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Documentation One - What's my Plan?

Following on from Task One, I want to continue to explore synaesthesia - a rare condition, which can see various senses mapped onto others. For example, a synaesthetic may see certain letters as different colours, while another may hear a certain noise when they see a certain colour, and this is just a glimpse into this strange and interesting condition.

This carries on from my Task 1 Map, where I looked at the ability of synaesthesia to map colour to letters. However, now I want to take a more broad and deep look into synaesthesia, and its various repercussions in art, music and everyday life.

Here’s my definition of synaesthesia from Task 1;

"synaesthesia – a condition, which causes a person to experience one of their senses when another is stimulated. For example, months may each have different colours to a person with synaesthesia, or touching something hot may cause a sweet taste."

I'm also interested in exploring the use of rotoscoping in my final piece - as it will allow me to easily get across certain emotions or attitudes in an unusual and visually interesting method.

My Task 1 Map of the Synaesthetic Alphabet

#task2 #doc1

Documentation One - What's my focus?

Following on from task One, I want to continue to explore synaesthesia - a rare condition, which will see various senses mapped onto others. For example, a synaesthetic may see certain letters as different colours, while another may hear a certain noise when they see a certain colour, and this is just a glimpse into this strange and interesting condition.

This carries on from my Task 1, where I looked at the ability of synaesthesia to map colour to letters. However, now I want to take a more broad and deep look into synaesthesia, and its various repercussions in art, music and everyday life.

Here's my definition of synaesthesia from Task 1;

I'm also interested in also exploring the use of rotoscoping to explore this idea - as it will easily allow me to get across certain emotions or attitudes in an unusual and visually interesting method.

My Task 1 Map of the Synaesthetic Alphabet

#doc1

Documentation Two - A Scientific Look at Synaesthesia

Here's a video which explores the different types of synaesthesia.

I've also come across this video. It briefly explains different forms of synaesthesia as well as looking into the scientific differences between a synaesthete's and non-synaesthete's brain. It also provides a helpful illustration of how a synaesthete may see the world.

Also, here's a link to a website which lists the different types of synaesthesia and the percentage of synaesthetes with that type.

Types of Synaesthesia

#task2 #doc2

Documentation Three - An Experiential Look at Synaesthesia

I have decided to diverge in my research from just the scientific workings and statistical information about synaesthesia by collecting people's personal experiences of synaesthesia.

I found this video which really helps to explain sound-to-colour synaesthesia.

Synaesthesia from Nikko Hull on Vimeo.

I also collected a set of quotes which look at different aspects of synaesthesia which follow;

“Another example is my beloved cat, Oreo. He is an orange and white tiger stripe but when i see him or hear his meow, i see an orange cloud with light blue flecks. The texture is soft and fluffy.” - Link

"Every concert I've attended and every time I listen to music, I close my eyes, because I see vivid colours, lines, circles, explosions, dancing, transcending with every single sound.” - Link

"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” - Link

"Sometimes, it really screws me over. For example, the definition of clinical governance ends in the phrase: “…high standards of care, creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.” Here’s what that looks like to me: …the crux of the problem is that it just comes across very yellow to me. And all the excellence’s and care’s and clinical’s waft through my head like butterflies that I have to pin down and fit into a sentence like a jigsaw.” - Link

"I was beyond 30 when I realised that there was a reason behind me not needing highlight markers in university. I already saw stuff in colour, adding a highlight marker just messed with my reading." - Link

"I see colours any time I hear any sound, not just music. I am more likely to experience sensory overload on a city street hearing the loud sounds of cars, sirens, people talking, etc. At least with music, the colours are in a pattern, are predictable, and are nicer colours than the sounds if a big city." - Link

#task2 #doc3

Documentation Four - The Ramachandran Test

The Ramachandran test (above) is one way that people can work out whether or not they are synaesthetic (although, it only checks for grapheme-colour synaesthesia - a form where colours are projected onto characters). In this case, if asked to find the 2’s, a synaesthetic person may see them as easily as the image on the right, however a person without synaesthesia would have difficulty, forced to look through a set of numbers which are all the same colour.

This gave me the idea that synaesthesia may have useful applications outside of art - perhaps in something like snap or card games or even find-a-words.

#task2 #doc4

Documentation Five - Vassily Kandinsky and Abstraction - an Alien Practice

In my exploration of synaesthesia, I came across Vassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky is often credited as painting the first truly abstract artworks. It is also believed that he was synaesthetic. His works are very colourful and highly saturated - focusing on what he calls the "vibrations in the soul". I think I may use this style to influence my final piece - bright colours, seemingly random shapes, etc. However, I have never really attempted to create abstract art, and I will take inspiration from music as I do it to try create my work as Kandinsky would have.

The following quotes are from this website.

“Kandinsky achieved pure abstraction by replacing the castles and hilltop towers of his early landscapes with stabs of paint or, as he saw them, musical notes and chords that would visually “sing” together. In this way, his swirling compositions were painted with polyphonic swathes of warm, high-pitched yellow that he might balance with a patch of cold, sonorous blue or a silent, black void.”

"In his case, colours and painted marks triggered particular sounds or musical notes and vice versa."

This is another really great website for information about Kandinsky.

Furthermore, my studies of Kandinsky and abstraction led me to Hilma af Klint, also a pioneer for abstraction (but not a synaesthete). Similarly to Kandinsky, her work focused on a spiritual element which led her through it.

Here's some examples of her non-synaesthetic work;

#task2 #doc5

Documentation Six - Rotoscoping and Uncreativity

We had a look at this movie in Soma1002 as we were focusing on rotoscoping and I think it relates well with synaesthesia in its connection with abstract art. We also had to experiment with rotoscoping in an assessment, and as I enjoyed it, I want to look into it further.

