SYNESTHESIA Lisa Lee Final Project Proposal

Can you see colors in those numbers?

I can !

OBSERVATION Since I was young, I feel every “number”, “date”, or “character” has a certain color. But not until recently did I know that this phenomenon is called “Synesthesia”. There are only a mall part of people have this experience. And for each synesthete, the perception of things is different.

RESEARCH Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory leads to automatic experiences in a second sensory. There are some common forms of synesthesia, such as grapheme (color synesthesia), number form synesthesia, personification, lexical. Some synesthetes perceive tactile forms and textures when tasting food, while others hear sounds from the smell of fragrances. In fact, the most commonly reported type to synesthesia is hearing or seeing letters in colors.

A well-known theory is that synesthesia is a brain impairment that causes a kind of short circuit between the areas of the brain that process colors and nature.

For some people, synesthesia travel in one direction between the senses, but for others, could be two directions. For example, the synesthete Marcia Smilack experiences sounds in images and images in music. Marcia is a fine art photographer who used her synethesia to teach herself photography. She trusted those responses and listened on them as reliable signals to tell her when to take a picture.

Some composers use synesthesia as a source of inspiration or technique to create music. Some artists sing or whistle songs while they paint to create paintings that approached a musical expression.

Kandinsky’s is a well-known example of adding synesthesia to creative process. He experimented with image-music correspondences in his paintings. Psychedelic rock bands like Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and the Velvet Underground use overhead projectors, liquids, slides, films, and backlights onstage to suggest synesthetic experiences.

Music Animation Machine is a software program that translates pieces of music and shows them in colored measures. Debussy, Clair de lune (piano music) There are large production of synesthesia-inspired works is noticed in the field of digital art. For example, Windows Media.

PRECEDENCE

WATER CONCEPT Beverages : human bodies consist of 65%-90% water Beverages not only meet our needs of water, but also affect our emotions, and bring us imaginations; moreover, (for a synesthete), trigger other sensations… ( taste  sound, taste  object, smell  color… etc) I will use six kinds of transparent beverages in my project, in which I use my synesthesia to translate each beverage into correspondent pitch, color, and object.

BEVERAGE & SYNESTHESIA Taste  Pitch Color Object Bitter C Dark Brown Whale Sweet D Peach Pink Flower Plain E Transparent Ocean Fresh F Light Green Breez Sour G Yellow Bird`s Singing Bubble A Light Blue Snowflake Vodka: Syrup: Water: Mint Tea: Lemonade: Sprite: Beverages are poured into six glasses in different heights

SKETCH When hitting the glasses, sounds of different pitches would trigger correspondent objects showing up on screen. Whale Syrup Water Sprite Mint Tea Lemonade

Thank You !