Good afternoon everyone,

I had today's Fem Friday totally written in my mind, and was quite happy with it, then I saw this photo of Katie Bouman and everything changed:

This is what it looks like, when you are a woman who is the reason we have a photograph of a black hole. I can't stop looking at it. Would that we all experience this purity of joy at least once in our lives. Thank you Katie Bouman, you are also the reason today's Fem Fri is about women and colour. Here, to kick us off, is more info on how to take a photo of a black hole:

No single telescope is powerful enough to capture the black hole, so a network of eight was set up to so do using a technique called interferometry. […] Dr Bouman's method of processing this raw data was said to be instrumental in the creation of the striking image. She spearheaded a testing process whereby multiple algorithms with "different assumptions built into them" attempted to recover a photo from the data.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47891902

Here's another woman who works with colour and immaterial things – it's Ann Veronica Janssens, light artist. I always love to see her work when it's in London, and I am sure that you will enjoy this long and detailed video interview with her. It's fully subtitled too, so you can put it at 2x on your second screen while you work, if that's something you're into. Or put it on a huge screen and just mellow right out. Ann Veronica Janssens!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFu6XQlFX2E

Finally, fashion. I had a lovely half an hour looking at images of Victorian dresses made astonishingly bright by the then new and exciting technology of aniline dyes. That's a fun thing to do and here's a great place to start – a series of posts on colour in Victorian women's fashion. Just look at this jacket:

[R]ed was also symbolic of war, pomp, and power. As such, the color was particularly well suited for those garments designed with a militaristic flair. Red dresses trimmed with military-style buttons or black or gold military braid were considered very fashionable.

https://bust.com/living/193867-shades-of-victorian-fashion-crimson-claret-scarlet-and-red.html

Have an utterly joyful weekend,

Alex.