Synesthesia & Cymatics

Synesthesia is a very interesting and fascinating topic, the visualization of letters as colors, or numbers as colors seems fascinating, however that perspective only exists because I don't experience it. I feel like most people to some degree have an association with colors and numbers just from inherently growing up, at least that's how my mind works. I know that I don't have synesthesia, however I do associate numbers with colors mentally, my visual perception isn't affected at all. Research into synesthesia is fascinating just because of how it demonstrates that senses are intertwined and not free from influence from other senses.

It's applications into art and media are also very apparent, a couple of prominent musicians (like Kanye) say they have synesthesia and it helps to visualize beats and rhythms. I have seen an interview where Kanye looked at a painting and as a result saw a beat emanating from it. Finding natural rhythms and interpreting them into rhythms that other people can hear is elegant in a way. Hearing and reading about synesthesia is just plain simply cool. The whole concept is engaging and I can just easily get lost thinking about it.

Cymatics is also extremely interesting to think about. It makes sense coming from a mathematical approach, sound waves act as a wave and as result creates interesting visual patterns. The patterns that Cymatics creates are absolutely amazing, the complexity that occurs as a result of these sounds look amazing. I also like how they relate it to Oceanography and studying dolphin's sonar, anytime that the two worlds that I'm interested in (film and oceanography) collide, it makes me more engaged with the topic at hand. In the TED talk, the visualizations from the songs add another layer of complexity to an already amazingly complex system.

Overall, cymatics and synesthesia are an awesome topic to talk about and read about. It's a hidden beauty to the majority of people, those that experience synesthesia don't always know that they are, and cymatics is also a very new study. The topic is fascinating and I would love to explore it more and learn as much as I can about it.