I'm a time traveler. I point and laugh at archaeologists.

The whole reason I'm in London is to learn how to integrate media cohesively to tell a story. This weekend's lesson was about color. The visible spectrum, as defined by the limits of human vision, includes violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. I don't mention indigo because scientists question whether most humans are really capable of distinguising between indigo and violet. However, these colors are only what humans can see. Bees and many other insects can see ultraviolet light. The common goldfish can see both infrared and ultraviolet light. Mantis shrimp have the most complex eyes in all of the animal kingdom, and are able to polarized light.

Why all this talk about light? Our body's ability to sense (with our eyes) and perceive (translate into images with our brains) is what allows us to see color. Any number of ailments or experiences might affect one's ability to "see" something, and no two people will see something the exact same way. You wouldn't even see something the same way as a person who donated a cornea, because your brain is still yours.

Our assignment for the weekend was to tour the British Museum and look for objects of a certain color as training your eye to be on the lookout for a certain thing is one way to thing about using your camera. I chose to look for blue/teal objects after stumbling across a lovely turquoise bracelet. While purple is my favorite color, there was surprisingly little in the violet family at the museum, so I fell back on another favorite. 

These nine pictures were taken from the Asian, African, Indian, and North American exhibits. There were other objects in the teal/blue family, but none of them were as vibrant as these. 

I found myself having a hard time with this assignment, not because of an inability to find a particular color, but because of the sterile nature of the British Museum. I've mentioned in other posts that I'm interested in stories, and while the Rick Steve's guided tour was helpful, it did nothing to help me relate to the exhibits. There was too much that was behind class or out of reach for me to really feel a part of things. 

When we visited St. Paul's Cathedral, on the other hand, we had a guided tour which was FANTASTIC. Our tour guide told us Sir Christopher Wren's story and how the cathedral had changed over the years. I really got a feeling of the place and simply being there was moving. Now I'm not trying to knock on museums because there are plenty of museums I love visiting. It's just that I'm not a big history person. I like what I can touch, and for conservation purposes, you usually can't handle those kinds of artifacts. You can touch St. Paul's - you can feel the wood carvings and the stone columns and the wind upon your face at the top of the Golden Gallery. The rest of our plans for London and country are places you can touch and feel, so I'll be right as rain from now on.