Invisibly Visible

For my individual Computational Arts Based Research Theory project I read and created a piece surrounding the neurological phenomenon, Synesthesia. Synesthesia is a spatial extension of one’s senses and a cross- modal manifestation of meaning where ‘one attribute of a stimulus (e.g., its sound, shape, or meaning) may inevitably lead to the conscious experience of an additional attribute’ (Ward, 2013).  When decoding the term Synaesthesia, it literally means to perceive (esthesia) in unison (syn).  With the realisation that I am not a synesthete and thus do not hold any synesthetic perceptions, it was important that I did not attempt to create an artefact that was symbolic to synaesthesia, nor a personal interpretation of the senses to risk the chance of making a piece that did not fully showcase the natural essence of this sensory phenomenon. For that very reason, I looked at making a piece that would serve as a both a test and a visualisation of a specific synesthetic configuration found within my research. Having read numerous case studies in Richard A. Cytowic’s book, Synesthesia: a Union of the Senses, along with The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science by Cretien van Campen, it was evident non- synesthetes struggle to empathise with synesthetes or begin to understand how they perceive the world. Therefore, my research project (though it currently stands as a first iteration of a larger piece) serves as a means of conducting a dialogue and pre-empting individual research.  I attempt to visualise a specific number to colour case study by plotting numbers within the screen. The numbers will first appear in black on a white background to mirror the perceptions of non-synesthetes. They then quickly change in colour and in form to blocks of colour to emphasise the perception of numbers to colour synesthetes.