A Phenomenological Science Study of Light and Color
(E-Book, Online Content)

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 55-02M(E).

Advisors: Craig Holdrege Committee members: Ellen Greenblum; Mark Riegner.

M.A.,Prescott College,2015.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate a new approach to science that includes human perception and sensory modalities. Phenomenological thinking is used to integrate experience with understanding. I create a physical body of artwork that can be seen by a viewer and can lead to a personal experience of the phenomena being investigated. The goal of the thesis is to show that the phenomenological method can be followed in a way that can be replicated, yet is not an experimental method of the usual sort.

This approach is important because of problems in the traditional scientific approach. Husserl's consideration of the "Crisis of European Sciences" detailed much of the modern disengagement with the natural world, both in modern thinking and in modern experience of the physical world. This is a problem in education when young people are gradually infused with an abstract sense of the world. Moreover, environmental problems often stem from the distance created by the modern understanding of the physical world. This thesis project will show how this intuition can be developed through creating color projects that make visible the various aspects of the color experience.

By examining of various color phenomena in a visual way and then comparing the experience of those phenomena, a new understanding of color can be acquired. This intuitive approach, as explained by Goethe's phenomenology, Husserl's transcendental epoche and Cassirer's intuition, can lead to a new way of investigating natural phenomena.

English

School code: 1181

School code: 1181