II

Synesthesia happens when a person observes a stimulus using a different sense than is usual to observe a particular stimulus. For example, seeing sound or seeing a color associated with a number or letter. This phenomenon often combines senses or crosses them, allowing synesthetes to sense the world in new ways compared to the average person.

In science, synesthesia is a neurological condition where stimulation of one sense leads to an involuntary stimulation of another sense. It can’t be controlled and many people with the condition aren’t even aware they have it because it is perceived as normal to them. It has also found to run in families, which means it’s a genetic trait (congenital synesthesia). Non-genetic “adventitious” synesthesia can occur from a variety of sources, for instance: psychedelic drugs, stroke, temporal lobe epilepsy seizure, or from blindness or deafness.

In art, a number of artists try to recreate the synesthete experience by painting the colors of sounds. One famous example of this is in Disney’s Fantasia. What’s important to take from this is, we as artists can take this concept of synesthesia and cross-sensory perception and use it in our work to visualize what we thought we could not.

One final concept to discuss is cymatics. Cymatics looks at the visual patterns of a sound wave. By taking a solid medium like a metal plate and placing an amorphous solid medium like sand on top, and then by transmitting a sound wave through the metal plate, the sand clumps together into complex patterns. Changing the frequency causes the pattern to change form. Cymatics literally is visualizing sound.

With each of these concepts at my disposal, I can turn my head and look at the world from a new interesting angle. I can visualize the colors and shapes of sound. Seek out new patterns. And give the audience a synesthetic cocktail of sensory miscommunication.