Practices” In A Companion to Museum Studies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006. 81. Print.
8 Burcaw, George Ellis. Introduction to Museum Work. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira,1975, 1997ed. 56. Print.
9 Fruth, Martha. "OHS – Local History – A Primer on Museum Collection Management." Ohio History Online Portal. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/oahsm/notebook/julaug1985.html>.