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What if you could see music? Or taste shapes? Well, then you might have synesthesia.
Scientists recognize synesthesia as an involuntary phenomenon where a stimulus evokes multiple sensory reactions. There are many types of synesthesia. For grapheme synesthetes, each letter or number is associated with a particular color. In another form, certain sounds cause certain colors to manifest.
From Vladimir Nabokov to Duke Ellington, many of the world’s greatest visual artists, writers and musicians had synesthesia. Although not all synesthetes are artists, there seems to be a fascinating connection between this unique way of perceiving the world and art. Many artists today are see the world as a synesthete. Artist Marcia Smilack and singer/composer Sherelle Smith discuss how they view the world as a synesthete in their art and life.
Once thought to be a rare “condition”, scientists now think roughly 1 in 20 people have this experience. Sean Day, a leader in the synesthetic community, hosts a website with up to date information on synesthesia.
Sonoe Nakasone is a library intern at NPR.
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Great topic!
Not explored but possible are educational implications. What if “learning style” could use this concept. Recent observations of autism have noted communication may require approaches such as modeling or imitative behavior. I wonder if the synesthetic approach might be means of communication with some autistic people.
[...] did you do for intern edition? A story on Synesthesia and art. Some blog posts. Helped Katie with a multimedia [...]
Marcia Smilack is a brilliant and original artist–no other photographic work combines the senses in quite the way hers does. It is the reason I devoted an entire chapter to her work in my book, “Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds” (2001), the first book by a synesthete about synesthesia.
For those who want to explore more about synesthesia, visit the “Blue Cats Synesthesia Resource Center” at
http://www.bluecats.info
Patricia Lynne Duffy
Very good broadcast Sonoe! Synesthesia is such a rare condition that most people don’t even know it exists. What a great opportunity for us to experience the world through their eyes and ears.
Sherelle is a good friend of mine, a brilliant artist and just a wonderful human being with a huge heart…so glad that you contacted her to tell some of her story. And I love the way you posed the question at the end about whether all of us, not just synesthetes, perceive our surroundings differently. It would seem that our world is much richer for all the diversity and the creativity it produces.
Thank you all for your comments. Please, keep ‘em coming!
Thank you again to Marcia and Sherelle for giving me their time and sharing with me their personal experiences.
3.1 As Cytowic notes, Plato and Socrates viewed emotion and reason as in a kind of struggle, one in which it was vitally important for reason to win out. Aristotle took a more moderate view, that both emotion and reason are integral parts of a complex human soul–a theory proposed by Aristotle in explicit opposition to Platonism (De Anima 414a 19ff). Cytowic appears to endorse the Platonic line, with the notable difference that he would apparently rather have emotion win out.