COLOURFULanguage – synaesthesia
The diary of someone with synaesthesia
- This blog explores what it's like to experience words, emotions, names and numbers as colours. This will also be a place to consolidate research and articles on the subject, including other peoples' experiences and information on other types of synesthesia.
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Recent Comments
Mike Howell on about me Vivian on Replying to comments Part… Vivian on about me Max Trebek on music colour synaesthesia Barbara Templeton-Gr… on music colour synaesthesia
May 17, 2007 at 8:05 pm |
Love the design of your website and the info is very interesting, Well done!
October 21, 2007 at 10:37 pm |
hi lauren! i live in the U.S and i belive i have a musical form of synesthesia. i play the clarinet and to me it is a shiny, mahogant color like polished furniture legs. im only 13 but i also have colors for names and letters. your name is lilac purple. it’s lovley!
January 10, 2008 at 12:04 pm |
Hello Lauren
I work for the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and am currently producing a series of films about the composer Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen also had Synaesthesia and I want to give some perspective on this in my films.
I’m looking for someone who would interested in being interviewed about how Synaesthesia affects their life and particularly their perceptions of art and music. If you’d be interested in helping me then please let me know.
Thanks
Guy
March 14, 2008 at 8:28 pm |
hi lauren , My Name is Inge Adendorff .Im a fashion design student from south-africa – Cape Town ..and Im using sound wave colour as my inspiration to design clothes …I find your ability to see colour with music absolutly fantastic and would like to know much more about it ….I would like to actully send you a few questions and ask you which particular colour you see when you hear certain things ….and what colours you see when you year minor coards and what do you see when you see majour and shaprs …does the colour actully move with the rythm of the music ..is it very bright and are the the sounds that are louder in the composition brighter or more powerfull than the other colours ….does the colours of each note mix with the other ones to make new colour and how big is this colour that you see…..Im so sorry for asking you all of these questions …but i just think it is super intresting ……my english might no be to good because im actully afrikaans so sorry for that …anyway hope to year from you
take care inge
May 20, 2008 at 3:43 pm |
Hi lauren, my name is melissa I’m 13 and I’m doing a research project in my english class. I resd the book “A Mango Shaped Space” and its about a girl with synesthesia, anyway i just wanted to know what it feels like. I mean do you get really bad headaches in loud places?
write back
melissa!!!!
June 5, 2008 at 3:29 pm |
Hi, Lauren, thanks for writing up so much information on your take on synesthesia. It’s always nice to find others ’synnies’ out there.
By the way- the name Lauren is a lovely shade of lilac, dropping down into a shiny apple read and then trailing off into magenta towards the end.
March 5, 2009 at 3:24 pm |
hi Lauren,
I was looking into synesthesia on the internet and found your blog. My name is Xavier and I’m studying graphic design in London. The theme of one of the projects I’m doing right now is about transformations and I was researching into how to transform poems, alliterations and tongue-twisters into some sort of colour coding or patterns. I don’t know whether reading or hearing tongue twisters would make you see more colours than a normal text, or whether you would see a single colour throughout the text or nothing at all. As for me, tongue-twisters give me headache. Anyhow, I’m quite interested and curious about it and I was wondering if you’d like to share your experiences or thoughts with me, if you have some spare time.
Thanks and carry on posting!
Xavi
May 27, 2009 at 3:43 pm |
I am researching synesthaesia re. visual arts: the painter who “sees” colors when listening to music and paints them. Would appreciate contact with any research or contacts with information regarding this 1 person in 2000 phenomenon. Thanks
May 27, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
I am researching synesthaesia re. visual arts: the painter who “sees” colors when listening to music and paints accordingly. Would appreciate contact info. regarding this 1 in 2000 phenomenom. Thanks
June 3, 2009 at 10:32 pm |
Thank you to everyone who posted a message on here over the last couple of years – this blog had been left untouched but your messages still arrived at my inbox and I read them all.
I will begin to reply to them on the blog over the next few days, even comments from two years ago.
Thanks for reading.
October 19, 2009 at 2:31 pm |
Hi, I am Vivian Lau ,a producer of London College of Communication student documentary. My team would like to do a documentary based on Synesthesia . I would like to ask if you are happy to speak to us about your experience.If possible , we would like to have an interview with you and we are based in London.I am not sure whether you will be able to help us but when I look at your post , there are lots of things that other people would like to know about your life.
We have a small crew size of six people, our documentary is short film of 6 minutues. Our production shooting is from 26 th OCT to 2 nd NOV .
We are very interested in this topic and wish to introduce Synesthesia through an exciting and causual documentary to audiences.
Thank you and I would like to hear from you soon,
Kindly Regards,
Vivian Lau
luv_vivian@hotmail.com
0773326169
November 13, 2009 at 9:31 pm |
Hi there,
Well I’m probably a 3 on a scale to 10 re.-seeing music. I used to feel squeamish about bringing it up but these days synethesia is so much more in the forefront.
Oh sure I have always ascribed dullish colours to single digits, weekdays and months but it’s the viewing music in 3D with a wide array of shapes both forground and receding into the distance that’s really a gift. Generally I view music as sounds overlapping, complimenting. If there is movement, then it’s very subtle. Colours and shapes depend on the type of music and the frequency of the voices or instruments.
Lastly and sadly, I seem to experience visual music less as I age. I have always needed to be in a sommulent almost meditative mode to see musical sounds. Half asleep, a long jog, a long rollerblade, a long car ride-all can lead to a panoramic painting of shades, colours and shape in my mind before me almost as a hologram though not interfering with reality just as thought can be subtle.
To end, I have always taken this gift for granted until about 15 years ago when I became convinced that not all people have it. Perhaps very few. At times I believe that I can understand a composer’s thought process when viewing the balance and arrangement of symphonic music.
Thank you.