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Unlearning Color - What benefit does unlearning (deconstruction) have in contemporary times and is color a good place to start?

Unlearning is becoming a factor in our contemporary educational landscape. Inclusion of the idea of functional deconstruction is beginning to play a part in how we approach multicultural and cross-disciplinary ideas. Where there are biases and outdated modes of learning there begins to be a real need for going back upon what we have held to be true. Ethical considerations become a factor whenever a method to unlearning is introduced. Should certain things be unlearned and what is the benefit of unlearning for it's own sake?Does it open us up to never before thought of opportunities and foundations for building new modes of thinking or does it eat away at the linear momentum of modernist cumulative progress with no discernible benefit?I introduced a method for going back on our understanding, psychological, spiritual and emotion connection with color some years back. The effects of this method had lasting consequences on my psychological health and caused me to regret the creation of this technique. I did however discover that one interesting consequence of this investigation was an openness and appreciation of sight I never thought possible.

I began this adventure by combining the spiritual and psychological implications of color introduced by Wassily Kandinsky and Goethe with the deconstructive methodologies of Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan. I thought that color was based on a system, much like language, that had a progressive vocabulary of experience and association that could potentially be reprogrammed with new connections. I paid no head to warnings of friends and mentors and dove into this process head first. My brain overloaded with new insights into many areas of my life that were psychological, spiritual and emotionally charged. I collapsed. It took about ten years to understand even what had happened.

So what relevance does the destruction of a system like this have? Were there benefits to this kind of exploration I have not considered? Is my experience simply a cautionary tale of what not to do or is there a useful side to exercises such as these? When, where and to whom, if anyone, would this process I had created be useful?

Instances of unlearning become useful when there is something that no longer serves a useful function or when there is a better way forward that is at odds with what we have known to be true. Examples are when a method of running is causing injury, we seek out a healthier technique, or when we learn a computer programming language that becomes obsolete, we unlearn the language and assimilate a new one. We select from that outdated method, those things that will transfer and ditch the rest.

Is it so different, the comparison of running and color theory? Do we not have racial issues with skin color, or the red threat of communism to address? Perhaps a method such as this can begin to address those concerns.

One interesting factor of art is that there is a record of how and when things had been tried. This is our historical record. Why should we maintain a working knowledge of everything that has come before if we can simply access it as it falls in the historical record at will through research. Doesn't our working knowledge take up space in our brains that can be occupied by more immediate and healthier concerns? Color, I argue, does not have a perfect history. Perhaps a method of this sort can help us unlearn that history and begin to repair the damage done.

-Neil S. Howe - 020214
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