Seeing Sounds and Hearing Colors 63
somberlain writes "BBC has an interesting article about people who hear colours and see sounds. Luckily I don't have this medical condition: but which sounds do you want to colorize?" This is an old story, but just reading the woman's descriptions of her condition make it worth linking.
It's called synaesthesia.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's called synaesthesia.... (Score:2, Interesting)
"The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sourd," (Score:1)
There's something inside, that we need so much.
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an oak, with roots, deep in the ground.
The wonder of flowers, to be covered, and then to burst up,
Through tarmac, to the sun again, or to fly to the sun,
Without burning a wing, to lie in a meadow,
And hear the grass sing. To have all these things,
In our memories hoard, and to use them,
To help us, to find the lost chord... " --The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord
Re:"The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sourd, (Score:1)
Re:It's called synaesthesia.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's called synaesthesia.... (Score:1)
Re:It's called synaesthesia.... (Score:2, Funny)
Ted Turner and his colorization binge (Score:3, Interesting)
Do the picture/sound clash more or less on "tampered" movies more or less than on the original?
Re:Ted Turner and his colorization binge (Score:2, Interesting)
Dubbed movies, on the other hand... every language has its own texture. English is hard to evaluate, because it's my native language; I can't hear it without understanding it, so I don't usually notice the sound of it. But other languages sound kind of like... movement. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's hard to explain.
Japanese is spikey and hard, all elbows, because of all the "ta-ta-ta" sounds. It's like barging your way through a crowd. Chinese kind of sways, like a tree in a strong wind, sliding into all the curves. Russian is like driving over speedbumps, all up-down-up-down. French is like twirling, but without the getting dizzy and falling down parts. Italian is like dancing.
So it's not so much that there's a "clash" between the new soundtrack and the pictures, but when you dub from one language into another you lose that unique sense of movement.
Does any of this make any sense?
Re:Ted Turner and his colorization binge (Score:1)
I don't get that. What does that mean? Like, folded how? And how would it be inverted? From a side view I could see it folded like this: /\/\ but how is that iverted?
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, ive heard that most of the folks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Actually, ive heard that most of the folks (Score:1, Interesting)
That depends on the music. For me, Classic ususally is blue in various shapes, depending on the composer. Mozart, for example is a lighter blue than, say, Wagner. Pop generally is purple (maybe because I don't like either) and Rock is black.
Re:Actually, ive heard that most of the folks (Score:1)
Unfortunately (Score:1)
Yeah but... (Score:2)
Yeah but art appreciation is notoriously subjective. One person's masterpiece is another's putrid crap.
I for a long time have enjoyed Wassily Kandinsky's works, though until I read the article I wasn't aware that he was synaesthetic. Makes me wonder what sounds (smells, tastes, sensations) he had in mind when creating them.
Synaesthesia? (Score:1)
Another one is from Thomas Appell's material, "Can you sing a high C without straining?", brought to you by Vocal Dynamics [vocaldynamics.com] - within the material, Tom instructs the prospective student to "see" the notes as individual colors, even providing a standard major scale in C (the musical key, not the language) as an example in living color.
It makes me curious then, how many musicians on any scale are even slightly affected by this condition?
Re:Synaesthesia? (Score:2, Interesting)
People have colors to me, but how is that to be distinguished from what many people call auras? And the color impressions are the same there as well: individual and meaning the most to the person who actually see them.
Lots of visuals have sound (as opposed to sound having color.. but I hear that too as mentioned earlier) but how is that distinguished from other things we associate with an object? Could be just projection.
I think that musicians are just more in tune with associations as opposed to having a different wiring.
Color "Signature"? (Score:2, Interesting)
If so, could a scanner be developed that sees these signatures and identify people from a distance?
Gone will be the days of thumbprints and retina scans. Now you can be identified without even being aware of it.
Re:Color "Signature"? (Score:4, Interesting)
"I'm wondering if each person has a unique color 'signature' If so, could a scanner be developed that sees these signatures and identify people from a distance? "
Any kind of "scanner" doesnt really make sense in this context. Also, the woman can see sounds, and the sound of each pesons name has a color and/or image. So, even on top of the sensations relying on a human brain, its based on sound, so your "scanner" would have to be listening; and listening to what ? voices ? they already have sofware that identifies people by voices.
Incidently when developling software to recognize sounds or voices, the sound is normaly converted into an image before being identified. Here [aftiinc.com] is an image of a voice print
I wish I had this condition (Score:5, Funny)
I want a new drug (Score:2)
Actually, I think I'd rather have a (safe, reliable, flashback-free, won't-destroy-your-brain) drug that induces this. That way I could turn the condition on or off at will, just by taking or not taking the drug.
