When you listen to music and you see visual images like colours or shapes, this form of coloured hearing has historically been called Chromesthesia.
Many musicians have been attributed with synesthesia. Sean Days website lists quite a lot. In addition several Australian Musicians may also have synesthesia.
Attempts to create color or music systematically from other sources
There have been many attempts to create color from music in a systematic way throughout history. Pianos which produce colored light shows when played are one such example.
Here is an interesting article about a couple of researchers (one is a classically trained pianist) who have turned gene sequences into computer code and then into music. It’s an interesting idea and you can hear some examples of it here. The Huntington one sounds OK. It occurred to me that if the idea was that the human ear may be able to detect these sequences (or mutations of same) as pieces of music in large data files then synesthetes with music to color or shape would likely be able to spot these sequences even faster/better.
‘Synaesthesia’ is a program that gives a graphical accompaniment to music. Anyone can make some pretty piece of graphics that flashes in time to the music. I haven’t tried it – I would be interested to hear from any of you that do.
Color Music is a site by Neils Hutchison. It hosts some interesting historical information about color music in Australia.
There is a video on You Tube of a synesthetes alphabet colors and numbers. If you search You Tube for synesthesia you will also find Richard Cytowic’s lectures and David Eagleman’s recent documentary. In a similar vein Cassidy Curtis has built a flash applet that will display the colors of her synesthetic alphabet as you type. She makes some observations about memory as well.
‘Synaesthesia’ is a program that gives a graphical accompaniment to music. Anyone can make some pretty piece of graphics that flashes in time to the music. I haven’t tried it – I would be interested to hear from any of you that do.
Looks like Brian Eno doesn’t have color grapheme synesthesia but certainly seems to use color in his musical compositions. See attached article from his recent art exhibition called ‘77 Million Paintings’.
A kids record called My Green Kite, Peter Himmelman has been released. There is an interview with Peter who reports he has a mild form of music color synesthesia.
There is a production of Messiaen’s Turangalila- symphonie 10 August - 13 August 2011 by the Sydney Symphony. As you know Messiaen was a famous synesthete. Click for the link to the opera house …. or this one to read the SMH article about it.
The Red Paintings have released their new EP called Feed the Wolf. Also released is their DVD - Seizure and Synesthesia.
Attempts to create color or music systematically from other sources
There have been many attempts to create color from music in a systematic way throughout history. Pianos which produce colored light shows when played are one such example.
Here is an interesting article about a couple of researchers (one is a classically trained pianist) who have turned gene sequences into computer code and then into music. It’s an interesting idea and you can hear some examples of it here. The Huntington one sounds OK. It occurred to me that if the idea was that the human ear may be able to detect these sequences (or mutations of same) as pieces of music in large data files then synesthetes with music to color or shape would likely be able to spot these sequences even faster/better.
‘Synaesthesia’ is a program that gives a graphical accompaniment to music. Anyone can make some pretty piece of graphics that flashes in time to the music. I haven’t tried it – I would be interested to hear from any of you that do.
Color Music is a site by Neils Hutchison. It hosts some interesting historical information about color music in Australia.
There is a new video on You Tube of a synesthetes alphabet colors and numbers. If you search You Tube for synesthesia you will also find Richard Cytowic’s lectures and David Eagleman’s recent documentary. In a similar vein Cassidy Curtis has built a flash applet that will display the colors of her synesthetic alphabet as you type. She makes some observations about memory as well.
‘Synaesthesia’ is a program that gives a graphical accompaniment to music. Anyone can make some pretty piece of graphics that flashes in time to the music. I haven’t tried it – I would be interested to hear from any of you that do.
Looks like Brian Eno doesn’t have color grapheme synesthesia but certainly seems to use color in his musical compositions. See attached article from his recent art exhibition called ‘77 Million Paintings’.
A kids record called My Green Kite, Peter Himmelman has been released. There is an interview with Peter who reports he has a mild form of music color synesthesia.
There is a production of Messiaen’s Turangalila- symphonie 10 August - 13 August 2011 by the Sydney Symphony. As you know Messiaen was a famous synesthete. Click for the link to the opera house …. or this one to read the SMH article about it.
The Red Paintings have released their new EP called Feed the Wolf. Also released is their DVD - Seizure and Synesthesia. A my space review can be found here. You can get the EP on itunes too – personally I like it