Introduction
The whole world is coloured. The perception of colour is one of the most important human senses. Artists create paintings using paint, politicians build theories and support them with the colour of election posters, companies design colour schemes for their products for more demand, religions endow colour with supernatural qualities. But for some people, colour is a more complex perception. Music, letters and even events can have colour.
This phenomenon is called synaesthesia. Synaesthesia - a condition in which someone experiences things through their senses in an unusual way, for example by experiencing colour as a sound, or a number as a position in space. (Cambridge Dictionary At: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/synaesthesia (Accessed 07.04.2021) The phenomenon was fully described in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Later, brain scans of synaesthetes confirmed the presence of neurological responses other than responses of non-synaesthetes.
For many years I thought it was normal for everyone to see glowing halos around people, or colourful extravaganzas during headaches. Many acute and important events in my life were accompanied by flashes of colour. Driven by inner colour but not realizing it, I started to paint. Later due to my artistic practice, I learned about synaesthesia and my sensation of colour.
Now that it is precisely established that this is not an invention of creative people but a fact, we can analyse its meaning for art. Non-synaesthete cannot feel what I am experiencing. Therefore, we perceive the world in different ways. But what means can create sensations close to those that I am experiencing? And how then can this phenomenon help people or artists?
Part I
Touch, 2021, paint, spray colours, paper on canvas, 262 x 211 x 10 (55 х 75 х 8, 105 х 156 х 10, 106 х 106 х 8, 35 х 35 х 7, 25 х 45 х 8) cm.
In the course of my artistic practice, I realized that the viewer does not understand what I am experiencing. But he is interested in seeing my art object and comparing his feelings regarding this or that event. For example, the work "Touch". Sometimes, when I hug a person, I see colours, and one of these colours is purple with its shades. Here, the audience first reacts to the colour, as a rule, this is a positive internal reaction without understanding the context, and only after they ask what I mean here, what is my interpretation.
In my youth, I was engaged in Chinese martial arts - wushu. And at one of the classes, the master told me how to see the aura around a person and on the first attempt, I saw it. The master helped me develop the skill. Therefore, without the help of an outsider, I would not have learned about what I was able to do. Does this mean that 1. many do not know much about what they can do? and 2. can people be trained?
Also, it is not entirely clear what associative thinking is, for example, how the viewer of my works will connect colour and his feelings? And how is this perception different from synesthesia?
Scientists note that the experience gained during life can mix associations and feelings that are called ideasthesia. And, the ideasthesia is inherent in all people. The most popular example is the experiment called Kiki and Bouba by Wolfgang Köhler in 1929. The participants were asked to give names to two of the proposed forms. More than 90% named the rounded shape Bouba, and the sharp ends is Kiki.
This test confirms that people cannot arbitrarily associate forms and names since their accumulated life experience lays down rules and stereotypes. Whereas children born blind do not associate these forms and names as sighted children.
To give an illustration, our ability to connect and associating colours and forms, we can look at the Anish Kapoor work “As if to Celebrate, I Discovered a Mountain Blooming with Red Flowers” 1981, Pigments, wood and plaster At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kapoor-as-if-to-celebrate-i-discovered-a-mountain-blooming-with-red-flowers-t03675 (Accessed 22.09.2021)
The artist uses coloured pigments that are reminiscent of Indian spices. Bright and crumbly, they lie in the shape of cones in Indian markets. So, partly parodying this form, Anish Kapoor generates a chain of connections for the viewer that leads him into the world of Indian culture, to the homeland of Kapoor.
In contrast to this, argued that congenital synesthesia differs from simple associations accumulated during life. «A reaction of congenital synaesthesia is perceived as an automatic, involuntary response to a specific stimulus in the form of an unusual additional sensation. … The synaesthetic connection is formed at the earliest (natal, and perhaps, perinatal in some cases) stage of ontogenetic development, before the stable autobiographical memory.» (Sidoroff-Dorso, 2020, p.15, 20)
Such a thin line does not always allow us to accurately determine whether it was an association or a congenital involuntary reaction of the brain. Artists, musicians, and writers more often than others associate material, form and its properties, creating multi-layered images through their context. If artists train such a perception, then everyone can develop mechanisms for correlating shapes, sounds, colours, smells and tactile sensations.
If synesthesia cannot be learned, ideasthesia can be trained. Complex perception, for instance, of one problem would allow society and a specific person to find non-standard solutions. For example, to judge shape not only by size, texture or colour, but also sound and taste. This way would allow looking at the world more broadly and deeper.
Part II
Some synaesthetes cannot help but connect their lives with art. How do famous synaesthetes see this world, and what visualization tools are they using?
