Synesthesia

A concomitant sensation; a subjective sensation or image of a sense (as of color) other than the one (as of sound) being stimulated. The American Synesthesia Association (ASA) defines it this way: "Synaesthesia is the general name for a related set (a 'complex') of various cognitive states having in common that stimuli to one sense, such as smell, are involuntarily simultaneously perceived as if by one or more other senses, such as sight or/and hearing. The most common type of 'conceptual' synaesthesia is 'colored graphemes' -- synaesthetically colored letters and numbers. The most common type of 'sensorial' synaesthesia is 'colored hearing', particularly for music."A synesthete is a person who experiences synesthesia. Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944), who is often credited with producing the first entirely abstract paintings, was a synaesthete. His series of ten Compositions were influenced by his synaesthetic experiences of music and the visual qualities he sensed in listening to it. Kandinsky discovered his synesthesia while attending a Moscow performance of Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin: "The violins, the deep tones of the basses, and especially the wind instruments at that time embodied for me all the power of that pre-nocturnal hour. I saw all my colors in my mind; they stood before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me." Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1913 / 1982, p. 364. See abstraction, Bauhaus, and Die Br?cke.The American Synaesthesia Association lists a number of other synesthetes; among them the painter and photographer David Hockney (English, lives and works in USA, 1937-). Some of their works can be seen on the ASA's site. The ASA calls painters Wassily Kandinsky and Georgia O'Keefe (American, 1887-1986; see abstraction and nature) "pseudo-synaesthetes," because it believes these artists theorized their visual counterparts to music rather than experiencing them without effort.(pr. SI-nəs-THEE-zhə)Also see cognitive, haptic, lettering, music, simulate, and universal artwork.