6- Synesthesia and Design-

 

After reading The Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa the way they talk about using your entire set of senses to take in a site reminded me of how I feel a site as much as see it. I experience synesthesia I can perceive and feel in more than the 5 traditional senses or 12 Waldorf senses.

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Auditory-Tactile Synesthesia- Auditory-to-touch sensation- caused by cross-wiring between the auditory cortex and the somatosensory cortex.

This isn't great in class, the noise of sharpies on paper I feel it in my teeth and in my hands it's like feels like dragging nails on a board, it reminds me of holding charcoal, the texture of Styrofoam and the rough squeaking of painting with a felt pen on pottery- all experiences I hate. It makes me want to throw up, cry, bite down and scream all at once. The sound of too many people talking all at once feels like someone is holding my head and there's sharp white noise blasting in my head. It's a very intense and vivid experience. I have found ways of coping or reducing a reaction to the noises and the feeling, in methods of grounding to reduce the noise or ignore it.

On the other side of this listening to music, I can feel it in my body, pressure in my shoulders, neck, ribs, temples, arms and such. Certain voices I can feel in my hands and the back of my head. I can feel my boyfriend's voice in my jaw. Not every noise evokes it, only certain ones do. Sometimes I feel it in my bones, my muscles, my nerves and my organs.

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Mirror Touch Synesthesia- Visual-to-Sensation- Learnt and sometimes a result of crossed-wires

Feeling what someone is doing or feeling, I mostly have a positive experience with this. Seeing someone doing pirouettes and being able to feel the sensation in me like I'm doing a pirouette. Someone's hair in front of their face I can feel it sometimes too.

When someone is in pain I can feel that pressure even if it's not the pain. Someone crying I can feel my throat choke up. Someone touching someone else's arm, sometimes I can feel that pressure on my arm. It doesn't negatively impact my life.

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Though both of these types look bad on paper as a designer it's a really great way of understanding people, sites and how a feeling could change by the thought of introducing something

The use of the sensations gets me to understand people and movement and makes me understand what I can do to trigger those feelings. In landscape, this will be an asset in search of achieving a particular feeling a space should have for people and how it can be transformed from how it currently feels. Though it may make it difficult to reason choices based on feeling, it can't be entirely relied upon. In addition to that, it's a personal experience so it's biased, it won't feel the same as other people so I may not achieve the feeling I would want from space if a client wants a feeling that we perceive differently so there will be times like opinions where it's best to keep them to myself.

I use these senses in my art as my art is usually set by homework or feeling. One is very constructed and thoughtful and the other is based on when the mood strikes (not very useful). But the pieces I have enjoyed the process of the most have been when I have had that feeling- it's not inspiration it's just a feeling. It can be invoked by auditory-tactile synesthesia certain songs cause that feeling to go paint and draw. It's weird.

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References

Betterhelp.com. (2018). The Many Types Of Synesthesia Explained | BetterHelp. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/synesthesia/the-many-types-of-synesthesia-explained/ [Accessed 30 Jan. 2023].

‌Nall, R. (2020). Is Mirror Touch Synesthesia a Real Thing? [online] Healthline. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/mirror-touch-synesthesia#signs [Accessed 30 Jan. 2023].

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