iThink
The phenomenon of synaesthesia
THE PHENOMENON OF SYNAESTHESIA SAFIYA TIOTTO-SMITH (UPPER SIXTH) In the 5th Century BC, Plato argued that the human senses were deceptive and made us prone to belief in the illusory, and were thus the incorrect way to gain a true understanding of the world. As brilliant as Plato was, in the contemporary world it feels more sensible to recognise that the senses are very much omnipresent, and that trusting them can achieve great things in the realms of art. There is an underrated phenomenon that has existed for years and years, touching only a select few people and undoubtably changing their experience of human life and the world around them. This phenomenon is called synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a neurological condition that enables a person to experience one sense through another, often described as a ‘cross-wiring’ of the brain. In Ancient Greek, ‘syn’ means union and ‘aesthesis’ means sensation, so the terms come together to mean the union of the senses, or ‘to perceive together’. This abnormal intertwining and tangling of sensations is immediate and uncontrollable for the synaesthete.
One of the most common instantiations is seeing letters, numbers, or sounds as colours. One might also: see or hear a word and taste food, hear sounds and see shapes or patterns, hear sounds after smelling a certain scent, hear sounds and taste food, feel an object with one’s hands and hear a sound, or feel a touch when seeing someone else being touched (known as mirror touch). Though abnormal and uncommon, synaesthesia isn’t a disease or disorder, but is often incorrectly perceived as one. Some people, however, do struggle with it; children claim it can hinder their reading, or prove difficult when they see colours that other people cannot relate to. However, most synaesthetes interpret their condition as a ‘sixth sense’, not a drawback, and I feel it can be recognised as a creative and aesthetically stimulating gift. Synaesthetic art: the subjectivity of style For synaesthetes, colours are predominantly experienced in the mind, enhancing their standard sensory experiences of the world with this additional component that cannot be derived from experience.
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2022
