Fused Synesthesia

what is your perception?

synesthesia

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about synesthesia

uk synaesthesia association

interview with tim layden

types of synesthesia

grapheme

chromesthesia

lexical - gustatory/odour synesthesia

synesthesia in modern culture

synesthesia in art

famous people with synesthesia

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SYNESTHESIA

about synesthesia

uk synaesthesia association

interview w

ith tim layden

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A b o u t s y n e s t h e s i a

Synesthesia is a rare neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The name derives from the Greek, meaning to perceive together comes in many varieties. Some synesthetes hear, smell, taste or feel pain in colour. Others taste shapes, associate words and objects with smells and some even perceive written digits, letters and words in colour. Some, who possess what researchers call conceptual synesthesia, see abstract concepts, such as units of time or

mathematical operations, as shapes projected either internally or in the space around them whilst listening to music or just hearing specific sounds. Many synesthetes experience more than one form of the condition with one possible detrimental effect being the possibility of suffering a sensory overload.

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S e e m u s i c

Fe e l w o r d s

Ta s t e c o l o u r s

S m e l l s h a p e s

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U K s y n a e s t h e s i a a s s o c i a t i o n

Simon Baron - CohenFounder of the UK Synaesthesia Association

The UK Synaesthesia Association was originally founded by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at Cambridge University and a leading researcher into the phenomenon. Operating as a non-profit making organisation, the association brings scientists, researchers, students and synesthetes together and provides verifiable and reliable information regarding the condition for the media and any other interested parties. The association has a dedicated committee made up of researchers and synesthetes who meet regularly, and produces an entertaining

informative quarterly newsletter for its members. They also hold an annual international conference with eminent guest speakers including scientists, researchers and synesthetes themselves. The national and international membership base is ever growing for the association and they are very open in welcoming new members, whether they are synesthetes or simply those with an interest in synesthesia.

UK Synaesthesia Association

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James WannertonPresident of the UK Synaesthesia Association

Tastes of London 1964 - 2013 James Wannerton & Transport for London

when he visits them. He first noticed each underground station created a distinct taste aged four when travelling to school with his mother from the family home near Willesden, north London.Since then Mr Wannerton has continued to keep notes and make special trips to London after leaving the city to complete his taste map of the Tube. This actually became a bit of an obsession not unlike standing on breezy railway platforms collecting train numbers. Mr Wannerton said.

James Wannerton from Blackpool, England experiences lexical-gustatory synesthesia; i.e. he tastes words or word sounds. He is the president and committee member of the UK Synaesthesia Association and also has been the subject of detailed research carried out by the University College London and the University of Edinburgh regarding his synesthetic condition.

Tastes of London was a piece put together by James Wannerton himself and the Transport for London where each underground station has been renamed into Wannertons experiences

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I n t e r v i e w w i t h T i m La y d e n

Timothy Layden is an artist who has chromesthesia (sound to shape) synesthesia, he originally is from Seattle, USA.He received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of The Americas in Mexico, where he co-formed his first collective, Exposcin, with an international group of young artists and worked with a local secondary school involving youth in co-operative art projects. In 98 and 99 he lived in Japan , where he continued his studies and formed part of the art collective Club Ikebukero. From 1998 to

2000 he travelled from Japan to Mexico and back to the US working with different groups of artists, producing and exhibiting new work.

In 2000 he arrived in Spain where he began his doctorate in fine art at the University of Barcelona focusing his research on interdisciplinary arts and synesthesia. Since receiving his PhD in fine art from the University of Barcelona he came to London where he currently lives with his wife and works as a teacher and an artist.

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Could you tell me about your experience with synesthesia?

Well it is just part of my sensory experience.Imagine trying to describe how you smell? It is quite difficult isnt it? So my experience with synesthesia is just that sound has always had shapes to it. To me synesthesia is just the ingredients that make up my sensory experience. It feels very natural. It is the way things are, as I essentially have an idiosyncrasy in which I experience sound as shapes but it is very normal for me, it always has been.

Can you try and describe these visual photisms that you see?

For time they are quite simple but for sound

they are more organic. -At this point Tim showed a painting that he had made-This piece was where I set up some metal cups in water and tapped on them and I saw a sharp shape but that also softens. To me it was like stone that was being transformed into liquid.

Do you think you could imagine what your life would be like without synesthesia?

Often I might say that life would be dull without synesthesia but I dont think it actually would. I think that our senses are always a bit incomplete of reality and it is just a construct in the brain but I really cant imagine what sound would be like without shape, I honestly feel like it would be missing something. Sound with shape is just how I perceive life and always will.

