Synesthesia?
Synesthesia is when "the stimulation of one sense stimulates another...from the Greek syn (together) + aisthanesthai (to perceive)" (Ackerman 289).
Our senses automatically work together, often in conjunction with one another - we see someone playing the guitar and hear the music - coupling the input to understand what we are specifically hearing and seeing. And the senses can be affected, changed based on a coupling or deprivation - fooled cognitively or 'masked' by overemphasizing one sense:
The Febreeze company took very smelly and visually dirty spaces and overwhelmed them with pleasant odors. The blindfolded 'smellers' focused on the pleasing smells and their associations. Yet, when the blindfolds were removed, and participants could see the mess, people reported the smells changing. Although Febreeze conveniently leaves this out of their promotional video, the coupling of sight and smell, filtered through the recognized patterns and associations of the individuals' archives, affected the sensory response. Yes, things still smelled okay, but not as great as when those blindfolds shut out the nasty!
But the idea of synesthesia creates unusual connections generally outside of the typically associations. For example, Ackerman discusses several composers who 'see' music in colors, associating specific keys or tones to shades: "A major was rosy...C major was white" (290).
The Febreeze company took very smelly and visually dirty spaces and overwhelmed them with pleasant odors. The blindfolded 'smellers' focused on the pleasing smells and their associations. Yet, when the blindfolds were removed, and participants could see the mess, people reported the smells changing. Although Febreeze conveniently leaves this out of their promotional video, the coupling of sight and smell, filtered through the recognized patterns and associations of the individuals' archives, affected the sensory response. Yes, things still smelled okay, but not as great as when those blindfolds shut out the nasty!
But the idea of synesthesia creates unusual connections generally outside of the typically associations. For example, Ackerman discusses several composers who 'see' music in colors, associating specific keys or tones to shades: "A major was rosy...C major was white" (290).
I am fascinated by this phenomenon, and also think that perhaps a key to our aesthetic reasoning might be to figure out how to trigger these type of connections - to reconnect people through their senses to their EPS and GPS - to make them feel and understand the network of Wellbeing. If artists can juxtapose different objects to create a new meaning, a trope, then how can we use the senses to foster such connections?
How can we initiate first a stimulus response through images that builds in other senses and crafts new meanings? How can we use the idea of synesthesia to craft a "planned disordering of all the senses," a new awareness.
The senses are 'mapped' in our brain through electrical impulses - so how can we use Smithson's idea of the grid, mapping, and 'blind spots' alongside Ackerman's discussion of the senses to trigger position and perception?
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