1.a) Batchelor says that, "Colour is disorder and liberty; it is a drug, but a drug that can intoxicate, poison or cure. Colour is all of these things, and more besides, but very rarely is colour just neutral."
After this statement, Batchelor goes on to explain the fact that chromophobia and chromophilia are both opposites but also very similar at the same time. He says they are quite alike in shape and how the positive value of colour is striking in chromophobia in a way of femininity, oriental, cosmetic, infantile, vulgar, narcotic, etc. He says that it is not 'blocked, stopped or turned around. Because of these things, chromophilia comes into play showing the exact opposite of what chromophobia stands for which is chromophilia increasing the power of colour while chromophobia dulls it down a bit, plays it safe. Batchelor states that, "Chromophobia might not really have its opposite in chromophilia; chromophobia might be seen as simply chromophilaes weak form. That is to say, chromophobia recognizes the otherness of colour but seeks to play it down, while chromophilia recognizes the otherness of colour and plays it up. Chromophobia is perhaps only chromophilia without the colour."
1.b+c) I believe that Western culture experiences both chromophobia and chromophilia around the same time they come into contact with colour. I think that people want to play it up with colour and go all out full force but then they become afraid of colour and stick to the safer more neutral side of the colour spectrum. Only some people have the bravery to stand out with colour so they're on the chromophilia side of things while others are chromophobes and just stick to beige.
2.) A real world example of what my interpretation of colour laying beneath the surface would be of a lake in the Canadian Rockies of a lake where frozen gas bubbles are stuck beneath the frozen surface.There are so many shades of blue in the image below and the colours signify ice, cold, freezing, chilly, snow.
Another real world example of what colour is like on the surface is crayon painting where crayons are literally melted onto the surface of a canvas. The example below shows the crayons dripping down the canvas; the colours are all of the rainbow and are literally on the surface, they are in-depth or deep below, the colour just sits above and doesn't delve deeper into anything much like the ice and bubbles in the above image. It's a difficult question to answer because I take it as literal as possible.
3.) A fall into colour example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOCgXlRkmKk&feature=youtu.be
This example comes from a movie called Party Monster which is all about the rave scene and how it began. Lots of drugs and dancing involved and a ton of colour. The story begins with a boy who is plain, simple and boring who then meets another fellow who is vibrant, outrageous and bursting with colour. The simple boy begins his fall into colour by involving himself in the life of raving and partying and becomes a spectacle of colourful ridiculousness. As he sinks deeper and deeper into the world of vibrant glitter parties, he also sinks into drugs and becomes surrounded by the trippy craziness that drugs create. In other words, the drugs magnify colours and make everything that much intense and therefore he becomes consumed by the world of spectacular colour.
4.a)When Baudelaire states that colour has the power to be autonomous he is saying that colour has its own government or that it acts independently and freely. It flows freely and is everywhere and sometimes unavoidable.
4.b)The image below is an example of colour as being autonomous, it is flowing freely, lapsing on top of other colours and existing in a way that appears complicated but simple.
5.) David Sylvian's Artificial Colouring featuring a bunch of packaged candy bags which also contain artificial coloured candies and treats is a good example of colour producing a sort of terror because not only do we ingest the artificial colour inside of the bags but the bags themselves are made up colours, they are not of natural creations. That's scary to me, ingesting colour that is made of chemicals, it fills me with a certain nervousness and fear.
6.) The concept or theory that struck a chord with me is on page 60 of Chromophobia where Batchelor states that, "we have come at colour from many different directions; we have seen it seep into the world and flood over it; we have seen it rubbed out and covered over; we have seen it kill and be killed and give life and deny death. But whichever way we have come at it, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that colour is a very peculiar other, and that it is almost never less than other. We usually expect or demand of otherness that it be marked in some way, the better to distinguish it from our fine and cherished selves. As often as not, that has come to mean a physical mark of some kind, in order that a spatial separation can be made, at least in the imagination. The other is over there: geographically or physiognomically distinct. But the other that is colour is everywhere: around and in and of us, a part of everything we see every day in our every waking moment," stands out the most to me. I do believe that most people live and breathe colour; it affects everyone differently but similarly, whether it affects the mood or the way a person views their surroundings. I embrace what he says because it makes the most sense to me out of what I've read of the book so far. I love colour, I see everything in such a vibrant and positive way that when he states that colour is everywhere and is in our every waking moment, I believe it to be true and understand what he saying completely.
