Artists have long been fascinated by synaesthesia: where one sense reaches into the realm of another. Kandinsky and Scriabin, thought this suprasensory state spiritual. For others it was an inspiring place to visit with psychedelics. For many it offers important creative challenges.  But how does synaesthesia relate to artistic endeavour and aesthetic appreciation? Navigating these realms and separating science from myth in this illustrated talk are writer Simon Ings, synaesthesia researcher Dr Jamie Ward and filmmaker Samantha Moore. 
(from http://www.optronica.org/)

The first presenter was Simon Ings

Ings is a novelist and science journalist. The Eye, his first popular science book, tells the story of the eye, revealing the vital link that exists between the evolution of vision and the evolution of consciousness.  He writes regularly for New Scientist, iD and Dazed & Confused.
(from http://www.optronica.org/)

Simon Ings began his presentation with a link to the audio-visual focus of the Optronica festival, stating that the most usual form of synesthesia is viewing sounds. He also underlined that synesthesia and conscious use of cross modal creativity are different things. He read Rimbaud’s – poem “vowels”, and mentioned that Rimbaud tried to avoid the label of “synesthesia” for this poem. (http://www.doctorhugo.org/synaesthesia/rimbaud.html). He then raised the question: how to distinguish between real synesthesia in art (made by synesthetes, who perceive clear connections between senses) and a coincidence?

He then proceeded to screen Norman McLaren’s short film, Dots. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_McLaren)

Following this introduction, Samantha Moore came on stage.

Samantha Moore studied Fine Art Film at Central St Martins. She’s been Animator In Residence at Channel 4, and her films have been screened widely in the UK and internationally. In 2005 Samantha received a Wellcome Trust ‘SciArt’ award, and researched a project on Synaesthesia & Sound with Jamie Ward.
(from http://www.optronica.org/)

Samantha Moore quoted the book  “Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900″ (http://www.thameshudson.co.uk/books/Visual_Music/9780500512173.mxs/32/0/) and showed work by Paul Klee. She also quoted Oskar Fischinger.

She then explained the researched she had undertaken. She recorded several notes, and showed them to 5 synesthetes, who she interviewed. She asked them to make drawings based on those notes, and gathered information for making animations based on those drawings. Using the software “Painter”, she created animations. Some of these animations were screened.

Then Simon Ings came back on stage. He presented Scriabin’s “Prometeus”, which includes a score for a color organ.
http://users.unimi.it/~gpiana/dm4/dm4scrlt.htm

After that, Walther Ruttman’s abstract animations were shown (Lichtspiel opus 3 and 4) from the 1920′s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvjFvosgmVw
http://journalism.wlu.edu/J338/ruttman.htm

Simon Ings then discussed the study of color and sound correspondences by theosophists, and authors influenced by the theosophists, such as Scriabin, Annie Besant (and her view of illustration as “Thought-form of music”) and Kandinski (namely in his book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Besant
http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/kandinskytext.htm

After this “interlude” by Simon Ings, Dr. Jamie Ward came on stage.

Dr Jamie Ward is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at UCL.  He has published over 30 scientific papers, edited a special issue of the journal ‘Cortex’ on synaesthesia, and published a major textbook on cognitive neuroscience.  A leading expert on the topic of synaesthesia, his research has featured widely in newspapers, television and on radio.
(from http://www.optronica.org/)

Jamie Ward stressed that senses are intermingled – brains are wired to connect sound and vision. Not everyone can make direct, immediate connections between senses – the individuals who can are synesthetes. But anyone can “tap into” these inter-sensory connections, namely for creative purposes. Jamie Ward used the example that almost everyone associates a high pitch with a lighter color, and a lower pitch with a darker color. Jamie Ward also stressed that true synesthesia should be differenciated from practices by artists who are not synesthetes and try to recreate synesthesia.

Samantha Moore made an intervention by questioning if synesthesia was too linear, since it presented the synesthete with only one possible outcome. In this case, the non-synesthete would have more artistic choices.

Simon Ings concluded by screening the movie “Entopic Visiona” by Robert Marshall and Nichola Bruce, a movie of abstract animations based on the concept of entopic images (images that fade from perception).