Tuesday September 14, 2004 A Sense of Synesthesia
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There is a short piece in the October 1997 edition of Scientific American about a virtual reality environment at the San Diego Supercomputer Centre that's been created to help people to get an idea what it's like to have a neurologic condition called synesthesia. To quote the hyperdictionary definition,
As I've mentioned before, I've recently become fascinated where there is an interaction of audio and visual work [1] [2] [3]. This is another variation on that. |
You are wearing a pair of liquid-crystal-shuttered glasses and a tracking device on top of your head. You are also carrying a little wand as a navigation tool. You are attired with an instrument that measures your chest's movement as you breathe.
All around you there is a weblike image in pastels that have a subtle sheen. When you start breathing, the web moves in and out with your breath.
Now the environment is changed on you. Diamonds and spheres begin swirling around you. Your heartbeat presents itself in a new way, as a spurt of color rather than as a sound (see image above).
This got me googling for around for what else is out there on synthesia and any possible art generated from this disorder. This site does a great job of linking it all together.
One of the most famous popular science books related to this is The Man Who Tasted Shapes.
And finally, some pointers to software if you want to try some of this out yourself. Firstly, here's a link to a collection of some CAVE software environments and this is a link to Synesthesia the Winamp vis plugin that allows you to use Sonique vis plugins. Here's some screenshots.
( Sep 14 2004, 08:26:01 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
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