For instance, Vladimir Nabokov saw coloured letters and identified them with materials. Such a phenomenon in literature makes it easier, for example, to find errors in the text and helps to build expressive texts. An example of such an alliteration is «I lingered a little to listen» (Rosengrant J .: Vladimir Nabokov and the ethics of the image. Bilingual practice, online At: http://nabokov-lit.ru/nabokov/kritika/rozengrant-nabokov-i-etika-izobrazheniya.htm (Accessed 22.09.2021)) How beautiful! "I lingered", and for Nabokov, the image of noodle-limp emerges. And he is really slow. And each "L" is backed by the letter "i", which is yellow. And again, yellow is always a little more relaxed than, say, blue. (Oatmeal n, noodle-limp l, and the ivory-backed hand mirror of o take care of the whites. … The yellows comprise various e’s and i’s … Nabokov, 1989, p.30)
Comparing this detailing of letters and colours with my practice, I can note the overall method of balance of the composition. For example, in Ultimate silence, the greys are not silver yet, because they have different sounds. Silver is sonorous, but silence is deaf. In this case, nevertheless, small blotches of matte, dull blue should be because it gives air in the void, then a bit cold red that silence can reflect on something. Therefore, it may seem like finding a balance is a very intuitive process, but it can be taken apart and disassembled in detail.
For Nabokov, it turns out, were no limitations with the number of colours in the letters since in each language, they had a different association. Probably, by learning a new language, he could find new shades of colour. For me, there are also no restrictions on colour since the emotions are also always different. But what is interesting is that migraines are always purple-black with slight shades. Also, the halo around people and objects is always white, but in a contrast, when I hug people, it can be any colour.
If for the writer the instrument of realization is poetry, then for the musician it is a sound. "When I write songs I hear melodies and I hear lyrics, but I also see colour. I see sound like a, like a wall of colour. And, like for example, Poker Face is a deep amber colour." says Lady Gaga. For the artist, music has become a medium, and the sense of colour helps to balance the composition.
Similarly, Van Gogh and Kandinsky saw music as colour. Oddly enough, they were painters and not musicians, although both played instruments.
“Kandinsky described recognising his synaesthesia while watching Wagner’s opera, Lohengrin: “I saw all my colours in spirit, before my eyes. Wild almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me. This sudden awareness caused Kandinsky to abandon his law career and study painting at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Later he said: “the sound of colours is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes or dark lake with treble”. (Synaesthesia. Posted On May 19, 2020, By Michael Schwarz. online At: https://beguidedbyart.com/synaesthesia/ (Accessed 01.06.2021))
An example of translating synaesthesia into a painting is Kandinsky's work Impression III.
In January 1911, Kandinsky attended a concert by Arnold Schönberg. The impressions were so great, that the next day the artist paints a composition of a combination of yellow, black, white and other colours with lines and other forms.
Impression III (Concert) 1911,
Oil on canvas, 77.5 × 100.0 cm., Munich, The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus At: https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/work-170.php (Accessed 23.09.2021)
My perception of music, for example, is the feeling of one complete immersion in colour with its vibration and unfortunately, I cannot attribute it to synaesthesia or associative perception. Here I can also justify my desire for a large work size. Kandinsky detailed the sensations from the music, dividing them into the narrative of sticks, circles, spots and colours. At the same time, opposite to this, I need the feeling of being immersed in colour. Therefore, I borrow ideas from Mark Rothko and Richard Serra about experiencing colour and time with the whole body. The viewer must be in front of the work or walk next to it to obtain a physical connection.
A year later, Kandinsky combines his emotions of colour in the stage composition "Yellow Sound", the music was written by Thomas von Hartmann.
Production by Giedrius Matskyavichus, composer Alfred Schnittke, 1984
So we see that the manifestation of synaesthesia led the author to a combination of a variety of arts. Here it is worth thinking, if for me the colour is prompted by events, then I can stage it. Indeed, now I remember that while watching Chekhov's Seagull I had brown feelings. There is no central place for colour in poetry, cinema, theatre. But through these types of art, one can convey the plot, create a feeling in the viewer and develop this feeling into colour.
But it is important not to slip into an interactive performance where 'they' will offer to taste the blue colour. Or there will be a projection of colour on the wall during the orchestra performance. Such a direct indication of two or more sensations is very primitive and reminiscent of Kitsch. Where artists and organizers forget that, I will quote Greenberg here, “But the ultimate values which the cultivated spectator derives from… (artwork) … are derived at a second remove, as the result of reflection upon the immediate impression left by the plastic values. It is only then that the recognizable, the miraculous and the sympathetic enter. They are not immediately or externally present in… (artwork), but must be projected into it by the spectator sensitive enough to react sufficiently to plastic qualities.” (Greenberg, 1984, P.15)
Going further and researching the works that the synesthetes do base on their feelings tells me about the monotony of their work. Typically, this is an oil painting on canvas with variations of colour.