As such, I will try to use this uncreative - as it just involves copying the original images in the video sequence - art form for my final piece.

#task2 #doc6

Documentation Seven - Another Synaesthesia Test

I came across another test for synaesthesia. Unlike the Ramachandran Test which checks for grapheme (letter) to colour synaesthesia, this one tests for hearing-motion synaesthesia, ie they hear sounds when something moves.

The test was created or realised by Melissa Saenz who was asked by a visitor to her office who saw her silent screensaver and commented on the sound it made. She then sent out to a few hundred people and found three more people who could see the sound.

This video goes into more depth about the process Saenz went through;

#task2 #doc7

Documentation Eight - Reflection and Plan

I decided that before I began work on my final piece, that I should have a look back on my research and see how it all fits together. This would allow me to converge my thoughts and design a final idea which I will aim to fulfil.

Here's my mind map of my research;

Now that I had condensed all of my research into a simple map, I was able to put all of my ideas together into a plan for my final piece. Here's my plan;

#task2 #doc8

Visit Original Link

Documentation Nine - My Audio track and the process I took

This is the audio track which I will use in my final rotoscoped video. The different segments in the track were all uncreatively found on youtube and depict different elements of synaesthesia. This includes an example of two tests for synaesthesia, a definition of it and three personal experiences of different forms of synaesthesia.

The different clips used are (in order of use in soundtrack);

First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

From here, my next step is to create the video out of the original clips and other things. From there, I will rotoscope some of it and leave other parts as they are.

#task2 #doc9

martin-chung-cofa1002-blog

Proposal for Alien Artwork

Where: Train Carriage. Get rid of the seats and make it like a gallery which people walk into and out of on their stop.

When: All day

We will fill the train carriage with abstract food art. These pieces will be placed all around the carriage in different places. We will also put speakers throughout the carriage, which will play sounds which greatly contrast the feelings or ideas of the artworks. This will highlight the connection between sound and image.

Inpiration: Vassily Kandinsky and Hong Yi

#week8

Plan for my art piece and Quotes

I have decided that I will make a rotoscoped video which explores different aspects of synaesthesia. I will use an abstract style, similar to Kandinsky's style. I will be uncreative and construct my script completely out of quotes found on the internet relating to synaesthesia.

Here is a collection of quotes I will use. (Firstly I'll diverge, and just collect as many as I can, and then I'll converge and collect all the quotes I want to use);

"Another example is my beloved cat, oreo. He is an orange and white tiger stripe but when i see him or hear his meow, i see an orange cloud with light blue flecks. The texture is soft andd fluffy."

"Every concert I’ve attended and every time I listen to music, I close my eyes, because I see vivid colors, lines, circles, explosions, dancing, transcending with every single sound."

"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."

"Sometimes, it really screws me over. For example, the definition of clinical governance ends in the phrase: “…high standards of care, creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.” Here’s what that looks like to me: ...the crux of the problem is that it just comes across very yellow to me. And all the excellence’s and care’s and clinical’s waft through my head like butterflies that I have to pin down and fit into a sentence like a jigsaw.”

I was beyond 30 when I realised that there was a reason behind me not needing highlight markers in university. I already saw stuff in colour, adding a highlight marker just messed with my reading.

I see colors anytime I hear any sound, not just music. I am more likely to experience sensory overload on a city street hearing the loud sounds of cars, sirens, people talking, etc. At least with music, the colors are in a pattern, are predictable, and are nicer colors than the sounds if a big city.

more to come...

This is a really interesting idea and something I had thought might happen, but I first wanted to explore it a bit more and try to find proof - by Synaesthesia doesn't just provide benefits (such as painting something in response to sounds or music) but can also be disadvantageous. Here we see that on some occasions a sentence may appear all as one colour, in this case yellow, which makes it hard to read.

"Sometimes, it really screws me over.

For example, the definition of clinical governance ends in the phrase: “…high standards of care, creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.”

Here’s what that looks like to me:

That’s probably come out really badly because I was lazy ass and made it on Paint (also I got the first bit wrong), but the crux of the problem is that it just comes across very yellow to me. And all the excellence’s and care’s and clinical’s waft through my head like butterflies that I have to pin down and fit into a sentence like a jigsaw."

Waking Life

We had a look at this movie in Soma1002 as we were focusing on rotoscoping and I think it relates well with synaesthesia in its connection with abstract art.

Furthermore, the process of rotoscoping is uncreative as it is a copy of a video.

As such, I want to look at this art form for my final piece.

"Kandinsky achieved pure abstraction by replacing the castles and hilltop towers of his early landscapes with stabs of paint or, as he saw them, musical notes and chords that would visually "sing" together. In this way, his swirling compositions were painted with polyphonic swathes of warm, high-pitched yellow that he might balance with a patch of cold, sonorous blue or a silent, black void."

"In his case, colours and painted marks triggered particular sounds or musical notes and vice versa."

Vassily Kandinsky's Work

Vassily Kandinsky is often credited as painting the first truly abstract artworks. He was also synaesthetic.

His work is very colourful and highly saturated.

I think I may use this style to influence my final piece - bright colours, seemingly random shapes, etc.

The Ramachandran test

The Ramachandran test (above) is one way where people can work out whether or not they are synaesthetic. As one form of synaesthesia is a connection between colour and numbers/letters, if asked to find the 2's, a synaesthetic person would see them as easily as the image on the right, however a person without synaesthesia would have difficulty, forced to look through a set of numbers which are all the same colour.

This gave me the idea that synaesthesia may have useful applications outside of art - perhaps in something like snap or card games or even find-a-words.

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