Great minds
For me it seems quite normal to give days, letters and numbers colours, and kitchen utensils genders. Of course 3 is yellow, 4 is red, Z is purple, A is red, T is blue, Tuesday is yellow and Friday is green.
Knives are naturally male, forks are naturally female, and teaspoons are little boys.
Milk jugs are most commonly tall, handsome men with moustaches, and most salt and pepper shakers are female, either slender and graceful or middle-aged and dowdy depending on their shapes.
I thought all this was normal until I had a conversation with my friend (whose name starts with a purple letter), and she had no freakin’ idea what I was talking about.
I am not a synesthete, because these associations are unconscious and don’t actually result in me hearing or seeing or feeling things. If you asked me, I could tell you. It seems normal to me. But words written on a page generally look black to me. If they are black, that is. Possibly it is just more of an association thing, and the kitchen utensils may stem from an early childhood over-watching of Beauty and the Beast.
It is a bit concerning that the condition is referenced to a ‘cross-wiring’ of the brain, but possibly this somewhat pejorative term, which is suggestive of a flaw in the brain’s functioning, stems from an outdated misunderstanding of how the brain is ‘meant’ to work.
In fact, studies have shown that most people do have some degree of synesthesia, even if they are not aware of it. People who do have pronounced forms of the condition are, apparently, often creative people.
It is a very interesting thing to look at the art that is created by people who have synesthesia, and the way in which it effects their work. For me this is particularly exciting in relation to Kandinsky, who is one of my favourite artists.
Kandinsky is said to have been the type of synesthete who hears things from images. Can you tell?
Composition VIII | 1923
Transverse Line | 1923
Composition VI | 1913
I guess the shapes, particularly in the first two images, do have a rather musical quality about them. Musical in that they sound like an orchestral jazz symphony. You with me?
So interesting.
Meanwhile, I’ve tracked down this article on synesthetic artists, which particularly focuses on Kandinsky. It is very interesting. You should read it.
