[peanuthead]

Does anyone here have this? People with this genetic condition actually see "colors" with sounds.

Seeing color in sounds has genetic link - CNN.com

I wonder if having this condition would enhance headphone listening experience. Very interesting.

 

[fromthelane]

Interesting. My old boss had the same but with different words. He would remember your name as shade of color. He was a speech therapist.

 

[Mercuttio]

There's a girl in my graduate program that has this. She's doing her masters thesis on a system that creates paintings based upon the sonic qualities of classical music.

 

[Kitarist]

Yea some people can do that. Even you could do that if you would meditate, change your lifestyle and so on. Its just our mind and soul

 

[Crikey]

Anybody here on head-fi that has this? Given the number of members on this forum there might just be one

.

I also wonder how the colours present themselves to people with this genetic condition. Is it like a blob of colour in the middle of your vision? Does it move and transform into different shapes? I also wonder if the colours or other senses that are experienced vary from person to person, and by how much?

 

[Viktor]

As the report suggested it is related to a rare condition called synesthesia. So most people simply can't get it.

But it may help understand it if you enable 'Visualization' in Windows Media Player.

 

[LeftyGorilla]

tried LSD?

One of the nice things about psychoactive substances is that they can open up awareness of certain overlaps in perception that we usually filter out. The trick then is to find your way to the clarity of mind with out the chemical interference.

But for most people, this perception would be just a (cool) curiosity.

More on this in David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous.

 

[m0ofassa]

I dont see colour in sound at all. I frequently feel colours (quite powerfully) when I listen to music although its never really a shade change of colour, more a wash of colours that is almost indescribable (like asking a colour blind person 'what they see').
That said I dont have synesthesia (as far as I know), and am probably just mentally ill. I really feel it though, perhaps its all those jazz classes at the conservatorium with the weird improv teachers.

[size=xx-small]i keep wondering if the popcorn man will get fatter if i keep watching him[/size]
EDIT: I have also felt shapes before (such as the leminiscate/infinity sign during the rerecord of the final battle(?) in chrono trigger in the bass)

 

[intoart]

I do get some kind of subtle visual sensation from music, but I wouldn't call it "color" exactly. The best way to describe it is "seeing" the position and movement of sounds within the soundstage.

 

[Cool_Torpedo]

Despite it's not that known, the synesthesia in any of its different degrees and forms is present in about 1% of the population.
It may look funny, but for some people implies some disabling for learning to read, learning foreign languages or using mathematics. For others can be helpful since it would allow them to quickly identify, as if color coded, different numbers, shapes or sounds.

Some painters like Kandinski, musicians like Duke Ellington, Rimsky-Korsakov, Messiaen, Listz, or writers like Nabokov had different forms of synesthesia. Others like Scriabin or Van Gogh played with the concept of synesthesia to make some of their works.

 

[tintin47]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftyGorilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif tried LSD? One of the nice things about psychoactive substances is that they can open up awareness of certain overlaps in perception that we usually filter out. The trick then is to find your way to the clarity of mind with out the chemical interference. But for most people, this perception would be just a (cool) curiosity. More on this in David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous.

I could be wrong, but I would say that drug-induced synesthesia is not the same thing as genetically induced. I have no idea what the differences would be, but I would think that they would occur through vastly different mechanisms.

 

[panda]

so what they see different shades in front of them according to sound? so it's like they have color changing contact lenses on or something? that would totally tweak me out.

 

[moogoob]

Many people probably have minor variations of synesthesia. Personally, I sometimes link names of things with feelings, which most of the time goes completely unnoticed (even to me) but results in "January" and "November" getting mixed up. All the time. I'm so glad it's February now, let me tell you.

May not even be related, but I thought I'd share.

 

[mark_h]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftyGorilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif tried LSD?

LOL! Literally.

Richard D. James says he experiences Synesthesia.

 

[Czilla9000]

Hmmm....I kind of do see colors, but not overtly. I don't know if I have this condition or not.

Treble tends to be yellow to me. But I really don't SEE the colors in the music the way I see the words I'm typing....but the idea of color pops in my mind when listening to music. It can get pretty visual, but I can easily distinguish the mind's picture from the real world.