It sounds like it could be fun, and maybe even useful as an aid to creativity/productivity but I can see real problems with having synaesthesia all the time. Just like a caffeine buzz can be useful for getting through long nights of coding but would be no fun to have all the time, so I imagine it'd be with synaesthesia.
When and if a safe synaesthetic agent becomes available, I'd also like to be able to buy it from a pharmacist, instead of on the street. Maybe it's misplaced trust, but I'd still trust my synapses to the friendly neighborhood druggist - or even ConHugeCo Pharmaceuticals - before I'd trust some stranger selling the stuff out of a car trunk.
But the chances are miniscule that the FDA would approve a drug like that (even if a safe and effective one were found). Too much potential for recreational use....
Re:I want a new drug (Score:1)
Useful? Certainly. Fun? Not so. I remember way back at Elementary, when we got asked how much "5+2" is, and I said "green"... I can still hear them laughing at me...
Re:I want a new drug (Score:1)
Of course they laughed, you twit. 5+2 is obviously a sort of yellow-gold color! 4+3 is green!
Yes, that's right folks, synaesthetic arithmetic follows its own rules.
Re:I want a new drug (Score:1)
Very funny... Seriously though, I would like to know how others perceive numbers. My guess is, everyone has his or her own colour scheme.
Re:I want a new drug (Score:1)
Of course, if you're talking about the actual sum, then 7 is yellow, or maybe yellowy-green in the right context.
There's a really interesting paper [trismegistos.com] called "Trends in Synesthetically Colored Graphemes and Phonemes." It concludes that while chromographemic synaesthetes (people who perceive letters as having colors) don't all share the same perceptions, there are some clear trends in letter-color association. It's short; check it out.
Re:I want a new drug (Score:1)
Come to think about it, it does have a yellowy tint to it, though I would still call it 'green'.
It concludes that while chromographemic synaesthetes don't all share the same perceptions[...]
Yes I know. From talking with others, I seem to have a slightly different perception. Eg. I don't "see" letters as colours at all, while others have that "problem" with numbers.
I have this (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess it started in the first grade or so, when I was learning to read. The letter "A" (capital A, that is) has always been sort of a bright red color, and smelled and tasted sweet, like cherry-flavored candy. "B" is purpley-blue, and chewy. "C" is lemony yellow. And so on. When I visualize any of those letters in my head, the color and the texture, or taste, or smell come along with them. It's hard to explain, I guess, if you don't know what I'm talking about.
When I was growing up, I just assumed everybody was like this. I turn 30 next month, and it was only earlier this year that I learned that I was different from most people. I was talking about our new house with my girlfriend, and I said something like, "Let's paint that room blue... sort of an 'M' blue." She had no f*cking idea what I was talking about, and that's how I learned that I was unusual in this way.
Since then I've kinda been reading up on synaesthesia a little bit in my spare time. Funny coincidence that this should come up on Slashdot at about the same time.
Re:I have this (Score:1)
Scott.
Re:I have this (Score:1)
Re:I have this (Score:1)
If you're curious-- and as google fodder-- the colored-letter form is called "chromograephemic synaesthesia," or "chromographemic synasthesia," depending on which side of the pond you're on.
Re:If someone's planning on making a DivX... OT (Score:2)
nothing like being half asleep in a meijers parking lot with your girlfriend, and saying, "that van looks like it tastes good," pointing at a bright red van.
boy did I get a weird look.
oh well. btw, npr did a couple of stories on this a few years back, that's when I found out that's what I had. try checking their archives to find the story.
Further Reading (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Further Reading (Score:1)
The Stars My Destination (aka Tyger, Tyger) is the most famous and most prominent example.
He was also notorious for experimenting with typography in 'visually onomatapiec' ways - by which I mean he arranged words and fonts on the page to resemble the sounds and actions they described. Stars (above) uses this a lot. To a lesser exent, so does Psychoshop.
The Demolished Man contains none of the above, but it's a freaking classic so it gets an honorable mention. (-: -- Tartley http://tartley.com
Re: also see Mind of a Mnnemist by Luria (Score:1, Interesting)
Luria documents a man with apparently a photographic memory, who seems never to forget things. The man apparently had synesthesia, and Luria hypothesized that the additional sensory cues helped the mnemnist identify memories.
Re: also see Mind of a Mnnemist by Luria (Score:1)
Feedback loop? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm just wondering... If by looking at something they heard sounds and by hearing sounds they see things...Can they experience a feeback loop?
If they get into a feedback loop, how does it sound/look like?
