Lest people get the idea that all I do is rip on ads, it’s time to once again learn you people something what’s good fer ya.First off, I picked up a cool term from Mr. Dolby at his show a while back. It’s called sonification. Basically, it’s the process of using sound to represent data. The way he used it though was to take NASA recordings of the sun and convert it to a sound clip, which he then mixed into the same key of one of his song intros, Windpower. Very cool use of solar winds as it were.
Then there’s rhodopsin. No, he didn’t fight Godzilla or Mothra either. (See, eventually you knew I was going to tie the photo in somehow.) Also known as ‘visual purple,’ rhodopsin is the pigment sensitive to red light that’s in our eyes. The effect is one most creatives may have unknowingly experienced at one point or another, especially if you spent any time in a dark room.
It’s not affected by the red light of a dark room. What happens is that we adapt to the dark after 30 minutes or so, the rhodopsin having reached its full effect, which then results in a feeling of calm. Shadows reveal themselves as eyes adjust to the reduced light.
But the effect is over the instant any regular light is introduced onto the scene. The rhodopsin is then immediately bleached from the system as rods and cones go nuts reacting to the normal light as you then cover your eyes.
So there. And don’t worry, my next post will tear someone a new one. Land Rover, beware.
Tags: advertising, brands, viral, Thomas Dolby, sonification, rhodopsin
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