Art and Synesthesia

What is Synesthesia? 2 case studies Carol is an artist who lives and works in New York City. She has experienced synesthesia for as long as she can remember, perceiving colors in numbers, letters and when hearing certain sounds. Selected forms of touch like acupressure and acupuncture also lead to the perception of both colors and shapes. ･ "I came back from college on semester break..." ･ "With acupuncture, I experience color in layers" ･ "Orange is my default color for pain” Karen is a language researcher and project manager living in Boston. Her synesthesia dates back to childhood and involves the perception of colors when viewing text or hearing spoken words. A meeting she had with Professor Rosalyn Picard of the MIT Media Lab led to the effort culminating in this web site. ･ "That's just the way my letters are" ･ "Linguistics is a grayish-purple-blue word" ･ "I first realized it when I was 11.”

Edvard Munch, The Scream 1893 (one of the several versions) "At different moments you see with different eyes. You see differently in the morning than you do in the evening. In addition, how you see is also dependent on your emotional state. Because of this, a motif can be seen in many different ways, and this is what makes art interesting."

Luigi Russolo (left) and his assistant Ugo Piatti with their 'Intonarumori', 1913 “Ancient life was all silence. In the 19th century, with the invention of machines, Noise was born.”

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 (Bronze) "It is achieved through the intuitive search for the one single form which produces continuity in space."

Anton Giulio & Arturo Bragaglia, Typist, (Dattilografa) 1911 "We are not interested in the precise reconstruction of movement, which has already been broken up and analysed. We are involved only in the area of movement which produces sensation..."

Arturo Bragaglia, Photodynamic Portrait of a Woman (circa 1924) "Fotodinamismo will render actions visible, more effectively than is now today possible with actions traced from one point, but at the same time keeping them related to the time in which they were made..."

Francis Picabia, Portrait de femme aux allumettes, No 1 (circa ) "Our heads are round so that our thinking can change directions."

Paul Klee, 'Abstract Trio' 1923, Watercolor and transferred printing ink on paper “One eye sees, the other feels.”

Man Ray, Gift 1921 (Object) "I paint what I cannot photograph, and I photograph what I cannot paint."

Man Ray, Le violon d'Ingres (Kiki) 1924, Gelatin silver photograph "Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information."

Renee � Magritte, La Decouverte 1927 "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see."

Meret Oppenheim, Le Dejeuner en Fourrure (Object) 1936 "For women, the implications are that they have to live their own female life as well as the female life that men project on them. Thus, they are woman two times. That's too much."

Mark Rothko, White over Red 1957 "A painting is not about experience, it is experience."