Sometime last week, either in the shower or right before I feel asleep, I wondered how I would explainin to someone who had been blind their entire life what colors were. Obviously I could describe colors using words but I don't feel that would do the them justice; so using the senses of touch, smell, and taste (hearding as well as long as words aren't used) how would you give a blind individual the impression of what colors are? I'll start, using ROYGBIV as my colors of choice.
Red: A fairly easy one, I feel like radiant heat works the best along with the taste of a jalapeño.
Orange: A bit harder because it's similar to red; so the smell of potpourri along with the taste of, you guessed it, an orange.
Yellow: Again slightly challenging because of the similarities, so the feel of flower petals, the smell of daisy's, and a light breeze.
Green: The feel of a tree sapling (similar to a flower petal but a little more "tense" and the smell of a spring day, and yes that smell does exist.
Blue: Easy one here, the feel of a spray of water and the sound of an erupting geyser; the smell of rain as well.
Indigo/Violet: The feeling of touching another's skin, total immersion in water, and the notion of being free.
Well, pick any colors you want to describe from peach to mauve and discuss other's choices :]
Orange: A bit harder because it's similar to red; so the smell of potpourri along with the taste of, you guessed it, an orange.
Green: The feel of a tree sapling (similar to a flower petal but a little more "tense" and the smell of a spring day, and yes that smell does exist.
Blue: Easy one here, the feel of a spray of water and the sound of an erupting geyser; the smell of rain as well.
I don't think a blind person would make the same connections. You might think blue reminds you of water, but that's just because you're used to seeing water as blue, in oceans and such. A blind person wouldn't be able to understand a colour just from your references to real objects.
Also, I believe that colours give you different feelings in different situations. For example, a red chili will look really hot, but a red wall would definitely not look as hot. That's another reason why I don't think colours can be described using references to objects, or in any other way for that matter. The feeling they give differs, so the only way to describe them is by describing how they look, which is impossible to do to someone who's never seen anything.
You might think blue reminds you of water, but that's just because you're used to seeing water as blue, in oceans and such.
Perhaps, but the feel of water still translates to me; this is all hypothetical.
which is impossible to do to someone who's never seen anything.
I don't really agree, obviously it's very difficult but I'm trying to convey the emotion that is attached to the color in order to help them understand it better; again this is all hypothetical any more for fun than anything.
I have to agree with iMogwai I don't think describing color this way would work. For instance let's say I could see into y rays int he electromagnetic spectrum and i wanted to describe them. Would it hold any meaning to you if I said they were like icecream, especially blueberry icecream. Does that really help you at all understand what y rays look like?
Since you would have no frame of reference for them to work from you could only describe it from a scientific or mathematical perspective.
There's a term for this. I forgot what it was called, but it involved things that could not be taught. Like, for example, you could never describe in words what it's like to fall off a building, only describe the experience. You could never tell them what it's like to fall because they could never replicate the complex feelings unable to be brought across. So, to replicate that to its truest, you would need to push them off the building.
They could experience colors in an audible way. It is all just an electromagnetic spectrum. So it should be possible to bring the frequency we usually see to a level where it's picked up by our hearing instead.
