DUers: What's your take on synaesthesia?

For those who've never heard of it, here's some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaesthesia
http://www.retroglobe.com/liljeberg/syn.asp


Basically it's when one sense triggers a response in another sense. For example, if you visualize a number 3, you see the number in your mind as being orange (like I do). Or, if you hear a particular musical note or chord, it triggers a sense of feeling (you don't literally "feel" a C#, but you would percieve it as maybe "round" or "fuzzy."

For years, I mentally associated numbers with colors. It wasn't until four years ago that I knew it had a name, and that it was a relatively common phenomenon. What say you?


Numbers, as I visualize them:
0- black
1-white
2-red
3-orange
4-green
5-yellow
6-lavendar
7-blue
8-purple
9-gold

I always visualize the number three as "3". People actually visualize a number or letter as a color? :wtf:

Strange but true.

:shrug:

:grr:

:crazy:

:eyes:

nice :hi:

A = red
B = orange
C = blue
D = green
E = blue
F = purple
G = red
H = orange
I = white
J = green
K = blue
L = purple
M = red
N = orange
O = white
P = yellow
Q = blue
R = red
S = red
T = yellow
U = yellow
V = green
W = blue
X = black
Y = red
Z = purple

You can basically see that with some exceptions, it largely cycles through the colors of the rainbow. I had a set of Fisher-Price magnetic letters that cycled through the rainbow like that. So that's where I think it came from.

It could definitely be a throwback to early childhood development. Perhaps children subconsciously come up with mnemonic devices to help them learn letters & numbers and such. I'm not synaesthetic with letters myself. I usually just visualize them as black and white.

'cuz that's what I smell whenever I see your name.

:hug:

Beacuse of that three way we had with Prince.

:hug:

I don't think I have it, though. Well, words have color to me, but it's somehow different than synaesthesia.

I first heard of it a decade ago when I met someone who experiences it - associates musical notes with colors... he thought he was crazy but I was (of course) instantly curious so had to look it up... he was relieved to find out he wasn't crazy. :)

Monday: red
Tuesday: light blue
Wednesday: purple
Thursday: brown
Friday: also light blue
Saturday: yellow
Sunday: green

It sounds odd, but I vaguely remember in pre-shool learning the days of the week and the squares on the calendar were those colors. Except Tuesday and Friday. That's Mr. Rogers' fault. (see, the king & prince in the land of make believe were named Friday and Tuesday and they lived in a light blue castle.)

See my above post to LoZoccolo- I do believe that it may have to do with using memory devices in early childhood.

I doubt that's the same thing.

I think J once told me he associates notes with colors.

People with this curse should be burned like the witches they are! :P

It's dangerous stuff!

:P

Funny, When I hear someone say Beast Man, it always makes me see a guy sleeping on the couch tonight.}(

:evilgrin:

:toast:

When I first read about it, I was like: that's SO cool! I'd want to do that!

And isn't it considered to be something that actually could/does happen? :shrug:

Lots of people experience it.

I used to have a link to a test... hmmm

ah yes here it is! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/derek_prog_summary.shtml

enjoy! :hi:

It's not a literal fusion of senses, though. For example, if someone hears a G Chord, they don't literally "see" it, but it may trigger a mental image of a particular color, shape, etc.

Olivier Messiaen was one of the most important composers of the 20th century (tjwmason says so too). Like many intelligent and educated Frenchmen, he was opposed to the Nazi occupation of France, and fought in the resistance. They caught him and interned him as a prisoner of war. As it happens, they had a "special" POW camp for intellectuals, which they ran as a showpiece for the Red Cross. Messiaen encountered three other internees who were world class musicians, playing clarinet, violin, and cello. (Messiaen usually identified as an organist, but could also perform on piano.) He composed a piece for that ensemble, Quartet for the End of Time, and performed it in the camp-- it's an amazing piece of music, and single-handedly made the clarinet-violin-cello-piano ensemble a major contender in contemporary chamber music.

But the real point is, while he was there, he observed that conditions in the camp were fucking up his health, and one of the effects was that he began to experience synesthesia. Some of his chords elicited distinct color images in his mind, and he mentions them in his notes in the score. What's more, the relationships with color apparently persisted, because he continued to bring it up in subsequent compositions.

Also, Alexander Scriabin planned to stage concerts of his music where colored lights would be projected on stage in sync with chord changes in the music. He proposed a correspondence of specific colors to specific keys. This was maybe a hundred years ago, well before rock videos.

For example, piano music in D minor is usually dark blue. Some tenors sing in yellow. Hard to explain, but there it is.

shoulda been a bumper sticker about 20-30 years ago

It came from this: http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

I visualize the twelve months of a year as being a 12-hour clock. And within that clock face, the seasons are different colors. Winter is blue, spring is green, summer is red, and autumn is brown.

:hi: