More thoughts on (not!) using the term....'Synaesthesia' (?)

Begun to do further research on synaesthesia….. and am searching for a title that clarifies my firm belief that this is a condition that is present in all of us to a greater or lesser degree. But I want to avoid the notion that the people with whom I want to work…. have the condition to such a degree that they would be able to scientifically prove their condition. As I always explain…. If I were talking about Coeliac disease….. I’m on the scale of gluten intolerant…. When I gave the talk about my work there was a reaction in some of the group to disagree with my use of the word synaesthete…. So Cross modal….. or joined senses….. or coining a new phrase of my own….. may be the best way of keeping all interested parties on track….ie of the opinion that I know what I’m talking about….. rather than giving the impression that I’m blundering around ignorantly with half truths. I’ve selected 2 books…. Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihaly….. and Syneasthetes by Sean A. Day….. the last book I in 2016….. written by the man who chired the American Synaesthetes Association should at least give me the up to date knowledge…. And its written in easy read…..rather than academic speak…. But I’ll also ask the library to get hold of the Oxford Handbook for Synaesthesia…… currently £100…. Too expensive to buy!!

And for the academic non believers …… who think that sound colour synaesthesia is a learnt phenomena in humans….. always refer/ consider drug induced synaesthesia…. Which prove the pathways to be in existence….. even if inhibited under normal conditions….. Also…… the “explanatory gap”…. A phrase first coined in 1983 by philosopher Joseph Levine…. Talks of the difference between the brain and the mind ….. that there is something that cannot be explained in the way that we experience things…. Colour/qualia….. is your green the same as my green??

So there is so much mileage…. Faith …. To take into consideration when asking people to become uninhibited ( loose themselves in the music) and use the processing pathways to make a response to what is heard in colour shape and texture ….. basically the process is still of extreme interest and importance whether provable or not….. bit like the faith in play when going to church!!....

And let us not forget….. that science is unclear about how we process so much information in our brain…..do we use code….. a colour….. shorthand symbol ….. science has little proof…. But it has many theories….

In a secondary school art class asking for a kandinsky like resonse to music…..I used talsk about discos and clubs lnking a lightshow to a beat or rythm….. this instantly proved to the students that there was a link between pattern colour and sound…. And made the task seem quite straightforward….. In ten years of running the project….. there wasn’t a student unable to complete the task….and in my recent work with the community the response equally as positive…

So I could say:

Crossing the Senses

Hear Colour See Sound

Make Musical Pattern

Music Makes a Painting

Music Inspires Colour

Making Musical Masterpiece

Sound Painting

What Shape and Colour is a Symphony

Symphonies of Shape and Colour

Overture Rhythms Beat Movement Bass Drum

Musical Motifs