Carol Steen’s painting Full View is an image of what she perceives when her acupuncturist removes the needles at the end of a session. Photo: Carol Steen online At: https://www.thecut.com/2016/07/why-do-so-many-artists-have-synesthesia.html (Accessed 23.09.2021))
Synesthetes try to focus on what they feel and demonstrate it directly - colour. They forget the current value of the material, the medium, texture, interactivity and so on. But, artists who develop their style and explore broader ideas bring more artistic quality to their work. This can be illustrated by the artworks of the synaesthete artist Marcia Smilack. She explores the capabilities of the medium and its boundaries.
“I photograph reflections on moving water. I collaborate with Nature to create images I call Paintings by Camera. I use the surface of the sea as my canvas, borrow the seasonal colours for my palette, and rely on the wind for my brushes. I have only one chance to capture an image before it morphs into another, so I am at the mercy of whatever Nature decides to give me that day. … The way I taught myself photography is to shoot when I hear a chord of colour, which is one of my Synesthetic responses to what I see.” Marcia Smilack online At: https://hammondharkins.com/artists/marcia-smilack/ (Accessed 23.09.2021)
Thus, in these works, not only an individual sensation of colour but also, an analysis of the possibilities of the medium, challenges of nature, a distorted reality, as well as a search for composition.
Another example is David Hockney, but since the artist does not pay any attention to synaesthesia at all, one can only evaluate his intentions from the outside.
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011. Photograph: © David Hockney/Richard Schmidt At: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/16/david-hockney-interview-i-feel-like-picasso (Accessed 23.09.2021)
A progressive experimenter and researcher, Hockney studies composition, explores perspective, new technologies and techniques in painting. The artist intuitively exaggerates and refines colour, which is to me, sounds like synesthesia, but, at the same time, he is a discoverer focusing on the essence of art and the immediate process of creating it.
Compared to such representative works, in a contrast, worth mentioning Joan Mitchell, who also saw sounds, people, letters, and emotional events in colour.
“In the interim, he had left her for another woman, and she had attempted to come to grips with this loss in the raw, lyrical, elegiac oil La Vie en Rose, its four panels like the movements of a symphony in blue-rose, bruised gray, blue, shiny black, and rose-pink.” (Patricia Albers 2008 online At: http://www.patriciaalbers.net/writings#:~:text=Joan%20Mitchell%20had%20several%20forms,in%20La%20Vie%20en%20Rose (Accessed 01.06.2021))
Joan Mitchell, La Vie en Rose, 1979. Oil on canvas, 110 3/8 x 268 1/4 inches (280.353 x 681.355 cm). © Estate of Joan Mitchell. [Painting] At: https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/joan-mitchell/artwork/0689-la-vie-en-rose (Accessed 01.06.2021)
When something like this happened to me - there was a break with a person, I experienced a similar need for drawing. Most interestingly, we used the same colour palette. This event happened long before I started learning to draw, so the work has no technical value. But here, we can make an assumption, that requires further analysis, that some emotions cause similar colour reactions in people.
Joan Mitchell abstraction focused exclusively on the artist's inner world. But she found a technique in which gestures, lines, drops, splashes, colours and sizes of paintings conveyed the atmosphere and created an image.
My work is also abstract. I perceive it not as a flat painting and not as a sculpture, but rather a synergy of both. In my work, the process itself is of great importance. These are two processes of time imprinted in each of them. The first is when I colour each sheet of paper and apply it to the base. The second is when the viewer stands in front of the work and immerses himself in it while studying. It is an attempt to analyse emotions or events in detail through colour. Thus, the very depth of the shade is designed to create an atmosphere close to the declared topic. At the same time, the change in light during the day makes the works alive, existing in the moment, which makes them always new. The use of installations, music, projection and objects allows me to shake the sense of reality.
Conclusion
Above all, congenital synaesthesia is not based on association or life experience, and ideasthesia can be developed and trained as a complex perception, however it is difficult to differentiate both. For the final viewer, not endowed with a phenomenon, in any case, communication occurs through his cognitive perception and contextual assessment of the art object. I will not be able to broadcast to the viewer what he does not see, does not feel or does not know. But the viewer can train his complex associative thinking.
Synaesthete is likely to connect his life with art in one way or another, but the quality of his work will still depend on his professional level, much of which depends on experience with the material, technical training, contextual research, and self-understanding.
Bibliography and references
1. Association of the German Synaesthesia Society (DSG), Verein Deutsche Synästhesie-Gesellschaft e.V. (DSG) At: http://www.synaesthesie.org/de (Accessed 23.03.2021)
2. Synaesthesia: Opinions and Perspectives (2020) Anton V. Sidoroff-Dorso, Sean A. Day, and Jörg Jewanski (Eds.)
3. Sean A. Day, Ph.D. 2021 At: http://www.daysyn.com/index.html (Accessed 23.03.2021)
4. The Russian Synaesthesia Community’s site At: http://www.synaesthesia.ru/ (Accessed 23.03.2021)
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