#syneasthetic

[technicolortheshow]

I wrote an article about Far-Left terrorism and funk music in Italy. 

Have a read! 

[lydiayuhuei-blog]

What we see is not All What we feel

Architectural experiences are more than visual - they are syneasthetic. Phenomenological approach has been a trend that whether architects can design a space based on consciousness and how this consciousness helps us to design. The phenomenological approach of architecture stemmed from earlier theory of “spirit of place” and define a “place” where people feel the sense of identity and belonging inside. A place is not only a space provided some function, but events or activities for living bodies, which was given specific meanings like culture, history and environment. Obviously, the notion of “spirit of place” strongly connects to every living motions and perception of the space, it is a syneasthetic practice. 

Therefore, the perceptional approach through architecture is opposite to the concept of modern architectural theories (rational analysis of scale, structure, efficiency and function), it is no more objective. Instead of starting from rationalization, architects design from their subjective perceptions, experiences, and personal intuitions to design. They focus on the comprehension of the context of culture and living to build a emotional interaction between people and space. Although the method of design is subjective by the designers, which may cause concerns about whether other uses can feel the same experience as designer’s wish, the answer is we share, to some extent, the common perception of world in the past. That means we have kind of similar feelings toward distinctive events or scale of spaces. Because of this that makes the “spirit of place” or “phenomenology of architecture” emerge universally.

//

What constitutes our bodily sensations definitely not only those five famous senses, it is a complex fusion of segmented feelings conveyed by multi neutrons which shapes our overall perception. As a word goes, “human are animals of vision.”, indicates how much we depend on our functional vision to perceive and make a response. That’s not far from the truth, but I would like to note that “what we are seeing is not all what we are feeling.” It is very easy for us to neglect other senses when accompanying with sight.  This doesn’t mean other perceptions don’t exist, they coexist simultaneously and are interweaved together, in our body and brain. For example, the picture with a fireplace indoor and snowing outside gives us a “warm” atmosphere. The picture of the interior of a soap shop bring us the smell of “aroma” in our brain, and the picture of hot pot just activate our “taste buds”. The other extreme example is looking a person branded by hot iron would makes us feel severely uncomfortable. The key points here is we merely use our “vision” but the results of feeling are abundant and diverse. The vision acts as a “trigger” to awake related experience in the past. The multi-effect of sense motor is really powerful and influences us intangibly.  

In my point of view, I would try to use an “unscientific method” – imagination, to illustrate how to integrate embodied feelings into architectural design. Everyone has existing ability to imagine virtual world in their brain, only give us critical “triggers” that can we build a clear perception. This is a magic moment for human and can’t be done by computers, we can use few implications and recombine those collage to imagine a whole new space where we’ve never experienced. It is not just a movement of recollecting the past memories, it is recreation individually. Although the digital world is limited in vision and sound, but it can’t mean it would restrict our imagination. Remember what I mentioned? Our syneasthetic perception is interdependent, one sense motor can trigger others. So, even though we only can rely on vision, we can still believe that human can “imagine” and experience the place in their body(or brain), only if we provide adequate triggers ( such as human-eye perspective, furniture, sunlight, ect). The tool is limited but the effect of syneasthetic perception is unlimited. Never underestimate our body memory. Here comes another important point, the most dangerous is not the limited tool leading to tedious space, but the impoverished embodied experiences for designers to imagine and manipulate. As a designer, we should open our mind and feeling to experience the world as much as possible.

//

The other interesting example about virtual reality brings us “real feeling” is an amusement facility equipped in the amusement park I visited before, it was a small theater where everyone should wear 3D glasses and the chairs inside are movable and shakable. The screen played the scene of mine tunnel and pretended we were on the car sliding inside. When the car rushed down “with high speed”, I could really “feel” the centrifugal force and made me scary. Actually, I didn’t really “feel” the centrifugal force, I imagined it, with shaking chairs, 3D video and artificial wind.

[stefanpetrushev98]

Types

There are two overall forms of synaesthesia – projective synaesthesia and associative synaesthesia.

People who have projective synaesthesia will see actual colours, forms or shapes when stimulated, whereas associates will feel a very strong and involuntary connection between the stimulus and the sense it triggers. An example I found explaining how these two types of synaesthesia work is that in the common form “chromesthesia” (sound to colour) a projector might hear a trumpet and see an orange in space while an associator might hear a trumpet and think very strongly that it sounds “orange”.

 Grapheme-colour synaesthesia

In one of the most common forms of synaesthesia, individual letters of the alphabet and numbers (graphemes) are shaded or tinged with a colour. This is Grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Different individuals usually do not report the same colours for all letters and numbers, however studies with large numbers of syneasthetes find some commonalities across letters (e.g. A is likely to be red).

 Chromesthesia

Association of sounds with colours is another common form of synaesthesia called Chromesthesia. For some, everyday sounds such as doors opening, cars honking, or people talking can trigger seeing colours. For others, colours are triggered when musical notes or keys are being played. People with synaesthesia relate to music may have perfect pitch because their ability to see/hear colours aids them in identifying notes or keys.

  According to Richard Cytowic, chromesthesia is "something like fireworks": voice, music, and assorted environmental sounds such as clattering dishes or dog barks trigger colour and firework shapes that arise, move around, and then fade when the sound ends. Sound often changes the perceived hue, brightness, scintillation, and directional movement. Some individuals see music on a "screen" in front of their faces. For Deni Simon, music produces waving lines "like oscilloscope configurations – lines moving in colour, often metallic with height, width and, most importantly, depth. My favourite music has lines that extend horizontally beyond the 'screen' area."

 Individuals rarely agree on what colour a given sound is. B flat might be orange for one person and blue for another.

 Spatial Sequence Synesthesia (SSS)

 Those with spatial sequence synaesthesia tend to see numerical sequences as points in space. For instance, the number 1 might be farther away and the number 2 might be closer. People with SSS may have superior memories; in one study, they were able to recall past events and memories far better and in far greater detail than those without the condition. They also see months or dates in the space around them. Some people see time like a clock above and around them.

  Number Form

A number form is a mental map of numbers that automatically and involuntarily appears whenever someone who experiences number forms thinks of numbers. Number forms were first documented and named in 1881 by Francis Galton in "The Visions of Sane Persons".

 Auditory-tactile synaesthesia

 In auditory-tactile synaesthesia, certain sounds can induce sensations in parts of the body. For example, someone with auditory-tactile synaesthesia may experience that hearing a specific word feels like touch in one specific part of the body or may experience that certain sounds can create a sensation in the skin without being touched. It is one of the least common forms of synaesthesia.

 Ordinal linguistic personification

 Ordinal-linguistic personification (OLP, or personification for short) is a form of synaesthesia in which ordered sequences, such as ordinal numbers, week-day names, months and alphabetical letters are associated with personalities or genders. For example, the number 2 might be a young boy with a short temper, or the letter G might be a busy mother with a kind face.

 Mirror-touch synaesthesia

 This is a rare form of synaesthesia where individuals feel the same sensation that another person feels (such as touch). For instance, when such a synesthetic observes someone being tapped on their shoulder, the synesthetic involuntarily feels a tap on their own shoulder as well. People with this type of synaesthesia have been shown to have higher empathy levels compared to the general population.