Institute of Media Studies

Colour Preferences

- An interdisciplinary research project on the relationship between colour perception and visual culture.

Funded since October 2015 as part of the call Exploration Fund – Platform 4

The project Colour Preferences - an interdisciplinary research project on the relationship between colour perception and culture aims to systematically explore colour perception, colour preferences and visual culture, as well as their changes as a result of globalisation. The goal of the research network, which will involve media studies, neuroscience, psychology, Indology, Japanology, Sinology and design research, is an interdisciplinary and methodologically innovative examination of colour. The interplay between experiment and cultural analysis is an innovative approach. The broad spectrum of subjects at the University of Tübingen and its Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN), as well as the renowned Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), with its cooperation between media studies, neuroscience, psychology, and the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, provide an ideal starting point for the kind of colour research envisioned here. Through the further expansion and cooperation of these subjects, this research is also integrated into the strategic planning of the future concept of the University of Tübingen. The already extensive preliminary work for the project also includes the expansion of the technical infrastructure of the ColourLab, which is funded by the Excellence Initiative and plays a central role in the implementation of the research goals of the Colour Preferences project. The results that can be achieved through the project are relevant both to basic research and to practical applications in large industrial sectors.