Synesthesia

http://www.ahornmagazine.com/issue_6/essay_shea_jsb/essay_shea_jsb.html

Dawn sent us this article this week, and upon reading it, I found I was absolutely fascinated by this idea of synesthesia. I've heard the word before, I know what it is, I had a friend in high school to whom this happened, but she could never explain it to me in a way I understood that well. Really the most contact I've had with this concept is in my literature classes, specifically my spanish literature classes, the word is "sinestesia" and comes up in poetry a lot. Oddly enough, for a few years I only knew the word in spanish, I did not know what its english counterpart was. :p In literature, it means when one type of imagery-esque description elicits another sort of sensory response, or when one sense incorporates another. But this isn't an article about poetry, it's about the actual phenomenon of Synesthesia. The idea that someone could (and does) "hear sights, see noises, and touch smells" absolutely astounds me, especially the fact that I probably did as a baby. I really wish we didn't get childhood amnesia, and I could actually remember my experiences from early childhood and infancy.
This whole idea of "hearing sights" or "touching smells" really reminded me of Proust and the madeleine and the whole concept of memories from the past being stirred by present sensations, smells, or experiences. I realize the two concepts are not the same, but I couldn't help but think of Proust as I was reading this article and looking at these pictures. The mixing of the different senses is reminiscent of our environment stimulating our memories, and I really liked that. I wonder what it's like for the letter "A" to "feel" red. What is it about our brains that is constantly trying to get our different senses to mix with each other or to evoke different sorts of things?
The article specifically speaks to everything I just said in the paragraph:

"Artists frequently attempt to mediate the space between art object and viewer perception. Ostensibly that space involves eliciting synesthetic-like interpretation of artistic gestures, although rather than causing an actual synesthetic experience, the visual information triggers specific emotional histories that lead to cross-sensual engagement. If one’s response to an object or image is visceral, often specific personal memories are recalled. That archive usually contains information that refers to not just sight, but also touch, taste, smell, etc. Although synesthesia is a neurological condition that cannot simply be willed by the unafflicted, the effect of this type of response to art work mimics a genuine synesthetic experience. In both cases, the stimulation of one sensory organ gets channeled through more than one cognitive pathway."

This obviously explains everything better than I can, and it brings together all my ideas on memory and synesthesia. Everything is just so much less black and white than I thought it was. Just as so much connects between memory and photography in this class, and just as we're learning about all the different ways in which that occurs, so does synesthesia seem to represent this coming together of different ideas and disciplines. The whole concept is fascinating, and I sort of wish I could experience it so as to truly understand the concept. Is this way of exeriencing the world distracting? I wonder...or do those with this talent (or condition), as it were, simply accept it as reality and not realize that not everyone is this way. It's also interesting how art plays upon this whole idea that actually occurs in human beings by trying to create it visually.

This picture is really wonderful to me, and really expresses for me what this article was trying to say.