Colourful questions of an Indian village

Abstract

How we understand and recall colour in the environments we encounter is reliant on the context. Drawing on a repeated experience of the author in a rural Indian village, a number of questions were raised regarding visual distinctiveness and its impact on the identity of place embedded in the memories of the village. A photographic walk‐through was undertaken to determine the existing colour palette and its relationship to the character of the memories of the village. Combined with observations and theory drawn from the literature, it is proposed that considering the experience from a pluralist perspective enables insights to emerge. In this case, colour moments and colour contrast are key attributes of memories and identity construction for the village visitor.