--Vuzz
so thats how (Score:1)
Related to the history of the WWW (Score:1)
"Robert Cailliau made the WWW icon in many colors but chose green as he had always seen W in his head as green."
Inner Eye.. (Score:1)
I wonder if this could be realated to a stereo with a VU meter... you hear the sound with the speakers, but you also "hear" the music with your eyes on the VU meter...
Nah... that's not a very good example...
Here's a quiz I'd like you all to take? (Score:1)
Whenever I think of a month of the year or the seasons my mind brings up literally a calender. January - May are on the left side and June-December for some reason are on the right.
Now that I think about it. I do have some mild form of color associations. October is a much lighter color than November. December is a brownish color(i'm not a big fan of brown but this shade is beautiful). Maybe I'm making the December color up but the Oct/Nov mental image is definitely there.
Quiz::::::
Does anyone else have a mental calender. Please answer this question: When counting the number of months between a set of 2 months how does your mind calculate it? I see months as Numbers(June=6, May=5) while also viewing the "mental calender" for confirmation.
Re:Here's a quiz I'd like you all to take? (Score:1)
and for the color part:
december is slate-gray with blue in the middle and white toward the end, january is december without the gray, february is a gray gradient, march is kind of a dull rose, redder toward the beginning, april is yellow-green, much like the word "neuron", may is red, june is yellow, july is a nice violet with flecks of pale yellow, august is light gray, mottled like clouds, especially the u's, september is a red-orange-yellow spectrum, with a sharp break between sep and tember, october is sort of like september, but darker and with more browns, and like it was put through an unsharp mask, and november is like a charcoal sketch of sleet in a strong wind.
also, in a morisette-ironic kind of way, "synaesthesia" is a blend of many primary and secondary colors arranged like blurry baloons.
Re:Here's a quiz I'd like you all to take? (Score:1)
Re:Here's a quiz I'd like you all to take? (Score:2)
You start with January on the knuckle of the left pinky, and February on the gap between the pinky and the ring finger, working to the right as you go. Knuckles have 31 days, gaps do not. It just seems to work quicker than the rhyme, perhaps because the rhyme reauires you to perform a "pattern match" against an unordered list.
Cheaper than LSD (Score:2)
Close your eyes and (gently) press your fingers to your eyelids. Those funky, psycadelic colours you see are not caused by light, but be pressure.
Re:Cheaper than LSD (Score:2)
Wow, listen to that beautiful sunset... (Score:1)
Similiar Association - Gender (Score:2)
Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Black, Brown Beige - Male
Blue, Purple, Pink, Tan, Gray, White - Female
C, D, G, H, J, L, M, N, O, T U, W, Z - Male
A, B, E, F, I, K, P, Q, R, S, V, X, Y - Female
1, 4, 5, 7, 0 - Male
2, 3, 6, 8, 9 - Female
Mirrored and transparent surfaces are female,
while colored or textured surfaces are male.
Some english-speaking people I've discussed this with have no association. Other people I've discussed this with who have the same association usually have different association. One person who spoke english *and* spanish (a language with gender built in) had much stronger reactions than I did. Note that the association doesn't seem to have anything to with shape, order, or similarity. I really think this is because the neurons that are responsible for recognizing those shapes are stimulating the neurons responsible for recognizing face and body shapes.
Re:Similiar Association - Gender (Score:1)
Prepare to mod me down for failure to maintain a coherent thought, but I was struck with some off-the-top-of-my-head observations on your choices...
Focusing on the numbers, I noticed your associations for women tend towards shapes that are made up of curved figures. The shapes for men are mostly angular with the exception of 0. Incidentally, I also noticed you chose 'O' as a male letter too.
With the letters, the choices for men seem very 'linear'. That is, most of them can be drawn in a single stroke (with the exceptions of D, H, T) where the female associations are more complex and require 2 strokes or more (excepting I and S).
With the colors, the choices for women are generally softer mixtures of 'pure' colors while the male associations are strong 'clean' colors.
Long story short, what i get out of this is that we perceive:
(a) women as subtle, complex and 'circular thinking'
(b) men as strong, simple and 'linear thinking' beings.
Don't ask how I got the 'thinking' part out of that.
My thing is that I see everything as heavy outlines and color planes. When I look at something, lines and curves jump out of it and define it's borders, and colors are broken down into simple color planes- with the end result that I kind of see the world in a sort of comic book art kind of way (and no- i don't do drugs).
But, to get to my point, I wonder how much of this is cultural or societal as well? Think about how the world would look if architects were primarily women. We'd probably have lots of round buildings and domes that, on a very subtle level, would cause us to think and percieve in radically different ways.
Time Magazine (Score:1)
You're GLAD? (Score:2)
--j