Synesthesia and Art
SEE THE MUSIC AND HEAR THE PAINTING
What if every number had a specific color, or if months of the year were three-dimensional? What if certain sounds caused you to feel a certain temperature? You might suspect that this sort of experience would require a mind-altering substance or deep meditation. However, a small percentage of people actually have a neurological condition called “synesthesia” in which one sense (sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell) triggers a response in another unrelated sense.
The Part You Throw Away, a synesthesia-inspired painting by and courtesy of artist John Bramblitt (page 245).
Often associated with people of a creative mindset, synesthesia has influenced artists throughout the centuries. Many have consciously used this condition to dictate their work, from musical composers (notably Franz Liszt and Leonard Bernstein) to painters and writers. Being able to “see” music or “hear” a painting has allowed people to delve deeper into what it means to really experience something. There are even non-synesthetes who, imagining what this must be like, attempt to evoke a synesthetic response in viewers. There has been some debate over whether the abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky had this neurological condition, but we do know that he attempted correlation between music, color, and brushstrokes in his work, resulting in lively and memorable masterpieces. —GRG