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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S Y N E S T H E S I A
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Abou t s y n es t h es 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 specifc
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 mu s i c
Fe e l wo r d s
Ta s t e c o l o u r s
S me l l s h a p e s
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UK s y n aes t h es i a as s oci at i on
Simon Baron - Cohen
Founder 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-
proft making organisation, the association
brings scientists, researchers, students and
synesthetes together and provides verifable
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
-3-
James Wannerton
President of the UK Synaesthesia Association
Tastes of London 1964 - 2013 James Wannerton & Transport for London
when he visits them. He frst 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
-4-
I n t er v i ew wi t h Ti m Lay den
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 frst 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 fne art at the University
of Barcelona focusing his research on
interdisciplinary arts and synesthesia. Since
receiving his PhD in fne 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.
-5-
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 diffcult 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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T Y P E S O F
S Y N E S T H E S I A
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T Y P E S O F
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Gr aph eme
One of the most common forms of synesthesia
is grapheme-colour synesthesia, in which signs,
fgures 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 specifc 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 fgures seem to
be darker, in general, than shorter ones. Zero
and 1 are often white or black.
-7-
YELLOW
BOWL
BLUE GREEN RED
BLUE RED GREEN YELLOW
CAT GREEN RED HAT
-8-
Ch r omes t h es 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-specifc 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.
-9- -10-
Lex i cal - gu s t at or y / odou r s y n es t h es 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 specifc 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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S Y N E S T H E S I A I N M O D E R N
C U L T U R E
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S Y N E S T H E S I A I N M O D E R N
C U L T U R E
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S y n es t h es i a i n ar 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 flm,
and intermedia. The age-old artistic views on
synesthesia have some overlap with the current
neuroscientifc view on neurological synesthesia,
but also some major differences, e.g. in the
contexts of investigations, types of synesthesia
selected, and defnitions. While in neuroscientifc
studies synesthesia is defned as the elicitation
of perceptual experiences in the absence of
the normal sensory stimulation, in the arts the
concept of synesthesia is more often defned
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.
-13-
David Hockney
Music colour
Wassily Kadinsky
Sound Vision
Vincent van Gogh
Vision Sound
Carol Steen
Multiple synesthesia
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F amou s peopl e wi t h s y n es t h es i a
-15-
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 fnd.
Jimi Hendrix, one of the most infuential
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.
-16-
Pharrell Williams
Music colour
Musician
Marilyn Monroe
Actress
Sound colour
Jimi Hendrix
Musician
Music colour
Douglas Coupland
Author
Verbal visual
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