Research

Research in PDF
The Research
An example of this is relating colours and letters of the alphabet, every synesthesiae experiences the phenomenon in different ways, so everyone has a different perception of what they see.
For example a study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that two synesthesiae from completely different backgrounds had entirely dissimilar experiences, below are how the two women perceived the alphabet in colours.


In some circles Synaesthesia is seen as a benefit, rather than a hindrance on life, a good example of this came in “SEED” magazine on December 13, 2006, in which there was an article about Marcia Smilack a female photographer with a rare type of Synaesthesia effecting all her senses, meaning she might see a cottage and taste iced cream or smell the sea and taste fish and chips etc, she used this experience to her benefit “waiting for something in her peripheral vision to evoke the sound of a cello in her ears or the feel of satin on her skin. When it does, she stops, points her camera at the water, and waits to hear or feel it again. Then she shoots her picture.” I feel that Synaesthesia, especially of this severity means that the sufferer has a much more vivid memory of events in their life, as when people without Synaesthesia see something from their past it might evoke a memory of a smell, Marcia’s’ experience is just a much stronger version of that phenomenon.
I feel this will work well in the “Immersive Vision Theatre” where we will be showing our projects. I’d like to make full use of the surround sound, and curved dome along with vivid colour.
The film we are making can only be one minute long which limits the depth I can go
into the study, I therefore will probably focus on one element, probably the way people relate sound and colour to each other. I am probably going to make the project using After Effects and Photoshop as I have the most experience with these programs and they will work well for the effects I’m trying to put across. I have looked into Synesthesia related to the four seasons, with colours, and effects related to each of these. I will give 25 seconds for each of the seasons; this means I am going to have some fast effects on the screen. I will also use music and sound effects that people relate to the seasons.
I have found colour charts for each of the seasons (below) that I will use to pick my colours in my production.
As you can see the colours for each season reflect the colours in nature at the same time. The winter colours are mostly greys and blues, this is similar the the ice and snow, also the light at that time of year has a blueness to it. Summer has reds, blues and browns, the reds are representative of the sun, the blues of the sea and the browns, and yellows show the colour of the light.
Autumn has rich warm colours, this is similar to the way people imagine autumn with bonfires, brown leaves and trees and cosy nights in! Spring has fresh bright colours which as similar to the colour of trees at the time, and is what people think of when they think of new baby animals.
As I have such a short period of time I will probably use a voice-over, this will help explain what is going on, on the screen without the viewer having to try and work it out, it also means I can use more abstract visuals on the screen.