SYNESTHESIA - STUDIO

Synesthesia "See Sound"- College of Design

Synesthesia: A neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Close to 1 in 300 individuals have some form of Synesthesia. Synesthesia can also be caused by the influences of a stroke, LSD, temporal lobe epilepsy, and as a result of blindness and deafness.

Sound-color synesthesia: when music, voice, or even the noise made by dishes trigger color to arise, move around, and then fade when the sound stimulus ends. Some see it as a screen of color in front of their face. Louder sounds tend to be brighter, higher ones are smaller and brighter, and low tones are both larger and darker.

Studio: Sara McNabb - 2010

Installation: From the neurologically based phenomenon, this indoor/outdoor installation exhibits what one experiences while being under the influence of sound-color synesthesia. This installation allows viewers to, in a basic way, experience sound-color synesthesia. The unique quality of this design will allow for hearing impaired individuals to experience music in a visual way while also allowing the average person to experience the benefits of sensory overload.

Screen Construction:  Each screen will be assigned a specific note with a correlating octave. There will be twenty-one notes used and a range of seven different octaves. The seven octaves will be based on the piano, which is the instrument with the largest range of octaves, allowing every other instrument to be included as well as a human voice.

Each note will be assigned to a pure hue and will become the middle octave. From there, the three octaves above will represent higher octaves and the three below will represent the lower octaves. The size will also change according to the octave. The higher the octave, the smaller the screens will become; the lower the octave the larger the screens will become. The shapes of the screens were based on a pure natural compound and will be constructed of OLED lit screens.

“HERE COMES THE SUN”: The images above are the eight beats within the first two measures of the “Here Comes the Sun” chorus. Each snapshot is a beat of the song and show which notes/colors would be played in accordance.