Seeing Sounds: Synesthetic moment at TEDx Bucharest Woman

Have you ever wondered what the color red sounds like? While most of us experience color visually, around 4% of the world’s population are able to experience hues through multiple senses. These people have a neurological condition called synesthesia, meaning their brains process stimulation in a way that allows them to experience several senses at one time—a concept that may seem like super-human powers for the other 96% of us. Many people with synesthesia—past and present—have used their abilities to create art, visualizing how they perceive sounds, time, letters, numbers, and more.

Best described as a union of the senses, synesthesia is when one sensory experience involuntarily, and consistently, prompts another. There are up to 70 different types, such as the ability to see sounds, hear time, and taste shapes; however, the most common involve color.

Some scientists believe that synesthesia results from “crossed-wiring” in the brain. This means that for synesthetes (people who have synesthesia), neurons and synapses that are usually contained within one sensory system cross to another. It is not known exactly why this might happen but some researchers believe that these crossed connections are present in everyone at birth—it’s not until later that the connections are refined.

Vincent Van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky or the more contemp Jack Coulter are known to be this special in their artwork. At just 25 years old, Jack collaborated with worldwide music streaming service, Deezer. The project involved producing a “musical painting” for Glastonbury Festival 2016, which Coulter composed after listening to every artist who was performing at the event in chronological order.

I was invited to talk about my artistic project “Seeing Sounds” during TEDx Bucharest Woman in December. I’ll be sharing more on this tomorrow in my next essay.