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TYPES OF

SYNESTHESIA

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chromesthesia

lexical - gustatory/odour synesthesia

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G r a p h e m e

One of the most common forms of synesthesia is grapheme-colour synesthesia, in which signs, figures and words induce colours. In a national survey only 2% of synesthetes questioned indicated they had never experienced this type of synesthesia. This is also the most widely studied form of synesthesia to-date. Such synesthetes perceive a colour when reading, hearing or imagining a letter or number. Synesthetes often report that reading, hearing or imagining a letter or a number leads to the perception of a specific colour. These colours can differ in form, spatial

arrangement, transparency, covering degree, intensity, and nuance. Some describe it as halo or fog which surround the letter or number. The colour correlation is different for each synesthete: one thinks A is red, another thinks it is blue. The colours are stronger when the printed letters shows a high contrast to their background. In color distribution some regularities were found: taller figures seem to be darker, in general, than shorter ones. Zero and 1 are often white or black.

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YELLOW

BOWL

BLUE GREEN REDBLUE RED GREEN YELLOWCAT GREENRED HAT

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C h r o m e s t h e s i a

Chromesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which heard sounds automatically and involuntarily evoke an experience of colour. With sounds inducing colour concurrents, chromesthesia is more accurately termed sound-colour synesthesia. Individuals with sound-colour synesthesia are consciously aware of their synesthetic colour associations/perceptions in daily life. Synesthetes that perceive colour while listening to music experience the colours in addition to the normal auditory sensations that would be triggered in the average person. That is, the synesthetic colour experience

supplements, but does not obscure real, modality-specific perceptions. As with other variations of synesthesia, individuals with sound-colour synesthesia perceive the synesthetic experience spontaneously and without effort in a way that the individual learns to accept as normal within their realm of experience.

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Le x i c a l - g u s t a t o r y / o d o u r s y n e s t h e s i a

Lexical - synesthesia is one of the more rare variations of synesthesia. There are many variations of this tpye of synesthesia with the main type being gustatory synesthesia, where the synesthete will experience involuntarily taste sensations that are linked to spoken or written words and objects.UK Synaesthesia association president James Wannerton experiences this type of synesthesia and reports Whenever I hear, read, or articulate (inner speech) words or word sounds, I experience an immediate and involuntary taste sensation

on my tongue. These very specific taste associations never change and have remained the same for as long as I can remember.Another form of lexical - synesthesia branches off into the smell sense where, as like gustatory synesthesia the synesthete will experience involuntarily senses associated with words, written or spoken but sometimes also foods and even inanimate objects but this time all linked with the sensation of smell.

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-smell- -smell-

-smell- -smell-

What do you sense?

Smell an image

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SYNESTHESIA IN MODERN

CULTURE

synesthesia in art

famous people w

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S y n e s t h e s i a i n a r t

The phrase synesthesia in art has historically referred to a wide variety of artistic experiments that have explored the co-operation of the senses (e.g. seeing and hearing) in the genres of visual music, music visualization, audiovisual art, abstract film, and intermedia. The age-old artistic views on synesthesia have some overlap with the current neuroscientific view on neurological synesthesia, but also some major differences, e.g. in the contexts of investigations, types of synesthesia selected, and definitions. While in neuroscientific studies synesthesia is defined as the elicitation

of perceptual experiences in the absence of the normal sensory stimulation, in the arts the concept of synesthesia is more often defined as the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli as one gestalt experience. Artists more often than not admitted that their own personal experience with synesthesia either fully inspires their artwork or that it aids their creative process.

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David HockneyMusic colour

Wassily KadinskySound Vision

Vincent van Gogh Vision Sound

Carol Steen Multiple synesthesia

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Fa m o u s p e o p l e w i t h s y n e s t h e s i a

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There is quite a number of famous people who have the condition of synesthesia ranging across a whole spectrum of careers from; musicians, actors, artists, writers, composers and producers.

In this list of well known people some that may stand out and even possibly surprise are singer/song writer Pharrell Williams who has chromesthesia (music to sound) and has even stated that seeing colour with music has inspired his producing. Marilyn Monroe is another synesthete who had a biography

written about her by Norman Mailer saying she has a displacement of the senses that others take drugs to find. Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential musicians to date, also experienced chromesthesia and said that he liked to describe chords and harmonies as colours. He called the chord E7#9 - often referred to by guitarists as the Hendrix chord - as the purple chord, and used it to help form the verse of his song, Purple Haze. Other famous synesthetes include author Douglas Coupland and musicians Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder.

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Pharrell Williams

Music colourMusician

Marilyn MonroeActress

Sound colour

Jimi HendrixMusician

Music colour

Douglas CouplandAuthor

Verbal visual

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