HE German It is one of the most fascinating languages ​​on the European continent, especially if we exclude those from non-Indo-European branches. Grammar allows the formation of long and colorful words, all consisting of a primary and a determiner. Thus, the German language has bequeathed legendary concepts to the world. spirit of the times anyone lightning attackHe can summarize much more complex ideas in one breath.

A malleable language (if such a language exists) lends itself to a multitude of creations and innovations, as a playground for thinkers and scientists of all kinds. So if Einstein designed this Gedanken experiment, nineteenth century psychologist Gustav Theodor Fechner He saw fit to baptize what he observes when our eyes remain closed; a color cataloged today in HTML as #16161d: Eigengrau.

Its formulation is simple as explained here: Eigengrau It literally means “own grey” or “inner grey”; It is the complete darkness that our ocular eye sees when we lower our eyelids. This is a somewhat precise definition. What we see when we close our eyes is not black, a color that is much more elusive than it appears in nature, but a gray full of flecks or bright flashes.

Fechner, one of the pioneers of his field and the father of experimental psychology, found in his native language (Saxon German at the time, 1801, still part of the Holy German Empire) sufficient syntactic flexibility to elucidate this issue. Eigengrau. “Eigen” means “own light,” while “grau” simply means “grey.”

Eigengrau vs. Black.

The proposal has a very poetic character and is very suitable for German. “Eigen” refers to the inherent value of gray in itself, which we think about when we close our eyes. It is the color our brain turns to. automatically a chromatic range spontaneously created by our optic nerves when there is nothing to observe. This is the color Nothingand therefore of everything that exists when life ends.

“Eigen” has many other uses in German. “Eigenwärme” refers to our body heat produced by our own body; “Eigentor” talks about our self-determined vital goals; and “Eigenliebe” means “self-love.” HE Eigengrau Thus, when we want to close our eyes to the world, the philosophical color that appears there becomes a permanent accompaniment. Really.

Do we really see?

This is a good question. In reality, we observed something very similar and evenly toned, but it was not a monotonous and opaque color as the HTML codes produced. Just close your eyes to see: where before there were shapes, forms and colors, a vague mass of sparkles, stars and geometric shapes appears, randomly reproduced on a dark background.

HE Eigengraubut also phosphenes.

What happens when we lower our eyelids has been the subject of exciting scientific research. The word “phosphenes” itself is another loanword from a foreign language, in this case the ancient Greek “phos” meaning “light” and “phainein” meaning “to show” and referring to the small points of light they look at. our pupils when real light no longer reaches our eyes.

Why do they happen? Because of our brain. Our visible spectrum consists of photons of light that, after being captured by our eyes, reach the neurons in our brain, a system of intertwined lenses and nerves. Their job is crucial, as they transform light into shapes and colors, which are then interpreted by our visual cortex into what we loosely call “vision.”

This last step is crucial: Neurons use electrical signals to build our visual field, and their activity never stops. Even when we close our eyes. The sparkles and patterns (sometimes geometric) we perceive when we close our eyes arise from the incessant activity of our visual cortex, whose activity is persistent and spontaneous. If we apply force to our drooping eyelids, electrical signals increase.

Pure black.

That’s why we never see black pure, the color we should see in advance when the absence of light is complete. The achievement of such a disturbing tonality was left in the hands of experimental artists and scientists from all walks of life. A few years ago we talked about the blackest color produced by humans, a paint that can absorb 99.96% of ambient light. Far, far away Eigengraujust a dark grey.

However, its origin is more natural. More inherent in our existence, full of irregular patterns and imperfections, always mottled, never pure. Possibly only German, the language that served as a vehicle for existentialism and nihilism, could christen a color that was not a color but an inescapable experience.

in Xataka | All the colors you see on the internet are wrong. And it’s your browser’s fault.

in Xataka | Color before Pantone: Darwin’s guide to naming nature’s hues

*An earlier version of this article was published in June 2019.